At the start of a new short film, a young boy is gifted a present of a stuffed wolf at a family dinner—an animal he’s afraid of. We’re soon transported to a forest, where we witness a wily tale of compassion and friendship. The film has gone viral since it was released in early December, but this animated gem wasn’t created by Disney or Pixar—it’s a grocery store ad. And it’s shed some unexpectedly bright light on both the joys of the holiday season and the inimitable warmth of human-made film.
French supermarket chain Intermarché launched its advertisement titled “Le mal aimé,” or “Unloved,” during a season in which Coca-Cola’s annual ad was made with generative AI and news of Disney’s licensing agreement with OpenAI means that more than 200 of the media conglomerate’s characters can be used in the generative AI app Sora.
“Unloved,” which is set to a 1970s French hit song by Claude François titled “Le mal aimé,” quickly went viral online with hundreds of millions of views outside of France. The project was produced by an advertising agency called Romance, and the two-and-a-half-minute project took a team of 80 people about a year to create.
The commercial’s painterly scenes and expressive characters meet an emphasis on creativity, humor, generosity, and glee. Indeed, the protagonist—a lone wolf—learns that through making something with his own hands, requiring lots of practice, he can cook the magic ingredient to help him connect with others.
For more handmade cinematic advertising, you might also enjoy Apple’s refreshingly analog holiday ad this year.
