Cinema-goers in the UK have been shown a Halloween ad from Fanta before their films, including a Resident Evil screening, and plenty of them did not like what they saw. Reaction online was overwhelmingly negative, with viewers calling the spot AI slop and a few saying they would stop buying the drink.
“What Christmas is to Coke is what we want Halloween to be for Fanta”
Ibrahim Khan, global vice president of marketing, Fanta, to Marketing Dive · marketingdive.com ↗
The ad belongs to the Haunted Universe, an original Halloween property Fanta announced in late August and built with the AI studio GRAiL. Its cast includes a scarecrow with a jack-o'-lantern head, a vampire who drives a sports car, a cyborg Frankenstein and a werewolf DJ, with Ghostface from Scream making a guest appearance. A trailer of more than two minutes arrived on 24 August and the campaign rolled out in 50 markets two days later. WPP Open X, led by Ogilvy, ran it with several other WPP units.
Around the film sit collectible packaging, a limited-time flavour, a Ghost Face Punch can, a Haunted Fanta Factory and influencer content. Earlier Fanta Halloween campaigns borrowed licensed horror characters such as Chucky, Michael Myers and Beetlejuice; this year's characters are the company's own.
Key visual of the four original Haunted Universe characters that anchor the campaign
Courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company · Image: Marketing Dive
Fanta's marketing chief says AI let the team make richer content, much as CGI did for hand-drawn animation, and that the work took 18 months. GRAiL's part is described as technology serving a human-led creative process. Critics see it differently: they call the imagery unethical and brand-cheapening, and Creative Bloq likens the response to the backlash against Coca-Cola's AI Christmas adverts, while noting that the loudest voices may not speak for most viewers.
Fanta intends the universe to be an annual, multiyear effort, so more story and lore are promised in the years ahead.
Sources · 3