Artificial intelligence is a great advertising tool. But it’s also been responsible for some of the industry’s most embarrassing moments: “AI slop.”
It’s called AI slop because it’s generic, AI-generated content that feels rushed, impersonal or disconnected from a brand’s voice.
AI content copied or saved without first trying it with focus groups or A/B testing often doesn’t resonate with audiences. Some campaigns failed so badly they were pulled. It cost some companies thousands of dollars. For major brands, millions.
McDonald’s pulled an AI-generated holiday ad after viewers called it empty and unsettling. Coca-Cola faced backlash for an AI-assisted campaign critics said felt “soulless” and “creepy.” In both instances, critics said the campaigns lacked the emotional storytelling the brands are known for.
The two campaigns became cautionary tales for marketers rushing to automate creativity. It’s not a winning formula on its own. But it can play a big role.
“AI is not a shortcut to great marketing,” says CMA Vice President Kelsey Tweedly. “If anything, it raises the bar. When brands rely on automation without strategy or oversight, your audience notices. And it’s not good.”
Here’s how “AI slop” happens, and how you can avoid it.
What Causes “AI Slop”
Doesn’t it seem like everyone adopted AI overnight?
It’s easy to see why. Faster content creation, lower production costs and the ability to instantly generate ideas.
But that convenience has led to a bad habit: publishing AI-generated words, images and video before it’s ready. When that happens, your instant savings become long-term losses.
AI-generated campaigns often fall short for a few reasons:
- The messaging lacks a clear brand voice.
- Visuals feel generic or inconsistent.
- Content relies on clichés or recycled ideas.
- The emotional connection audiences expect simply isn’t there.
“AI is great at generating options, at getting the ball rolling, at giving you a starting point,” Tweedly says. “But it still needs human input to review and choose the right idea and transform it into something a lot more meaningful.”
Audiences are not impressed with your AI work unless that human layer is added.
How AI Helps You
Despite the backlash, artificial intelligence is still one of the most valuable tools marketers have. The key is knowing where AI adds value and where human creativity should remain central.
For example, your team can use AI to:
- Analyze customer data and identify emerging trends.
- Generate early concept ideas or headline variations.
- Speed up research and brainstorming.
- Test messaging and audience responses with an initial audience.
But AI isn’t your audience. You’re not selling to robots. That’s why the final storytelling and brand voice should still come from people.
“Think of AI as a collaborator, not a creator,” Tweedly says. “It’s a great assistant. It knows a lot. But you are not trying to win AI over. The strategy and storytelling still need feedback from your main audience: your customers and clients.”
How You Can Help AI
Avoiding “AI slop” doesn’t mean avoiding AI altogether. It’s there. Your audience knows that. They use it, too. But they want you to use it in a way they can’t.
By being you.
“When people say something feels like AI slop, what they’re really reacting to is the lack of effort behind it,” Tweedly says. “The technology isn’t a problem. The lack of real human input is.”
Human creativity, judgment and strategy, she says, is still at the center of the process. It doesn’t replace it. The strongest campaigns still start with a clear idea, a defined audience and a thoughtful message. AI can help accelerate that work, but it shouldn’t replace the thinking behind it.
Here are a few practical ways marketers can do that.
- Start With Strategy: Define the campaign’s goal, audience and message before you open an AI tool and start prompting. When the strategy is clear, AI can help accelerate execution instead of dictating the creative direction.
- Generate Options, Not Final Version: AI is excellent for brainstorming headlines, drafting early copies or producing concept visuals. But treat those outputs as rough drafts. Because that’s all they are. The real work comes from refining the message, so it reflects your brand voice and marketing goals.
- Shape the Creative Direction Yourself: Use AI to explore visual styles, tones and formats, but keep the final decisions with your team. Choose what aligns with your brand, combine the strongest ideas and refine until it feels cohesive and true to your voice. Expect a few rounds to get there. It’ll be worth it. Once it’s in a strong place, bring in a creative expert outside your immediate team to push it further and ensure its sharp, strategic and truly resonates with your audience, not just internally. No one knows your product or service better than you, but you are not your customer.
- Keep Human Review in the Loop: Even AI-assisted campaigns should go through testing, editing and brand review. Running concepts through focus groups and A/B testing can catch issues early and make certain the message resonates with the right audience.
- Protect Your Brand Voice: Generative tools often produce content that feels generic. Make sure the final messaging sounds like your brand and not like something any competitor could publish. If it doesn’t feel distinctive, keep refining.
- Let People Handle the Emotion: AI can analyze data and generate ideas quickly, but emotional storytelling still comes from human insight. Humor, empathy and cultural awareness are what make campaigns memorable and connect with audiences.
When used as a tool, not as a collective marketing team, AI becomes what it should be: the best way to make your department work more efficiently without replacing the ideas that made it efficient to begin with: you and them.
Ready to build campaigns that avoid the AI slop and use AI the right way? Partner with CMA to bring smarter, more creative and financially rewarding campaigns to life.