Authenticity vs AI in Modern Marketing
The creative industry just got a wake-up call. In the same week Apple released a handcrafted intro for Apple TV, built from real glass, no CGI, Coca-Cola dropped an AI-made Christmas ad that audiences instantly hated. One campaign was applauded for its craft. The other was mocked for cutting corners. For marketers, the takeaway is bigger than Christmas storytelling. It’s proof that consumers are starting to value authenticity over efficiency, and effort over automation.
When Craft Outperforms Code
Apple’s five-second Apple TV intro was made entirely by hand. The team at Media Arts Lab and Optical Arts built a glass Apple logo, lit it with colour, and filmed every shimmer in-camera. The reveal video on YouTube drew over a million organic views in 72 hours, with industry peers praising its restraint and realism.
It’s a bold move at a time when 94 percent of brands globally say they’re testing AI-generated creativity. Instead of automation, Apple leaned into tangibility and it paid off. A WARC analysis found that campaigns using practical craft or physical sets deliver 27 percent higher long-term brand lift than those using fully digital production. Craft signals effort, and audiences reward effort.
Coca-Cola went the other way. Its 2025 Christmas campaign, built with generative AI, featured an uncanny AI Santa and glitching winter scenes. Within days, the ad drew over 30,000 negative comments and saw engagement drop 42 percent below last year’s live-action version, according to Brandwatch data.
In the UK, where the Christmas ad market is treated as the Super Bowl of emotional storytelling, the difference is stark. The John Lewis 2023 campaign (shot practically, using a single animatronic Venus flytrap) reached 84 percent positive sentiment and boosted brand favourability by 7 points, the highest in five years. These numbers prove that authenticity isn’t nostalgia, it’s performance.
Why Audiences Are Looking for Authenticity
1. Trust has fractured.
After years of algorithmic feeds, consumers are sceptical. NielsenIQ research found that 64 percent of viewers can identify AI-made ads, and they trust them 25 percent less than human-made ones. In B2C categories like FMCG and retail, perceived authenticity now drives up to two-thirds of brand loyalty.
2. Emotion requires effort.
A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Business Research showed that when people believe emotional messages are AI-generated, they feel moral discomfort and rate the brand as manipulative. Genuine storytelling still relies on human rhythm, empathy, and imperfection, things that algorithms replicate poorly.
3. Authenticity drives attention.
Neuroscience-based ad testing by System1 Group found that viewers spend 23 percent more time watching creative work that shows visible human craft, hand-drawn elements, physical props, or real settings, compared with synthetic visuals. The brain recognises effort as a social signal, rewarding perceived craftsmanship with higher engagement.
4. “Real” feels scarce again.
In a landscape of instant, auto-generated everything, the handmade has become premium. Marketers are seeing a “re-humanisation effect,” where tangible experiences, an artisan product, a handwritten card, or a live-shot video, outperform automated ones in recall and sentiment.
What Marketers Can Learn
For Creative Teams
Human craft still outperforms automation in emotional storytelling. Use AI for ideation or versioning, not as the final voice. If your brand positioning depends on trust, emotion, or nostalgia, avoid generative imagery altogether. Craft builds memory structure, and memory drives long-term ROI.
For Performance Marketers
AI can optimise campaigns, but not connect hearts. Test human-made creative separately from machine-generated versions. Across multiple meta-analyses, creative quality explains 47 percent of campaign ROI variance, while targeting explains just 9 percent. Prioritise storytelling and distinctiveness first; algorithms can’t fix weak ideas.
For Brand Strategists
Authenticity is now measurable. Kantar’s 2024 BrandZ data shows brands perceived as “authentic” grow 2.5 times faster in market share than those seen as “efficient” or “innovative”. Your differentiator may not be technology; it’s truthfulness.
The Craft Comeback
Audiences have reached the saturation point. The internet is full of content, but thin on meaning. Apple’s five-second glass logo worked because it felt human. Coca-Cola’s AI Santa failed because it didn’t.
For marketers, the lesson is clear: people don’t just buy products; they buy stories they believe were made by people.
The next wave of creative advantage won’t come from who automates faster; it’ll come from who uses technology wisely, keeping human judgment, taste, and craft where it matters most.
Because in marketing, as in life, real still works best.
References
- Loyola, R. (2025, November 6). Apple TV’s new glassy intro wasn’t created on a Mac. Macworld. https://www.macworld.com/article/2964562/apple-tvs-new-glassy-intro-wasnt-created-on-a-mac.html
- Foley, J. (2025, November 5). Coca-Cola's AI ad just ruined Christmas. . . again. Creative Bloq. https://www.creativebloq.com/creative-inspiration/advertising/coca-colas-ai-ad-just-ruined-christmas-again
- Vainilavičius J. (2025, November 7). New Apple TV intro is all human work. Cybernews. https://cybernews.com/ai-news/apple-tv-new-intro/
- NielsenIQ. (2025, September 8). Study reveals hidden consumer views on AI-Generated ads. NIQ. https://nielseniq.com/global/en/news-center/2024/niq-research-uncovers-hidden-consumer-attitudes-toward-ai-generated-ads/
- Kirk, C. P., & Givi, J. (2024). The AI-authorship effect: Understanding authenticity, moral disgust, and consumer responses to AI-generated marketing communications. Journal of Business Research, 186, 114984.
