McDonald's AI Christmas ad from the Netherlands has been getting a lot of attention, and for good reason.
The fully AI-generated film, created with TBWA\NEBOKO, set out to show December as “the most terrible time of the year”, packed with chaotic, surreal holiday scenes instead of cosy perfection.
But after fierce criticism that the spot felt cold, overblown and “soulless”, McDonald’s Netherlands decided to take it offline and call the whole experience “an important lesson” in how they use AI.
Before the McDonald’s AI ad disappeared from public view, we tested it with a representative Dutch sample see how ordinary viewers actually responded:
- Do people recognize it as McDonald’s?
- Does the “fast, easy break from holiday stress” message come through?
- And, crucially, do they actually like it?
Why the McDonald’s AI ad stands out
In a sea of your average, joyful Christmas spots, this McDonald’s ad is pretty distinctive. The team used AI to push everyday December stress scenes into surreal, exaggerated territory.
Strategically, the idea is smart: show the real chaos people feel, then offer McDonald’s as a moment of calm. Creatively, the fully AI execution gives the film a very distinctive look that clearly sets it apart from more traditional holiday work – for better and, as the backlash showed, sometimes for worse.
But distinctiveness alone isn’t enough. For an ad to grow a brand, it needs strong branding, clear need communication, and positive emotions. That’s what we measured.
Let’s take a detailed look at what the data says.
Branding: McDonald’s is there, but not always
On branding, the ad does a solid job, especially at the beginning and end. Many viewers correctly identified McDonald’s as the advertiser – right around the overall average for our benchmark.
A big plus: a large share of people recognized the brand within the first 5 seconds, thanks to familiar cues like the golden arches.
Where it could do better is the middle of the ad. As the AI chaos ramps up, the brand fades into the background. People are watching and engaged, but they’re not always mentally tagging those moments as “McDonald’s.”
What would help:
- Bringing in brand assets (logo, restaurant, products, app, brand colors) more often throughout the chaotic scenes.
- Making sure the funniest or most emotionally strong scenes are clearly linked to the brand.
The McDonald’s AI ad is a strong reminder that early branding is great, but consistent branding is what really builds memory structures.
Need: fast food is clear, stress relief less so
The good news: the category comes through. Viewers clearly understood this is an ad about fast food / a quick, easy bite.
The product role (a simple meal you don’t have to cook yourself) is reasonably clear from the visuals and setting.
Where McDonald’s AI ad underperforms is in translating the strategy into a simple takeaway. The intended message is essentially: “December is intense. McDonald’s gives you a moment of relief – an easy choice in the middle of the madness.”
However, only a minority of viewers spontaneously picked up on ideas like:
- “escaping holiday stress”
- “a simple, easy choice when everything else is a lot”
Interestingly, McDonald’s already owns many of these associations vs competitors: fast, easy, accessible, something to look forward to.
The ad is working in the right territory, but the link between stressful scenes → McDonald’s → relief isn’t as crystal-clear as it could be.
How to strengthen the need:
- Show the before and after of visiting McDonald’s more explicitly (chaos → calm moment with McDonald’s).
- Emphasize the role of McDonald’s as “my small break”, not just another chaotic image in the mix.
If you’re analyzing the McDonald’s AI ad from a strategy lens, this is the main gap: the insight is good, the execution just needs one more turn of the clarity dial.
Emotion: entertaining, noisy, and a bit divisive
Emotionally, the McDonald’s AI ad lands slightly below average on pure “likeability”, but not by much.
What people enjoy:
- The humor in everything going wrong.
- The recognizable December stress: crowds, family drama, too many expectations.
- The fresh, visually striking AI style makes the ad feel new and modern.
What holds it back:
- For some viewers, the chaos feels too much…more stressful than funny.
- A few people find the pace and visual overload overwhelming rather than entertaining.
- While most say they “understand” the ad, there’s still more confusion than usual about what exactly McDonald’s wants them to feel at the end.
So emotionally, the McDonald’s AI ad sits in “interesting, distinctive, but not universally loved” territory. It’s memorable and different, which is great for cutting through clutter, but the tone could be softened slightly to create more warm, positive feelings.
Final verdict on the McDonald’s AI holiday ad
The McDonald’s AI ad from the Netherlands is a brave move in Christmas advertising: fully AI-generated, tonally different, and rooted in a sharp insight about December stress.
The test results show a mixed but promising picture.
Key wins:
✅ Strong early brand reacall
✅ Clear connection to the category
✅ High distinctiveness
Opportunities to improve:
⚡ Sharpen the core message
⚡ Connect emotional peaks to brand assets
⚡ Dial down the visual overload
Why this McDonald’s AI ad matters for marketers
Beyond the specific scores, this McDonald’s AI ad is a useful case study for anyone considering AI-generated campaigns:
- AI can absolutely deliver distinctiveness. The spot feels modern, different, and memorable.
- But AI doesn’t replace clarity: you still need a simple message, clear role for the brand, and emotional direction that supports your strategy.
- Testing an AI-driven ad before launch can reveal exactly where chaos starts to drown out meaning and where a few tweaks could turn “interesting” into truly effective.
If you’re working on your own AI-generated spot, the McDonald’s AI ad shows the potential and the pitfalls. Use AI for the creativity and visual edge, but make sure the story still does the classic job: clear brand, clear need, good emotion.
👉 See the full test results and explore every metric inside Behavio’s ad testing platform.
👉 Or check out Behavio’s ad testing to run the same kind of in-depth analysis on your own creative before you launch it into the wild.
Frequently asked questions
The McDonald’s AI ad is a fully AI-generated Christmas film from McDonald’s Netherlands that shows December as chaotic, stressful and messy rather than perfectly magical. In the middle of all that, McDonald’s is positioned as a simple, comforting break from the holiday overload.
In testing, the McDonald’s AI ad scored around average overall: branding and fast-food category recognition were strong, and the AI look made it very distinctive. However, the core message of “escape holiday stress with a simple McDonald’s break” was picked up by fewer people than ideal, and the chaotic tone felt a bit too much for some viewers.
The McDonald’s AI ad shows that AI can deliver highly distinctive, attention-grabbing creative, but it doesn’t replace the basics of good advertising. Marketers still need a clear message, consistent branding throughout the story, and emotions that support (rather than distract from) the strategic idea.
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