There's an old belief in advertising that people need to see themselves in an ad to connect with a brand.
The family that looks like their family. The person who lives like they do. The situation they recognise. The aspiration they have.
Because recognition creates connection.
But then AI came along.
Take Coca-Cola's 2025 Christmas advertising. Its latest ‘Holidays Are Coming’ world was created using generative AI, with thousands of AI-generated clips produced and reviewed during development.
And yet, there's something interesting about it.
The ad doesn't need to show people who look like us. Instead, we get Christmas lights, snow, trucks, animals, music and a world we already associate with the season.
So why does it still feel familiar?
Maybe because “seeing yourself” in advertising was never really about seeing a person who looks like you.
It was about recognising something that feels like you.
A feeling. A memory. A desire. A ritual.
Coca-Cola doesn't need to show me myself. It needs to remind me of my Christmas.
And this is where AI gets interesting.
AI can create an almost infinite number of people, places and situations. It can even make an ad look as though it was made specifically for you.
But personalisation isn't the same as relevance. And realism isn't the same as authenticity.
The danger isn't that AI makes advertising less human. The danger is that we use AI to make advertising that looks human without actually understanding humans.
Perhaps the question isn't: “Can AI create the perfect person for the ad?”
It's: “Does the person watching it recognise something of themselves in the idea?”
Because technology can generate the image. It can generate the person.
But it still needs to understand the human.
And maybe that's the bit we shouldn't automate.