Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

McDonald’s in the Netherlands unleashed a Christmas ad that, much like its ‘food’ has left the world gagging on the plastic aftertaste.

The entire spot—talking cookies, uncanny animated characters, and a vibe that screams “please make it stop”—was 100% AI-generated, and viewers are torching it as creepy, lifeless, and the final nail in authentic holiday cheer.

The backlash was instant. “Please make the cookie talk” and “Please make Grammy way less creepy” were among the sarcastic prompts people imagined went into the abomination. 

The message of the ad also appears to be, ‘Christmas is annoying, families are annoying, so eat McDonald’s junk food instead.’

The thing is so bad that they’ve already pulled it offline.

This isn’t McDonald’s first brush with tone-deaf holiday advertising, but weaponizing AI to churn out a joyless, uncanny-valley nightmare takes corporate laziness to a demonic new level.

Contrast this to Chevrolet dropping their “Memory Lane” ad last month and racking up 20 million views by simply showing a real American family, real memories, and zero lectures.

No forced diversity, no algorithms—just a mom, dad, kids, grandkids, and a 1987 Suburban full of authenticity. Dealers saw Suburban inquiries spike. One viral reply nailed it: “This is what happens when you make ads for normal people instead of HR departments.”

McDonald’s, meanwhile, made an ad for nobody.

The fast-food giant’s AI slop fits perfectly into the growing graveyard of soulless machine “art” we’ve covered here. Just weeks ago we highlighted “Solomon Ray,” the AI-generated gospel phantom that hit No. 1 on Christian charts.

Real artists were furious. Forrest Frank remarked, “At minimum, AI does not have the Holy Spirit inside of it. So I think that’s really weird to be opening up your spirit to something that has no spirit.” 

Phil Wickham added, “It’s difficult to envision a future where we look back and think creating AI was a net positive for our world.”

Recall also, Google’s infamous Olympics ad where a father uses Gemini AI to write his daughter’s fan letter to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone because apparently teaching a child to express herself is too much work. 

The internet revolted. Even left-leaning NPR pop-culture editor Linda Holmes called it outright: “This commercial showing somebody having a child use AI to write a fan letter to her hero SUCKS… Who wants an AI-written fan letter??” 

Professor Shelly Palmer was blunter: “This is exactly what we do not want anyone to do with AI. Ever.”

Apple also had to apologise for making an ad that suggested real creativity was no longer necessary when you have an iPad to do it for you.

Now we’re at the point where AI is even making the ads, with McDonald’s and Coca Cola doubling down on the exact soul-crushing future everyone keeps rejecting.

The message from actual humans is crystal clear. We want stories that feel lived-in, not algorithmically extruded. We want Christmas ads that warm the heart, not ones that make us instinctively recoil from Grammy’s dead AI eyes.

Chevy proved you can still advertise authentically in 2025. McDonald’s, on the other hand just proved the machine can churn out pure nightmare fuel—and still expect us to smile while we choke it down with a McFlurry.

Merry Christmas. But maybe skip the talking cookie this year.

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