Image taken from the Intermarché Christmas commercial. ILLOGIC STUDIOS/AGENCE ROMANCE
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 Intermarché 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 "Le Mal-Aimé," by French crooner Claude François, 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 Intermarché, 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.
