The McDonald’s Netherlands AI ad was pulled and, honestly, it's the correction the industry needed
Toby Walsham, Founder and CEO of Made By Humans, dives into how the rush into AI has exposed deeper creative issues.
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Over the weekend, the now-pulled McDonald’s Netherlands AI campaign circulated widely for all the wrong reasons.
And while the internet’s predictable uproar focused on “AI gone wrong”, the real story is far more important for the industry.
This is finally a public example showing that AI is not a magic button.
Craft still matters. A director's taste is important, and concept is still king.
For the last 18 months, the industry has watched a wave of new AI studios pop up seemingly overnight. In the past couple of weeks, at least two major production companies have announced AI arms, many, seemingly, without a roster of talent, without a body of work, and without the lived experience of actually delivering an AI-driven production from start to finish.
The north star should always be that the audience should not even realise, or care, if a piece was made with AI.
Meanwhile, Made By Humans launched over a year and a half ago, after years of experimenting with AI (long before it became fashionable). And even with that head start, it is still an uphill battle every single day to create work that stands up to the same expectations as traditional filmmaking. Because good AI-enabled production is not about the tool, it is about the craft and, importantly, the humans behind it.
The north star should always be that the audience should not even realise, or care, if a piece was made with AI. It should succeed because the idea is strong, the narrative is compelling, and the film works.
Credits
powered byAbove: The infamous McDonald's ad, now pulled from air.
That is why this McDonald’s piece is so damaging, not just to the brand but to the entire generative AI landscape. Clients are already hesitant. They are curious but cautious. And now an incident like this sets the industry back months. It means more reassurance, more conversations, more expectation-setting, and more proof that proper AI filmmaking requires taste, expertise, and accountability.
This was not just bad AI. It was bad advertising.
The concept, created by TBWA Amsterdam, simply was not a strong enough idea to begin with.
The song did not work. The narrative did not land. And the premise of “hanging out at McDonald’s until January” felt neither festive nor charming. It simply did not work on many levels.
There is brilliant AI work being made. This just was not it.
AI did not fail here. The creative process did.
There is brilliant AI work being made. This just was not it.
The industry has seen extraordinary things from artists, studios, and technologists who take the medium seriously. For those building sustainable, thoughtful, creatively led AI production studios, the message is clear:
Bad work deserves consequences.
