Prada Turns to Hand-Drawn Animation for 2026 Holiday Campaign Starring Sadie Sink and Maya Hawke

As artificial intelligence spreads across the advertising world, Prada has gone the other way. The Italian fashion house unveiled its 2026 holiday campaign on Wednesday night, and the project, built on traditional pencil-and-paper animation, has been widely praised online. Such methods can carry higher production costs, but the response suggests the investment is paying off.

Titled "Drawing Prada: Animated by Hand," the campaign brings in veteran Disney animator John Pomeroy to create a hand-drawn winter wonderland. The cast includes Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Chen Haoyu and Luther Ford.

The campaign was conceived under creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons. It blends live-action photography with traditional animation, placing the actors beside illustrated woodland creatures in a series of whimsical holiday scenes. In one image, Sink comes across a group of mice trying to carry away a polka-dot Prada loafer. Another shows Hawke with an animated fox in a snowy forest.

Pomeroy's decades-long career includes work on Disney's "Pocahontas," "Fantasia 2000" and "The Land Before Time." He led a team of artists who used traditional hand-drawing techniques to produce the animated characters and landscapes. Photographer Glen Luchford shot the actors, using lighting and perspectives meant to match the illustrated settings.

In a behind-the-scenes video released by Prada, Pomeroy explained the thinking behind the approach. "There's a very distinct and purposeful reason to do hand-drawn animation, and that's to see that there's value in the human touch," he said. "And that hand-drawn and handcrafted work is still alive in the world today."

The release comes as the fashion and advertising industries keep experimenting with generative AI, prompting questions about the future of traditional creative work. A 2026 report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that nearly two-thirds of digital video ad buyers now use generative AI in creative production, up from roughly half in 2025. Coca-Cola, meanwhile, has faced backlash over its AI-generated holiday commercials, which it produced in both 2024 and 2025.

The campaign also continues Prada's long-running relationship with cinema. Last year's holiday effort, "A Winter's Tale," likewise featured Hawke in a cinematic winter setting photographed by Luchford. This year's installment, however, swaps the more conventional live-action look for an illustrated fantasy.

The campaign's still images, short films and behind-the-scenes footage can be viewed on Prada's website.