Commercial in Netherlands depicting festival-season chaos at ‘most terrible time of year’ prompted flurry of criticism online

McDonald’s says it has removed an AI-generated Christmas advertisement in the Netherlands after it was criticised online.

The ad, titled “the most terrible time of the year”, depicts scenes of Christmas chaos, with Santa caught in a traffic jam and a gift-laden Dutch cyclist slipping in the snow. And the message? Retreat to a McDonald’s restaurant until January and ride out the festive season.

The 54-outlet chain was recently bought back by its co-founder, who says Leon must downsize as more customers work from home

Fast food chain Leon is planning to close restaurants and cut jobs, less than two months after it was bought back from Asda by its co-founder John Vincent.

The chain said on Wednesday that it had appointed administrators to lead a restructuring programme, and it was considering how many of its 54 restaurants would need to shut. It did not say how many roles could be affected.