French supermarket’s veggie wolf Christmas ad goes viral

A still image from Intermarché's 'Conte de Noël' ad is shown.

Paris, France -- A French supermarket has made a strong entry into the competitive field of Christmas advertising with a viral animated clip about a vegetarian wolf that has wracked up tens of millions of views internationally.

The Intermarche production has been praised for its tear-jerking take on friendship and stereotypes, but also for its use of human actors and an animation studio -- instead of artificial intelligence.

Set to the song “Unloved” by French crooner Claude Francois, it recounts the journey of a wolf from feared forest predator to a beloved vegetarian chef who forages mushrooms and berries for an all-creature Christmas dinner.

“I’m genuinely in love with this ad a french one? for a SUPERMARKET?? like woah,” wrote X user @pawcord who posted the full video which has been viewed there more than 26 million times.

Thierry Cotillard, the chairman of Intermarche, celebrated that “our ‘unloved’ wolf is now loved by the entire world” in a post on the LinkedIn social network.

He said it was made over the last year by around 100 people, led by Montpellier-based animation company Illogic Studios, whose short animated film “Garden Party” was nominated for an Oscar in 2018.

Cotillard and the studio confirmed that the Intermarche ad had been produced without artificial intelligence, which is blamed for flooding the internet with quick and cheap “slop” cartoons.

The technology is threatening jobs across the advertising and animation industries.

Many Western retail brands spend a considerable part of their annual marketing budget on Christmas advertisements, seeking to boost sales and their image at a time of peak consumer spending.

But while a brand such as Coca-Cola was long seen as expert in the domain, the exercise can be fraught with danger.

Coca-Cola’s recent efforts have been panned as cheap low-quality animations, while the Dutch branch of McDonald’s withdrew an AI-generated advert from YouTube earlier this month after it was dubbed “creepy” and “depressing” by critics.

Supermarkets have come under fire in the past over their offerings.

In 2012, British retailer Morrisons was accused of encouraging children to feed Christmas desserts to dogs, while Sainsbury’s faced complaints of exploiting emotions over World War I for its 2014 effort.

AFP