Levi's Bans AI From Holiday Spot, Reviving 1995 Claymation Legacy

Levi's shot its new holiday commercial entirely in stop-motion claymation, with four hours of filming required for every second of animation and no AI used anywhere in the process, the brand said in a Nov. 2 press release. The 60-second spot, "Let's Get Fuzzy," launched two days after Halloween across digital, social and retail channels.

The campaign deliberately revives a 30-year-old piece of the brand's history. "Let's Get Fuzzy" calls back to "Clayman," Levi's 1995 ad that was the brand's first global commercial and the first full-length spot shot completely in claymation.

What happens in the spot?

The film opens on a remote cabin in a snow-covered wilderness where friends hold a holiday gathering. A ferocious yeti named Gus tries to break in, then crashes through a wall. One character throws a red sweater at the yeti in apparent self defense. The sweater fits perfectly, halting the rampage, and Gus joins the party as a welcomed guest.

The outfits shown in the ad are hand-sculpted versions of pieces from the brand's holiday collection. That collection is available on the Levi's website and app, and at select retail locations. The soundtrack and framing lean into spooky-season aesthetics akin to cult classics like "Dead Snow," rather than pure holiday cheer.

Why claymation, and why now?

Claymation is considered incredibly labor intensive, and that is the point. Levi's is positioning handcrafted work as an antidote to consumer fatigue with generative AI in advertising (software that creates text, images or video from prompts).

The fatigue is measurable. A 2024 study by NielsenIQ found consumers routinely describe AI creative as "annoying," "boring" and often "confusing." A 2026 Gartner study found half of consumers prefer brands that avoid generative AI in advertising and other forward-facing messaging.

Kenny Mitchell, global chief marketing officer at Levi's, framed the effort as both craft and strategy. "Our Levi's Let's Get Fuzzy campaign was an opportunity to experiment with immersive and tactile world-building," Mitchell said in a statement. "Anchored by a film created entirely with stop-motion claymation, it's also the celebration of the craft and human creativity synonymous with the Levi's brand."

Marketers have adopted generative AI to cut costs and speed turnaround. The Levi's bet is that the majority of consumers, tired of AI-generated content, will reward the opposite trade-off: slower, costlier, human-made work.

Who else is going handmade?

Levi's is not alone this season. E.l.f. and Prada also launched handmade holiday campaigns. Walmart and Target both launched their holiday campaigns before Halloween, as the shopping window keeps starting earlier while consumers hunt for value under budgetary pressure.

The campaign also lands at a sensitive moment for the parent company. Levi Strauss & Co. reported third-quarter revenue of $1.6 billion, a 4% year-over-year increase. CEO, president and director Michelle Gass said on an earnings call that the year has seen fewer brand-building moments, and that the back-to-school campaign did not generate the anticipated demand and traffic. The company plans to deepen marketing investments and focus more on mid-funnel marketing (activity that moves considered shoppers toward purchase).

"Let's Get Fuzzy" is the first test of whether handmade spectacle can deliver the brand-building impact that Levi's says its earlier 2024 campaigns lacked.