For some time now, Christmas commercials haven’t amazed us the way they once did. A few years ago, we eagerly awaited major brands like Sainsbury’s, McDonald’s, Disney, John Lewis, and Coca-Cola to share their vision of Christmas and use their commercials to tell us a story. It seems this tradition has gone out of fashion: moving the viewer no longer appears to be the goal, and the challenge of commercials now seems to be between those who use AI and those who don’t.
But sometimes the unexpected happens.
For a few weeks now, in fact, there’s been a Christmas commercial that’s been going around the world for its originality, the story it tells, and the way it was made. Don’t think this ad comes from a big multinational: the company behind it is Intermarché, a supermarket chain operating in France and Belgium, and it has surprised everyone with a wolf that becomes vegetarian.

Unloved is the title of the roughly two-and-a-half-minute video, which opens with an uncle giving his nephew a wolf plush toy. The child, however, is frightened because wolves scare him. At this point, the uncle begins telling the child a story, and an animated tale comes to life, one that looks as though it were painted in watercolor.

The story tells of a wolf who suffers a bit from loneliness. When he talks about it with a hedgehog, the wolf says it’s not his fault if he’s a carnivore and if his nature is to eat other animals. The hedgehog replies that there are hundreds of other foods he can eat. The wolf then begins experimenting in the kitchen with mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables.

We don’t want to spoil the ending, because it really deserves to be watched. But Intermarché’s case is emblematic and shows that we still need (or want) well-made Christmas commercials, where “well made” means the right balance of emotion, storytelling, creativity, and technique.

In this case, the credit goes to the creative agency Romance, which for a few days now has been delighting its followers with making-of videos of the Christmas commercial, and to Illogic Studios, which played with 3D to create an atmosphere that feels like it came straight out of an illustrated Christmas card—something we’ve missed a bit.

As they say in France, all that’s left is to say to Intermarché: Bravo!