Christmas is a time for fantasy and family experiences — which, in the logic of commercial filmmaking, often means animation.
So it’s no surprise that cg characters are increasingly common in festive ads. But it’s only recently that we’ve noticed just how prevalent they are in supermarket commercials, which are telling ever more elaborate, fanciful stories come Christmas. In some cases, a toy or brand mascot comes alive as a cg element in a live-action environment. In others, the whole ad is animated.
We are showcasing five supermarket ads from this season below. Warning: extreme whimsy ahead. Characters include Ebanana Scrooge, a fruit-shaped cousin of Dickens’s antihero; Robin, the WALL-E-like Christmas drone; and Percy Pig, the candy mascot of British retailer Marks & Spencer, which the ad’s producers optimistically describe as “the nation’s favorite pig” (have they heard of Peppa?).
