As a kid, it's natural to love Christmas. As an adult, it's natural to get stressed out by it. But I have to admit, even when I reached middle age, I was still a sucker for that "Holidays are coming" chorus from the Coke ads that herald the arrival of the festive season.
Well, until a couple of years ago, anyhow.
For the last two Christmases, unfortunately, the soft drinks giant has ruined it all for me by sticking AI-generated effects into its commercials. Not just that, but actively boasting about it. (If you were lucky enough to miss last year's monstrosity, our article Coca-Cola's AI ad just ruined Christmas... again allows you to relive it in all its gruesome glory.)
I mean, I can understand the shop down the road – the one that never seems to have any customers and is clearly operating on a shoestring – reaching for gen AI to save a few pennies. But a company valued at $400 billion? Do me a favour.
So it's a real pleasure to see Prada heading in the right direction here. Drawing Prada, its holiday campaign for 2026, brings its celeb ambassadors (Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Chen Haoyu, Kelvin Harrison Jr and Luther Ford) into cartoon worlds drawn entirely by hand.
A sardonic fox trails Maya through the snow; a goofy lynx peers out from behind a tree at Kelvin; and a trio of mice make off with Sadie's spotty loafers. It all feels very "classic Disney", and that's no coincidence.
The animation was directed by John Pomeroy, who started out at Disney in the 1970s, co-founded the studio behind The Secret of NIMH with Don Bluth, and later returned to the House of Mouse for Pocahontas.
Alongside him on the Prada campaign is lead animator Tom Bancroft, whose credits include Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and Mulan.
"What's great is that John called the band back together," Tom explains in Prada's behind-the-scenes reel. "He called a bunch of us that had been working at other studios for many years doing traditional hand drawn animation. It's great to be back and doing this for Prada."
That experience and that enthusiasm show. Prada itself never mentions AI slop, but then it doesn't need to. This is the antidote, staring you in the face, and it's utterly delightful.
A campaign that puts experienced animators back to work, and celebrates what they do, is certainly something I'd like to see a lot more of. If a fashion house can see the value in that, then surely the world's biggest soft drinks brand can too. Over to you, Coca-Cola.
