This holiday season, German automaker Porsche is winning hearts and minds by putting out a Christmas-themed ad that seemingly isn’t made with AI. What a concept, right?
Called “Porsche Holiday,” the 30-second animated commercial shows a driver elegantly tooling around in his new ride, driving through autumnal scenery on a mountainside road and then a cool sea of glass and concrete as the Sun sets on a city. It’s done up in striking 2D-looking animation with precise lines, pleasing geometry, and eye-popping colors — an ad seemingly done right for a change.
Sharing behind the scenes footage, Porsche revealed in a social media post that the ad was a mix of hand-drawn sketches and CGI. It was made by Parallel Studio, an animation team based in Paris.
Porsche Holiday | The Coded Love Letter
Though Porsche made no specific mention of AI, people reading between the lines quickly took that to mean that the automaker was quietly bragging about not using the tech, and hailed it as a victory. This perception of it being AI-free drove it to being remarkably viral, and made it an unexpected hit.
“Can’t wait for more of this anti-AI rebound,” one user wrote.
“Amtrak has been hiring artists to create original animations as well,” observed Nathan Allebach, a creative director. “As slop races us to the bottom, real art signals craft, prestige, and trust.”
The response goes to show how divisive AI is, especially in the arts. And ads, the most commercial art form of all, have both been a useful gauge of how companies have been willing to experiment with the tech and of the public reaction to it, which has been largely pretty negative.
Coca-Cola, for example, unleashed a ghoulishly uncanny iteration of its “Holidays Are Coming” last month that sparked outrage over how overtly ugly it was. McDonalds, too, released an AI-generated ad that proved such a disaster that it sheepishly pulled it entirely.
Everyone knows that our modern idea of the holiday season has been heavily shaped by ad agencies, but no one likes to be reminded of how soulless it can be by seeing AI amalgamations forced onto their eyeballs. At least pretend to care about humans, for Pete’s sake.
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