Will Ferrell stars as Buddy the Elf in Asda’s Christmas advert | Ents & Arts News
It was once again that time of year, and when the Christmas commercials rolled in, Asda brought in a big Hollywood star for their festival.
Using classic footage from the 2003 film, Will Ferrell plays Buddy the Elf, making a test date in the store in the near future. Christmas.
With plenty of nods to the original film, the 90-second trailer shows Buddy dodging trolley disaster, pigs gorging on blankets and singing over the store’s tannoy system.
Despite decorating the supermarket with pretty bright lights, renaming his checkout counter “elf-checkout” and falling into a Christmas tree, Buddy still got the job.
The ad ends with the tagline, “Merry Christmas to your Elf.”
If you’re wondering, Farrell didn’t actually go around the store in real life – instead, a process called rotoscoping was used to take Buddy out of the original movie and put him in new scenes. spin in the supermarket.
The ad was made by award-winning director Danny Kleinman, who has designed every title sequence for the James Bond films since 1995’s GoldenEye, with the exception of Quantum of Solace.
He also directed music videos for stars including Madonna, Fleetwood Mac and Adam Ant.
Asda’s ad premiered on Friday, November 4th at 8:45pm on ITV in Coronation Street and has gone live online.
Lidl will also be releasing their Christmas ad around the same time, featuring an elderly teddy bear who is unlikely to become a global celebrity.
Happily, the supermarket won’t be selling the Lidl Bear in their store, instead using it as inspiration for their Christmas charity – Lidl Bear’s Toy Bank – encouraging customers to donate Unpackaged toys and games will be donated to children across the UK through the Neighbors community network.
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Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s will also squeeze into the same spot on Coronation Street, with This Morning host Alison Hammond playing a medieval countess who doesn’t like Christmas pudding.
And M&S reunited comedians Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, playing Fairy and her new best friend Duckie in their commercial, which reimagined the fairy atop the Christmas tree.
The long-awaited John Lewis Christmas commercial – which has become a national obsession in recent years – is expected to launch next week, though an official date has yet to be announced. .