AI Ad Creative: From Pariah to Pride in 11 Months

Last holiday season, Coca-Cola found itself in the crosshairs.

Their annual Christmas campaign — produced by Silverside and created entirely with AI — was dragged across social media. Commenters called it soulless, lazy, and “proof that brands were finally replacing human creativity.”

The subtext was clear: real brands shouldn’t use fake creativity.

Fast forward 11 months to this week’s Wired story: “Amazon’s House of David Used Over 350 AI Shots in Season 2. Its Creator Isn’t Sorry.”

We’ve all grown used to the velocity of AI change, but even by those standards, the shift from AI-generated creative being shamed to being celebrated is whiplash-inducing.

And it’s not happening quietly. It’s happening everywhere.

Coke Was the Flashpoint — and the Proof Point

As I learned during Silverside Founder & Managing Partner Robert Wrubel’s presentation at May’s Mirren Live conference, the agency’s Silverside x Coca-Cola campaign wasn’t a fringe experiment. It was a global enterprise demonstration of what AI-driven creative and production can actually deliver — not in theory, but in measurable, bottom-line reality.

The numbers were staggering:

• 7 billion media impressions in the first week
• 80% reduction in production costs
• 90% faster delivery across 100+ localized versions
• Ranked as Coca-Cola’s #3 highest-performing global holiday campaign

These aren’t novelty metrics. They’re “any CMO in the world would kill for this” metrics.

And here’s what most observers missed: Coke didn’t get dragged because the work was bad — it wasn’t. They got dragged because culture wasn’t ready yet.

Now it is.

Heinz Warned Us This Was Coming

Long before Coke committed to a fully AI-powered global holiday campaign, Heinz was already exploring the role of generative AI in brand storytelling.

Their 2022 “A.I. Ketchup” campaign was one of the first big-brand examples of leaning into AI not as a behind-the-scenes production assist, but as the actual creative idea.

The reception? Curiosity. Delight. Zero backlash.

In hindsight, Heinz was the preview. Coke was the proof. And the cultural shift was already underway.

JT Ace: The First GenAI Creative Breakout

At MAICON this year, JT Ace walked us through how he produced Kalshi’s breakout campaigns — including the viral NBA Finals spot and the recent “Underdogs” ad — using a GenAI-first approach.

These weren’t sanitized, agency-safe concepts. They were bold, weird, culturally sharp — the kind of work you’d normally expect from a large production crew with weeks of runway.

Instead, they were built with AI tools and the taste level of one talented creative. And the NBA ad cost only $2,000 to produce.

The audience didn’t question how the ads were produced.
They just reacted: "This is incredible."

JT proved something fundamental: AI doesn't replace great creatives — it amplifies them

Amazon Just Closed the Debate

Amazon did something monumental with House of David Season 2: they normalized AI-assisted production inside mainstream entertainment.

The show used 350+ AI-enhanced VFX shots, and the creator didn’t hedge, downplay, or apologize for it. He defended it – proudly.

When a tech giant uses AI at this scale…
When the final product looks like traditional VFX…
And when nobody revolts…

You’re no longer witnessing a trend.
You’re witnessing a new production model.

So What Happened? And How Did it Happen So Fast?

Three things shifted — rapidly and simultaneously:

1. The quality leap was generational.

AI creative stopped looking like AI creative. It just looked like creative.

2. The economics became impossible to ignore.

When production becomes:

• 80–90% cheaper,
• 10x faster,
• and instantly scalable across global markets…

…it stops being a novelty and becomes infrastructure.

3. The fear narrative flipped.

2023 fear: “AI might replace us.”
2024 fear: “Competitors using AI might outpace us.”

That’s the shift.

The New Creative Reality

AI isn’t replacing creativity.
AI is replacing the constraints that limited it.

Heinz showed the early signals.
Coke proved it can scale.
JT Ace demonstrated its cultural power.
Amazon validated it at enterprise production levels.

The shift from pariah to pride took 11 months.
The shift from pride to expectation? That’s happening right now.