You Laughed at the AI Ad. But Didn’t You Fall for the Name on the Can?

You Laughed at the AI Ad. But Didn’t You Fall for the Name on the Can?
(The illusion didn’t start with AI. It started with marketing.)

Everyone’s laughing at Coca-Cola’s new AI ad (here it is in case you missed it: https://lnkd.in/exHpBm26).

“The truck wheels keep changing!”
“It looks fake!”
“AI can’t even get the basics right!”

Yeah, it’s funny. But here’s the thing — Coca-Cola just showed us the future.

While most people are busy making memes about truck wheels, the world’s biggest brands are already playing with AI at scale.
They’re not waiting for perfection.
They’re experimenting, learning, evolving — while everyone else laughs.

Every revolution starts awkward.
The first websites looked like digital garbage.
The first iPhone videos were pixelated jokes.
Now we can’t imagine life without them.

👉 This ad isn’t a fail. It’s evolution, happening live.

But here’s what really blows my mind 💭

The same people mocking this AI ad were once obsessed with Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign — when they printed your name on a can and suddenly you had to buy it.

That wasn’t AI. That was manipulation disguised as personalization.
They made you feel special, and you bought it — literally.

People hunted stores for their names.
Bought extras for friends.
Posted photos.
All for a drink that hasn’t changed in 100 years.
Caffeine, sugar, chemicals, nostalgia — repeat.

So if you’re laughing at an AI truck but drinking the same bottle of liquid marketing, maybe the joke’s not where you think it is.

Coca-Cola didn’t make a bad AI ad.
They held up a mirror.

Fake smiles. Fake perfection. Fake connection.
That’s been marketing for decades.

AI didn’t break the illusion — it revealed it.
And maybe that’s why everyone’s uncomfortable.

AI isn’t killing creativity.
It’s exposing how fake most of it was.
It’s forcing us to rebuild what real means.

So yeah, laugh at the changing truck wheels.
But don’t forget — Coca-Cola once sold you your own name.

Mocking is easy.
Building the future is hard.

And whether you like it or not, Coca-Cola just took the first messy step.

I build AI workflows and marketing systems that help brands do this right — blending human creativity with smart automation, minus the fake smiles.