System1’s deep dive into generative AI advertising reveals something pundits love to debate but consumers don’t appear to care about: whether or not AI made the ad. In testing 18 AI-generated spots across three countries and 2,700 viewers, ads created with machine help actually outperformed traditional ones on emotional engagement, scoring 3.4 Stars against a global average of 2.3. Only 24% of people spotted any digital meddling without prompting, and when they were told, their emotional response didn’t drop—in fact, it often spiked.
That includes last year’s much-maligned Coca-Cola Christmas ad, which despite Twitter snark about shaky truck wheels, landed a strong 5.9 Star rating. Coke doubled down this year with more AI-driven work, again netting strong scores. Even fan-made gen-AI ads for brands like Volvo and Hotel Chocolat tested surprisingly well. The twist? The more viewers thought an ad was “definitely AI,” the more emotional response it generated. So much for the soulless robot apocalypse.
Of course, emotional lift isn’t everything. AI still struggles with campaign coherence, brand codes, and good old-fashioned human storytelling. In a viral fan-made gen-AI spot for Ikea, only 49% of viewers could tell which brand it was from—proof robots don’t grasp fonts, tone, or category cues yet. The real opportunity? Pairing AI with human strategy to ensure emotional punch doesn’t come at the cost of brand distinctiveness. As the research says, AI doesn’t hate brands—it just doesn’t know they exist.
Read more at The Drum.