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Welcome Back to TWISM’s Autopsy Series!
Keep in mind that these weekly autopsies could save your career.
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🔬 The Main Autopsy: McDonald’s Netherlands’ AI Christmas Ad Backfire
Patient Details
Brand: McDonald’s Netherlands (McDonald’s Nederland)
Campaign: “It’s the Most Terrible Time of the Year” (AI-generated Christmas spot)
Budget: Undisclosed.
Cause of Death: An “AI-first” execution that read as soulless + cynical, triggering instant social backlash.
Time of Death: December 9, 2025 (ad quickly hidden/removed after backlash, reported across outlets)
What They Intended
McDonald’s Netherlands positioned the spot as a humorous take on holiday stress, basically: December chaos is real, so hide out at McDonald’s until it’s over.
What Actually Happened
Viewers roasted the ad as “creepy,” “soulless,” and emotionally flat, classic uncanny-valley vibes for a holiday category that usually trades on warmth.
The “most terrible time of the year” framing landed as anti-holiday / anti-family (and therefore anti-brand equity) rather than relatable.
The backlash accelerated because the work looked like “AI slop,” which is now a cultural insult, not a production method.
The brand ended up pulling/privating the video and (per multiple reports) limiting engagement rather than letting the internet dissect it in public.
The conversation shifted from “McDonald’s holiday message” to “McDonald’s replacing humans with machines,” dragging the brand into a wider authenticity/jobs debate.
The Numbers
45 seconds: reported runtime of the spot.
December 6, 2025: ad released.
~3 days: public lifespan before it was hidden/removed (release Dec 6 → pulled/privated Dec 9).
7 weeks: reported production timeline.
Up to 10 specialists: reported in-house AI/post team size (“The Gardening Club”).
Timeline of Destruction
Dec 6, 2025: McDonald’s Netherlands publishes the AI Christmas spot.
Dec 9, 2025: Video gets pulled/privated after backlash spikes.
Dec 9–11, 2025: Mainstream coverage cements the narrative: “McDonald’s removes AI-generated ad after backlash.”
Dec 10–13, 2025: Additional analysis frames the incident as part of a broader anti-AI-ad sentiment wave.
Mid-Dec 2025: The producers publicly defend the effort and human involvement, ironically reinforcing that AI doesn’t guarantee speed or cost savings.
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🧬 Failure DNA Analysis
The Root Cause: Novelty Over Narrative
Cognitive Bias #1: Novelty Bias
Teams tend to overvalue “new” and confuse novelty with advantage, especially when competitors are also experimenting.
Cognitive Bias #2: Automation Bias
When a system generates something that looks finished, humans over-trust it and under-critique it, until the audience does the critiquing for them.
Warning Signs They Ignored:
Holiday ads are a high-emotion category; uncanny visuals get punished fast (and publicly).
Consumers already report discomfort with AI-generated ads at scale.
Study suggests AI-generated ads can create a negative halo effect for brands.
“It took weeks and a team” is not a flex if the output still reads as synthetic.
Why Smart People Made This Dumb Decision:
This is the optimism bias cocktail: “We’ll be the ones who do AI well” (overestimating upside, underestimating backlash). Add a sprinkle of illusion of control: the belief that careful prompting and post can fully manage audience perception.
🎭 Myth Busted: “AI Video Makes Ads Faster and Cheaper”
The Myth: If we use generative AI, we’ll ship faster and save money.
The Reality: AI can increase production complexity while decreasing trust, and the internet will invoice you in public. McDonald’s Netherlands’ spot reportedly took seven weeks with up to 10 specialists.
Data Points:
NielsenIQ research found consumers often perceive AI-generated ads as more “annoying/boring/confusing,” risking a negative brand halo.
eMarketer summarized survey data showing nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults feel uneasy about AI-generated ads.
IAB reported a perception gap where ad execs think consumers are far more positive about AI ads than consumers report themselves.
Why This Myth Persists:
Because “AI” is sold internally as a procurement win (cheaper) and externally as an innovation signal (cooler). Both are comforting stories, right up until the audience performs the postmortem for you.
What to Do Instead:
Use AI behind the curtain (ideation, previs, localization tests), but keep human-led performance + art direction for emotionally loaded brand moments, especially holidays.
🛡️ Failure Prevention Toolkit: The “Uncanny Valley Kill-Switch Checklist”
Before launching AI-assisted creative:
✓ Category Risk Triage
If it’s holiday/grief/family/identity/kids: default to human-led production.
If you insist on AI, keep humans stylized (avoid near-real faces/limbs that trigger uncanny reactions).
✓ Audience Trust Safeguards
Pre-test for “AI detection” and “creepy/soulless” reactions, not just recall.
Decide disclosure rules upfront; don’t let Twitter be the first to label it AI.
✓ Narrative Integrity Checks
Run a “brand psychiatrist” read: Does this message feel anti-human or anti-tradition?
If the joke requires cynicism, make sure your brand is allowed to be the villain.
✓ Social Containment Plan
Draft the pull statement before launch (so you don’t improvise under fire).
Have a fast protocol: pause paid, freeze uploads, publish clarification, then decide kill/repair.
Red Flags to Watch For:
“It’s fine, everyone’s doing AI this year.”
“We can fix it in post/prompting.”
Early testers say “weird” or “off” but can’t explain why.
You’re disabling comments on day one.
Screenshots save careers. Which failure lesson are you bookmarking?
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That’s all for today. Thanks for reading. Now…
Go BIG or go home!
~ Josh from “This Week in Social Media”
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