Prada bets on hand-drawn animation in its Christmas campaign — amid audience fatigue with AI advertising

A hand-drawn animation campaign

The Italian fashion house Prada has unveiled its Christmas campaign, “Drawing Prada: Animated By Hand”, in which live-action scenes are combined with hand-drawn characters and settings. Every frame of the animation was drawn by hand, while the live-action scenes were shot by photographer Glen Luchford. The campaign was developed under the creative direction of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, with Ferdinando Verderi responsible for the campaign's creative direction. The film features the brand's ambassadors, including Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Chen Haoyu, Luther Ford and Kelvin Harrison Jr. This was reported by Euronews.

John Pomeroy and the traditional technique

The team of artists was led by animation veteran John Pomeroy, best known for his work at Disney: he contributed to 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 leaving Disney, he founded the studio Don Bluth Productions, where The Secret of NIMH and The Land Before Time were made; he then returned to Disney and worked on Pocahontas, Fantasia 2000, Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet, and later on Curious George, several Tom and Jerry films and Space Jam: A New Legacy. In the accompanying film about the making of the campaign, Pomeroy said: “I mastered my craft with pencil and paper, through traditional, analogue drawing. We remain faithful to that approach and want to pass it on to future generations.” Prada's press release emphasises that “the sense of touch expresses a fundamental idea of human nature and a connection with craftsmanship that has always been at the very heart of Prada's creative approach.”

Context: fatigue with AI advertising

Euronews views the campaign as a direct response to brands that continue to use generative AI, noting that it appeared amid growing audience dissatisfaction with the technology. The outlet recalls that Coca-Cola's AI-generated Christmas commercials drew criticism in both 2024 and 2025, and that in October 2026 an AI-generated clip for the film “The Odyssey” was mocked online, linked to Elon Musk. According to Euronews, the “not made with AI” approach has become a notable selling argument: Prada's new campaign received a positive response online — users wrote, for example, “I love it when ads skip the AI, huge respect to the artists” and “So refreshing to see something with soul again.” The outlet closes the piece with an appeal to Coca-Cola: we shall see whether the company pays real animators this year. It should be noted that this assessment is Euronews' editorial position, not a confirmed fact about the brands' intentions.