Coca-Cola Announces First Holiday Flavor In Five Years, Stirs Up Controversy With AI Commercial
Coca-Cola is in the Christmas spirit early, and to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year, the company has announced its first limited-time holiday flavor in five years: Coca-Cola Holiday Creamy Vanilla. The new soda infuses classic Coke with vanilla flavor to deliver a smooth, wintery sip.
It will be sold exclusively at Walmart, though a zero-sugar version will be available at most national retailers, in Canada, and online. Both will be available in 12oz/12-packs, 20oz bottles and 2L bottles.
To coincide with the release, Coca-Cola has premiered its newest Christmas commercial, featuring its iconic polar bear, along with other festive animal friends. This year, however, the company has chosen to use AI to produce the commercial—a move that has stirred up controversy, to which the company responded:
“We need to keep moving forward and pushing the envelope… The genie is out of the bottle, and you’re not going to put it back in.”
This is the second year in a row that Coca-Cola has used AI to make its iconic holiday commercial. Called “A Holiday Memory,” according to the press release, it “follows a busy mother who transforms holiday stress into a moment of magic, reminding us all to pause and savor the season.”
One person criticized the use of the word “magic,” posting on X, “’Real magic’s at the end when it was made by AI.” Others were even less forgiving with their criticisms. That said, an artist who worked on the commercial responded to the backlash, saying:
“Can finally talk about this – I was one of the artists on the Coca-Cola commercial.
It was a ton of work, and the project was full of people driven to put out the best work we possibly could.”
Here’s the commercial in question:
Coca-Cola’s annual Christmas advert is AI-generated again this year.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 3, 2025
The company says they used even fewer people to make it — “We need to keep moving forward and pushing the envelope… The genie is out of the bottle, and you’re not going to put it back in” pic.twitter.com/g1dogxS8Tq
