Is It Really Real?

It’s that time of year.

After spending the past six weeks preparing for Trick or Treaters and inhaling anything “pumpkin spice,” we’ve been inundated with Thanksgiving promos. Most big box stores started putting out their Christmas merchandise three weeks ago.

With the coming of the holidays, we’re beginning to see promos for merchandiser campaigns. And, like most everything these days, there’s a debate about the use of AI.

Last year, Coca-Cola ran an ad called “Holidays Are Coming.”  It was entirely AI generated, and featured smiling polar bears, curiously fingered humans, and delivery trucks who traveled through the snow-covered streets on wheels that did not spin.

Coca-Cola has been around for almost 140 years. It’s an authentic American company, and has become a worldwide brand. Much like the Nike logo, people recognize “Coke.”

So, what have they done for 2025?

Create another AI-generated ad for Christmas.

The issue for Coca-Cola, and for consumers, is authenticity.

For decades, researchers have been trying to develop computer tools that would help humans solve everyday problems. Could we make computers “intelligent?” Could they solve problems?

AI has become an invaluable tool, and has, indeed, solved problems. It has the ability to scour all of the information on the internet in a few moments and give you a reasonable answer.

But, like most data, it’s garbage in – garbage out.

Today, if you phone up a call center, there’s a good chance the “person” answering your query is an algorithm. There’s a vibrant community of online users who will point out the AI edits and contributions to the advertisements you see on the internet. When you “Google” something, your first search results are likely to come from Google Gemini – their AI search tool.

What is lacking from all of this – and how it impacts our industries and businesses – is authenticity. You might get some facts (with some internet-generated garbage), but you lack a personal connection.

I work with most of our clients on crafting words. I help to write social media posts, press releases, blogs, and more. With some of our clients, I have a more active partnership.

One of our clients recently sent me an idea for a blog. For this client, I knew the audience, knew the product, and knew what resonated. Sometimes, they would send me some bullet points and ask for something that could be posted. Sometimes, they would send me an idea that seemed fully fleshed-out, but needed some editing and a proper narrative…

Tell them what you’re going to tell them; tell them the stuff; tell them why it’s important you told them this stuff.

After reading over the copy the client had provided, I had to ask: “Did you use AI to write this?”

They had.

They entered a prompt with a handful of bullet points, a few colorful items of interest, and asked for an essay of 350 words.

That’s exactly what they got.

What AI missed was the personal connection to the audience. It generated all of its content from Google, Wikipedia, Yelp reviews, Reddit threads, and the like. It didn’t know what was truly important to the audience, or the ability to tell a story, or the importance of creating a narrative.

It wasn’t authentic.

It wasn’t real.

More and more, clients are connecting with businesses because they have a personal connection with a brand – your mom used this product, or your neighbor used this vendor, or their local connections are important to you.

That’s an authenticity that cannot be faked or generated through a series of complex algorithms.