According to Futurism, McDonald’s is facing intense backlash after a bizarre AI-generated holiday commercial for McDonald’s Netherlands went viral across social media. The ad, produced by agency TBWA and production company The Sweetshop, was so poorly received that the companies attempted to scrub it from the internet. In a defensive statement, The Sweetshop CEO noted that up to 10 in-house AI specialists worked for seven weeks on the ad using their proprietary “Gardening Club” AI engine. When pressed, McDonald’s issued an evasive statement removing the ad and insisting the blame be placed solely on “McDonald’s Netherlands,” while oddly acknowledging the holiday season is supposed to be wonderful. The parent company of TBWA, Omnicom—the world’s largest advertising firm—recently announced layoffs of 4,000 employees while expanding its in-house generative AI systems.
The Corporate Shuffle
Here’s the thing about giant global brands: they’re masters of compartmentalization. McDonald’s response, where it desperately tried to shunt all responsibility to its Netherlands branch, is a classic move. It’s the linguistic equivalent of pointing at your little brother after you both broke the vase. They weren’t just clarifying geography; they were demanding it for “accuracy.” That’s not normal PR speak. That’s damage control with a capital D.
So what’s really going on? There are a few theories. The most dramatic one is that this was a sanctioned test. Maybe corporate wanted to see just how much AI slop the public would stomach in a smaller market before rolling it out elsewhere. If that’s true, forcing the local branch to take the fall is a brutally efficient way to insulate the main brand. There’s no direct proof, but the strategy fits. Global brands often use international segments as innovation labs, for better or worse.
The AI Boiling Frog
Then there’s the broader, creepier angle. One observer, Offensive Security engineer Ryan O’Horo, nailed it with a bleak assessment: “there is no consequence these companies cannot survive, they can not be held accountable, therefore they do not actually respond to backlash.” That’s the “boiling frogs” theory in a nutshell. If companies slowly drip-feed us ugly, cheap, AI-generated content, do we eventually just get used to it? The backlash becomes the cost of doing business, not a reason to stop.
Look at the agency side. TBWA is a major part of Omnicom, which just became the world’s biggest ad firm. And what are they doing? Laying off 4,000 people while pumping money into proprietary AI. The incentive is crystal clear. For them, AI isn’t about creativity; it’s about cutting the biggest cost center they have: humans. They need this to become normal. This McDonald’s fiasco is just a very public, very ugly skirmish in that larger war.
The Ad Itself
We have to talk about the actual commercial, which you can see remnants of here. By all accounts, it was a masterpiece of uncanny valley horror. The statement that 10 specialists worked for 7 weeks on it is maybe the most damning part of this whole story. What were they doing for all that time? Manually adjusting the thousand-yard stares? The ad was supposed to reflect “stressful moments” during the holidays, and buddy, it succeeded—just not in the way they intended. The reaction online was swift and merciless, with commentators on Bluesky mocking its aesthetic and others pointing out the deeper corporate logic at play.
The Mundane Reality
Probably the simplest explanation is also the most likely. McDonald’s Netherlands likely had the autonomy to greenlight this, maybe even proud of their “innovative” approach. Headquarters didn’t order it, but you can bet they were watching. Now they’ve got a giant, steaming data point on public reaction to mainstream AI ads. And that data says: people hate it.
For now, that might keep more of these experiments at bay. But don’t think for a second this is over. The financial pressure to replace human creativity with cheaper, faster AI generation is immense. This won’t be the last weird, evasive corporate response we see. It’s just one of the first. As for McDonald’s? They’ll survive this consequence, too. But the taste it leaves is worse than a stale fry.
