For Father’s Day, Chinese automaker Geely, parent company of Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr, and Lotus, dropped this amazingly bad AI advertisement on social media, that has to be seen to be believed.

The ad, which is posted below (it has apparently been removed from Instagram where we first encountered it), ostensibly promotes Geely’s Emgrand sedan, begins with the first generation of the vehicle, which made its debut in 2009. It apparently shows a father and his young son taking a road trip, complete with cute inserts of the son acting as the co-pilot, the father showing an older version of the son how to fix a flat tire, and by the end, the son taking over for his now elderly dad. The intention of the advertisement is apparently to show both the father and son and the Emgrand growing up together, which is admittedly a sweet thought, but the ham-handed AI execution has so many confusing, creepy, and downright hilarious elements to it. Let’s dig in:

For starters, why cast a Caucasian/American father and son? The Geely Emgrand has never been sold in the United States or even close to North America (although the first generation Emgrand was apparently developed to be sold in the UK). While there are American expats living in China and other markets where the Emgrand is sold, in one of the first scenes, the navigation screen responds with “Keep Right to I-5 North,” which refers to Interstate 5, which runs north and south through Washington, Oregon. and California.

Even stranger (or maybe not) are the intermittently Chinese-accented voices that go along with these clearly AI-animated characters. And then there's the quality of the AI itself. Every week seems to bring an incredible breakthrough in the quality of AI-generated photos and video, so why does this Geely execution look so ... three-years ago, from the very earliest days of AI?

And then of course, there are the narrative details. What's the card thingy hanging from the rear-view mirror? Why does wheel get wider when then the tire blows out? How did the AI manage to absolutely nail the look of my local regional medical center? And is the rusty wrench in the last generation Emgrand symbolic of the aging father? Lastly, Dad sure did age a lot in, what, 16 years (2009-2025)? So many questions.

While the execution is hilariously cringe, the story is sweet, and we give credit to Geely for attempting to honor Dads everywhere. Next time, consider working through a few more rounds of prompts with ChatGPT DeepSeek. Happy Father's Day!