Valuetainment - December 18, 2025


＂McDonalds Knee Jerked＂ - AI Christmas Ad AXED As McDonald’s Faces Backlash FIRESTORM

Hosted by
Patrick Bet-David
Mentioned
Nelson Piquet Max Verstappen Kelly Piquet Bolsonaro Griswold Brandon Compton Clark Senna
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Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

202.76

Word count

1,779

Sentence count

155

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

McDonald's thought it was a good idea to make an AI-generated Christmas ad, but they got so much backlash that the marketing team was like, "Hey, guys, this isn t good. This isn't good." So they took it down.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 McDonald's, folks, tell me if this commercial will make you or your kids go to McDonald's for a Happy Meal or a Big Mac.
00:00:09.720 McDonald's thought it was a good idea to make an AI-generated Christmas ad,
00:00:16.560 but they got so much backlash that the marketing team was like, guys, take that down.
00:00:23.080 This isn't good.
00:00:25.260 Watch this for yourself and tell us if you like it or not.
00:00:27.760 Go ahead, Rob.
00:00:30.000 It's the most terrible time of the year.
00:00:34.140 All the shops turn to mayhem, even Santa's face, and the tree we decorated your place.
00:00:41.240 It's the most terrible time of the year.
00:00:47.860 The roast turns to choking.
00:00:49.720 And the cookies burn, too.
00:00:51.500 Friggin' chaos, it feels like a zoo.
00:00:53.960 It's the most terrible time of the year.
00:01:00.000 So you bleed from the madness, the lights, and the cheer.
00:01:05.560 And hide out in McDonald's till January's year.
00:01:10.080 I like it.
00:01:12.720 You like it? 0.87
00:01:14.080 Well, white people got a problem with it.
00:01:15.640 But you're being honest, you're joking. 0.67
00:01:17.240 I swear.
00:01:17.800 I swear.
00:01:18.320 By the way, I liked it from the marketing standpoint as well.
00:01:21.720 It's what I said yesterday.
00:01:22.660 I've never seen it.
00:01:24.040 I thought it was good, but apparently they took it down.
00:01:27.100 Brandon, do we know why they took it down?
00:01:28.740 Too much backlash, which is a terrible move, I think.
00:01:31.040 Like, just lean into it at that point.
00:01:32.700 Keep it.
00:01:33.000 Meaning if you're already in it.
00:01:34.200 And that's a win, too, to piss people off with marketing.
00:01:36.860 I think that's a win because attention's the name of the game, right?
00:01:40.620 But do they not like it?
00:01:41.940 Do they not like it because of the AI?
00:01:43.820 Or do they not like it because of the message?
00:01:45.740 You know, worst time.
00:01:47.840 Yeah, so they're mad about the Christmas being a terrible time, not about it being AI.
00:01:51.540 This commercial was produced for McDonald's in Netherlands, just so you know.
00:01:55.740 Not Compton, Netherlands. 0.78
00:01:56.720 But we have decided to remove our AI-generated Christmas adverts, spokesperson said.
00:02:02.380 It was intended to reflect the stress moments that can occur during the holidays in the Netherlands.
00:02:08.300 But we recognize that for many of our guests, the season is the most wonderful time of the year.
00:02:12.980 We respect that and remain committed to creating experiences that offer good times and good food for everyone.
00:02:19.420 This moment serves as an important learning as we explore the effective use of AI.
00:02:23.540 Imagine Elon saying something and people having backlash and him taking it down and saying,
00:02:30.320 oh, sorry, and issuing a statement that says, you know, like basically AI-generated PR statement.
00:02:35.740 Never.
00:02:36.340 That would never happen with them. 0.99
00:02:37.660 No, but they're just covering, you know, covering their butts. 0.97
00:02:41.940 Yeah, that would never happen with them.
00:02:43.420 Tom, you, you're a family guy.
00:02:44.880 You got girls, but you also have a dark sense of humor.
00:02:47.120 I think you like it.
00:02:48.860 There's a part of it that I think you like.
00:02:50.300 It's picking on the stress and things, you know, people getting gifts and snow and ice and, you know, and, oh, come on.
00:02:58.080 And it's got this homage back to Clark plugging in the Christmas tree and, you know, come on.
00:03:06.580 I mean, it's like.
00:03:07.160 Rob, can you run a poll?
00:03:08.100 National Lampoon's Christmas vacation, you know.
00:03:10.620 Exactly.
00:03:10.760 Griswold, you know, shutting down the neighborhood because of all the lights you put up.
00:03:15.080 I think it's funny, and it talks about this.
00:03:18.460 And now the back end of it is, oh, hideout at McDonald's at the beginning of the year.
00:03:22.540 It's kind of tongue-in-cheek.
00:03:24.200 So if there was a group of people that says, hey, you're really picking on Christmas, I don't think they were picking on Christmas.
00:03:30.240 I think they were picking on, you know, getting together.
00:03:33.640 I mean, I was making jokes about Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, the only holiday in America where you get together with everybody around the table that's a little too small, including the three cousins you don't like, and give everyone a knife.
00:03:44.820 So it's like that's Thanksgiving in America, right?
00:03:49.000 So I don't think there was anything wrong with that.
00:03:53.960 I think McDonald knee-jerked.
00:03:55.680 And I think what I would have done if I was McDonald's is, hey, we're picking on the stress of holiday season.
00:04:00.280 We're not picking on anything else.
00:04:01.900 Can you lighten up a little bit?
00:04:03.600 Aren't you kind of making my point?
00:04:05.180 If I was a CEO, that's what I said.
00:04:06.780 You're kind of making my point that you're taking it kind of serious?
00:04:10.500 I'm not picking on – look, there was not one thing in there like, you know, desecrating the manger or a nativity scene.
00:04:18.420 They didn't cross that line.
00:04:19.460 It was all of the things we go through celebrating and in the cold and the slush and the wind and Christmas carolers are trying to sing there with cold wind.
00:04:28.460 So that's never happened?
00:04:29.820 You've never seen that?
00:04:31.060 Come on.
00:04:32.040 Netherlands.
00:04:32.780 Some sensitive people live in Netherlands.
00:04:34.820 I thought they were good.
00:04:35.840 Aren't they pretty good at soccer at times?
00:04:37.900 You can't be good at soccer and be that sensitive.
00:04:39.660 You know what they left out in the Netherlands?
00:04:41.200 Really?
00:04:41.600 Yeah.
00:04:42.080 All the Nordic countries I think are pretty sensitive.
00:04:43.620 Why is that?
00:04:44.020 Why do you think they're sensitive?
00:04:44.640 I don't know because there's not a lot of problems there.
00:04:46.460 What's in the food?
00:04:47.080 Is it like – is it the food?
00:04:48.220 Is it the drinks?
00:04:48.840 Is it the beer?
00:04:49.840 I thought they were going to be upset about the AI.
00:04:51.960 It's the reindeer.
00:04:52.300 That's why when I saw them take it down, I thought that they were going to be like, oh, you used AI to do this.
00:04:56.720 You killed jobs.
00:04:58.100 Like, yeah, the fact that it was about Christmas.
00:05:01.280 This is Netherlands.
00:05:02.060 All they had to add was one thing.
00:05:04.000 It's Max Verstappen opening up a present.
00:05:06.840 Is he Netherlands?
00:05:08.120 Yeah.
00:05:08.760 It says all they needed was Max to open up a box that says two points.
00:05:12.140 Has anybody ever seen Max's interviews?
00:05:14.320 This is like the last guy who is sensitive.
00:05:17.580 He holds nothing back.
00:05:19.540 By the way, he should have won, and he didn't.
00:05:23.080 But we already talked about that.
00:05:24.460 If you want to entertain yourself, watch Max and his father in interviews.
00:05:30.260 And you tell me who's got a foul mouth more, him or his father.
00:05:32.540 By the way, he had a baby this year.
00:05:34.340 Scroll down a little bit and look who his wife is. 1.00
00:05:37.480 Who's his wife? 0.99
00:05:38.480 Kelly Piquet.
00:05:40.180 Oh, wow.
00:05:41.020 Daughter of three-time world champion Nelson Piquet.
00:05:43.320 Wow, from Brazil.
00:05:44.280 Good for him.
00:05:45.460 By the way, Bolsonaro likes Nelson Piquet more than he likes Senna.
00:05:49.140 And I was not happy about that.
00:05:50.760 I was not happy about that. 1.00
00:05:51.920 Let's throw his ass in prison. 1.00
00:05:52.860 He's so funny. 1.00
00:05:56.640 Sorry.
00:05:57.620 Too soon?
00:05:58.020 Every time I'm at this campus and I'm in my conference room and I look to my left and I see 15 people walk into the other building and they're getting a tour.
00:06:04.780 That means we've hired 15 new people.
00:06:06.820 Okay?
00:06:07.100 And last week we had 10 new hires.
00:06:09.320 We had 45 job openings.
00:06:11.040 Right now we have 35 job openings.
00:06:12.840 We are hiring.
00:06:13.620 If you're somebody highly qualified, you're educated, you're hungry, you want to be part of something that you want to go on a run for 20 years, a lot of people, if you just watch this, you think it's a podcast.
00:06:23.860 And by the way, you may have a son, a daughter, a friend, somebody that's fully, fully qualified that wants to be part of something and bring their talent to us.
00:06:31.140 Not an easy place to work.
00:06:32.780 You know, we work very, very hard at a place like this.
00:06:35.880 But if you think this is just a podcast, I want you to watch this clip to give you a little bit of a glimpse and then I'll give you a link to go apply for the 35 job openings that we have right now.
00:06:44.460 Go ahead, Rob.
00:06:45.520 Many times when people think about value attainment, all they think about is a podcast, but it's a lot more than that.
00:06:50.280 It's nine companies working together on an 11 acre campus.
00:06:54.140 If I was to give you a virtual tour here, you'll see the HR department hiring, talent acquisition.
00:06:59.120 We have full stack developers that are working on Manac and higher metrics.
00:07:02.300 We have a full fledged events team that puts together events with thousands of people.
00:07:06.500 We have a merch department designing the latest product.
00:07:09.120 We just launched the FLB shoes made in Italy.
00:07:11.820 We have a marketing department.
00:07:13.400 And if you go to the complete opposite side of the building, 50, 60 people making calls, working for Bed David Consulting, sales, setters.
00:07:20.180 And then on the complete opposite side of the campus, there's a full on production company with editors, shooters, creating content, doing podcasts.
00:07:26.940 Then you can drive down a couple of miles and go to our private boardroom cigar lounge with members only.
00:07:31.540 Regardless of what it is, working at value attainment, every day is a surprise.
00:07:35.900 You could be walking into work and right next to you is a governor, is a billionaire, is an athlete.
00:07:40.980 We are hiring aggressively, but value attainment isn't for everybody.
00:07:44.320 For the right person, this could be the last company you ever work for.
00:07:49.260 So if you're watching this and you want to learn more, go to vt.com forward slash careers and apply now.
00:07:56.040 There you go.
00:07:58.160 Go to vt.com forward slash careers and apply now.
00:08:01.300 Rob, if we can put the link below as well, that will be wonderful.
00:08:05.380 Okay.
00:08:05.760 Can I say something about the people I met here?
00:08:07.100 Please go for it.
00:08:08.120 Excellent.
00:08:08.560 A plus.
00:08:09.320 Every single person.
00:08:10.100 High energy, smart.
00:08:11.600 And I ask every place I go, ask them, what's it like working here?
00:08:15.160 What's the best part?
00:08:15.760 What's the worst part?
00:08:16.420 The woman that I was just talking with, you know what she told me? 0.94
00:08:18.980 She said, it's great to have a leader who's pushing forward.
00:08:21.640 There's a movement.
00:08:22.240 You feel like you're contributing, but it's fun as well.
00:08:25.280 It's very rare where you can work really hard and have fun.
00:08:27.580 I love that.
00:08:28.580 Well, I appreciate you for saying that.
00:08:30.440 Whoever said that, can we get that?
00:08:31.620 I might apply.
00:08:32.200 I might apply.
00:08:33.640 She was a good sales pitch. 0.98
00:08:36.720 All right.
00:08:37.540 Bring your talents to just north of South Beach.
00:08:40.740 If you enjoy this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.
00:08:43.640 And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.