As generative AI continues to pollute the internet and advertising, certain luxury houses are betting on human craft when it comes to their Christmas marketing.
Call it “effort signaling” all you want; their efforts are to be applauded at a time when cost-cutting initiatives result in mediocre and bar-lowering slop.
One luxury brand choosing to celebrate human creativity this year is Italian fashion house Prada, which has swapped AI-generated dross for traditional, hand-drawn illustration for their new Christmas campaign.
Combining live-action footage with hand-drawn characters, the ‘Drawing Prada: Animated By Hand’ campaign has enlisted veteran animator John Pomeroy to lead a team of artists to bring animated characters and environment to life.
“That sense of touch expresses a fundamental notion of humanity, and a connection with craft that always lies at the very heart of Prada’s approach to creation,” according to a press release.
The campaign, developed under the creative direction of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, with Ferdinando Verderi overseeing campaign creative direction, sees each frame drawn by hand and the live-action scenes photographed by Glen Luchford.
Check out the campaign below, which features a cast of celebrity ambassadors including Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Chen Haoyu, Luther Ford and Kelvin Harrison Jr.:
Best known for his work at Disney, Pomeroy has contributed to iconic films including the Oscar-nominated Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974), The Rescuers (1977), Pete’s Dragon (1977) and The Fox and the Hound (1981).
After his departure from Disney, he established independent animation studio Don Bluth Productions, creating films like The Secret of NIMH and The Land Before Time.
He later returned to Disney, where he worked on films such as Pocahontas, Fantasia 2000, Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet. He later worked as an animator on films like Curious George, several Tom and Jerry films, and Space Jam: A New Legacy.
In a behind-the-scenes film accompanying the campaign, Pomeroy explained his commitment to traditional technique.
“I learnt my craft with pencil and paper, through traditional, analogue drawing. We’ve remained faithful to that approach and want to pass it on to future generations,” said Pomeroy.
“There’s a very distinct and purposeful reason to do hand-drawn animation, and that’s to see that there’s value in it and that hand-drawn and handcrafted work is still alive in the world today.”
Prada’s ad comes at a time when other brands aren’t caring as much. Their 2026 campaign feels like a direct response to those still indulging in a tech which is threatening human creativity and livelihoods.
Unlike Coca-Cola and their AI-generated Christmas advertisements, which faced criticism in both 2024 and 2025 (since the brand did not learn from their mistake the first time around), certain companies are starting to understand how fed up potential consumers are with AI.
More and more people have grown wary of the pervasive tech and there is a growing backlash towards the rise of AI – leading younger, digital-savvy generations to appreciate the value of human creativity while older generations embrace the traditional crafts in a bid to push back against soulless imagery.
Moreover, the “not-made-by-AI” approach has become a massive selling point, and Prada have understood the value of delivering an antidote. Their new campaign has sparked enthusiasm online, with users commenting: “Love it when ads go AI free, much respects to the artists”; “Now this, THIS is how you make an ad”; “Normally not interested in Prada, but I’m reading “Animated by Hand” and I’m in”; and “Such a breath of fresh air seeing something with soul again”.
It goes to show that something as simple as hand-drawn illustration can still create enthusiasm.
Your move Coca-Cola. Let’s see if a multi-billion company can be bothered to pay real animators this year or if they’ll churn out yet another deeply derivative campaign based on the works of artists, used without permission.