Dior’s “Night in Color” ad faces a generative AI dispute

Several days after Dior’s holiday film “Night in Color” drew accusations of generative AI, the brand had not answered media inquiries about the production. Creative director Jonathan Anderson told WWD: “The film we’ve created together for Dior is all hand-drawn using techniques that go back to the 1940s.”

The Chomet-directed film presents talking animals in Paris and draws inspiration from the friendship between Monsieur Dior and Marlene Dietrich. Robert Pattinson and Rihanna provide voices for the project.

Dior also published a behind-the-scenes video that showed only sketches and emphasized the house’s artisanal values. The end credits list a small group of animators and do not mention AI.

Media outlets including The Business of Fashion and Cartoon Brew sought comment, as did Fast Company through LVMH’s press department, without receiving a response. Fast Company said it would update its story if LVMH replied.

Online observers separately flagged warped lettering, a lazy eye and a misplaced finger bone as possible signs of generative assistance. Those visual observations do not establish how much AI the production used.

The competing production accounts

Ben Wild, cofounder and CEO of a film studio serving Netflix, HBO, Disney and Gucci, supplied the contrary account. He said two people who said they worked on the film contacted him after he posted on Instagram. According to Wild, “the crew were tasked with creating something as they heard Prada was working with an animation legend.”

He characterized the schedule as a rush job and said his sources found that AI generated most motion and character movement. They also claimed Dior used AI to create the furniture and bee characters entirely, and fed other artists’ work into the system as direct reference.

Wild further alleged that the behind-the-scenes film was staged with animators hired to appear and that Chomet released an anti-AI manifesto on the launch day to conceal generative production. Dior has not confirmed those allegations, and Wild’s account includes no independent forensic audit. Wild also argued that the dispute marks an AI bubble collapsing.

AI’s role in traditional animation

AI can fill the gaps between hand-drawn key frames. High-speed scenes may require 24 drawings per second on “ones”; dialogue commonly uses 12 on “twos”; slow camera movement can use eight or fewer on “threes.” Studio Ghibli has banned AI, while Disney and Toei have expressed interest in AI-assisted in-betweening.

Animaj, the company behind Pocoyo, presents the technology as a way to remove tedious work and claims a roughly 67% productivity gain. That figure represents the company’s own claim, not an independent benchmark for luxury advertising. Supporters of the process generally justify it through shorter production times and lower costs.

Why brands are returning to handmade production

Handmade presentation has become a visible counterpoint to low-quality generative output, turning nostalgia and artisanal values into luxury goods. In 2025, Porsche combined traditional hand-drawn animation with 3D animation in a holiday ad.

In August 2026, Apple released a stop-motion Mac mini ad in which artists moved objects and clay a few millimeters at a time and photographed each step, producing thousands of frames for a few seconds of animation. Apple also released a stop-motion Apple Games ad one month before publication and replaced traditional computer design with 100% practical effects for the Apple TV and Apple Music logos.

Prada’s hand-drawn holiday ad was directed by John Pomeroy, a former Disney animator whose credits include The Secret of NIMH and All Dogs Go to Heaven. Levi’s deployed stop motion, Starbucks incorporated animated elements and Anthropologie released a handmade film.

Some Reddit users accused Dior of censoring comments that criticized the ad. Commentators predicted that pressure could force Dior to withdraw the film, although no removal had been announced and the campaign had already reached its audience. The claims remain disputed, leaving the campaign materials unable to resolve the production question on their own.

What does this change for advertisers and creators?

The case sets a practical test for advertisers and creators: whether a brand can document how AI-assisted production fits its handcrafted message. Supporters can claim faster production and lower costs, but an undisclosed or unsupported hand-drawn claim carries a credibility risk. Disclosure lets audiences decide whether they want to watch.

Disclosure is the workable standard: creators should identify AI use and avoid misrepresenting the production method. The Dior dispute does not establish that handcrafted campaigns outperform AI-led work or that AI always lowers costs. It does show why disclosure and credible documentation matter when automation supports a campaign sold around human craft.