Advertising

Fanta: Halloween without art direction.

An impressive image doesn’t necessarily make a good ad.

For Halloween, Fanta went big. With Haunted Universe, the brand introduces a world of monsters, fantastical creatures and even Ghostface, the iconic character from Scream.

Developed with studio GRAiL, the campaign relies heavily on artificial intelligence to bring that world to life. The ambition is clear: make Fanta as synonymous with Halloween as Coca-Cola is with Christmas.

But the response has been mixed.

On social media, the criticism keeps coming. Questionable visuals, awkward editing, an artificial look… Some see an ad that puts technological possibilities ahead of creative quality.

Design publication Creative Bloq goes so far as to call the campaign an AI-generated horror show.

AI isn’t the problem.

I use AI in my own work. What bothers me here is the result someone decided was good enough to represent Fanta.

The effects pile up. But what stays with us, beyond how the ad was made?

An impressive image doesn’t necessarily make a good ad. Spectacular animation is no substitute for thoughtful art direction.

And just because we can produce something doesn’t mean we should put it out there.

When technology takes over.

An ad that gets a reaction isn’t necessarily an ad that fails. Fanta has people talking. But that alone doesn’t make the creative work convincing.

For me, the job hasn’t changed: choose what serves the brand, rework what isn’t working and know when to say, “It’s not ready.” Even when the tool can turn out ten more versions that same day.

The tool can produce. Someone still has to choose.

Official source: The Coca-Cola Company ↗