Coca-Cola is facing backlash over an advertising blunder that misattributed a quote to author J.G. Ballard. The ad, which highlights references to Coca-Cola in classic literature, cited Ballard as the author of Extreme Metaphors, a book he never wrote, and featured a quote that never appeared in any of his published work.
The actual source was a 2012 collection of interviews titled Extreme Metaphors, edited by Dan O’Hara and Simon Sellars.
“The sequence of words being typed out by the imagined J.G. Ballard in the ad was never written by him, only spoken, and the only person ever to type that exact sequence out in English is me,” O’Hara told 404 Media. He also pointed out that the quote in the ad contained a typo.
The campaign, created in partnership with marketing agency VML, used artificial intelligence “in the initial research phase to identify books with brand mentions,” according to a statement. The agency noted that references were meant to be manually verified afterwards.
This isn’t the first time Coca-Cola has drawn criticism for its use of AI. The company’s 2024 Christmas commercials, which were also generated using artificial intelligence, were described as “soulless” and “unsettling” by many viewers.
When the campaign launched, Alex Hirsch, the creator of the Disney series “Gravity Falls,” said, in a comment on X: “FUN FACT: @CocaCola is ‘red’ because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists! #HolidayFactz.”
In a statement at the time, a Coca-Cola spokesperson said: “The Coca-Cola Company has celebrated a long history of capturing the magic of the holidays in content, film, events and retail activations for decades around the globe. We are always exploring new ways to connect with consumers and experiment with different approaches. This year, we crafted films through a collaboration of human storytellers and the power of generative AI. Coca-Cola will always remain dedicated to creating the highest level of work at the intersection of human creativity and technology”.
Beyond the creative misstep, the situation raises broader concerns. Proper attribution is a basic ethical and legal responsibility in content creation. In this case, Coca-Cola reportedly sought approval from copyright holders for the other quotes featured in the campaign, but not for the excerpt from the Ballard interview.
The reliance on AI also presents environmental challenges. Generative AI systems require substantial computing power, consuming large amounts of energy and water. This contributes to pollution, increases water scarcity, and worsens the climate crisis, issues for which Coca-Cola has already faced sustained scrutiny, particularly in relation to its status as one of the world’s largest plastic polluters.
The news comes just a few weeks after a syndicated “Summer Reading List for 2025” circulated by King Features, a unit of Hearst Newspapers, has caused backlash after it was revealed that most of the titles featured were entirely fictional, many attributed to real authors who never wrote them.
Newspapers across the United States, including the Chicago Sun-Times and at least one edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer, published the list, which claimed to spotlight recommended summer reads.
Among the invented titles: Tidewater Dreams, described as Isabel Allende’s “first climate fiction novel,” and The Rainmakers, supposedly set in a “near-future American West where artificially induced rain has become a luxury commodity,” falsely attributed to Pulitzer Prize-winner Percival Everett.
In reality, only five of the 15 books featured in the total list are real. Those include Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins, and Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse.
The reaction online suggests growing public frustration with the use of AI in advertising and a desire for more responsible brand behaviour. As pressure builds on corporations to meet ethical and environmental standards, this latest error serves as a reminder that even small oversights can damage trust when they reflect larger systemic issues.
