For many people in the UK (myself included), there’s only one Christmas film you need to stick on once Bonfire Night is over and the festive season truly begins – and that’s Elf.
Seriously. Will Ferrell’s cheesy rom-com delighted audiences when it was first made twenty years ago, and has continued to usher in Christmas pretty much every year since.
So when it comes to spreading festive cheer for all to hear, there’s apparently only one person Asda could turn to for this year’s marketing campaign.
That’s right. Literally a few seconds into watching the ad and my jaw dropped as I beheld Will Ferrell in full Elf gear, standing in an Asda of all places and waiting to be shown the ropes by a series of wide-eyed colleagues.
Fascinatingly, it’s not really present-day Ferrell doing the acting: it’s scenes from the original 2003 film Elf, which have been cunningly cut out of the film and inserted into the rest of the Asda Christmas ad – presumably, the actors involved must have been crushed to learn that they would not be meeting real-life Will.
Working closely with Ferrell and Warner Brothers, Asda created a script that worked in iconic lines and scenes from the film, but transported Buddy to a UK supermarket (as opposed to a New York department store) in the run-up to Christmas.
Put on checkout duty, he proceeds to charm old ladies with his smile; put behind the microphone he starts singing. And of course, he manages to decorate the store to the nines once everybody’s gone home – I challenge any Elf fan to spot how many iconic scenes they’ve managed to squeeze in.
It’s worth saying how good the technical wizardry involved in making this ad is. Framestore creative studio, who have worked on films like Harry Potter and Paddington, were brought into make the ad, and they’ve done such a good job touching up the old 2003 footage and splicing it in that Ferrell looks incredibly realistic.
Ferrell apart, there’s nothing too exciting in this festive offering. The whole ad is shot in an Asda store, for god’s sake and whether you enjoy it will likely depend on your view of Elf.
But the sheer audacity involved in bringing this to life has immediately earned my undying respect and raised the Christmas advertising stakes once more: all hail Asda, master of the festive surprise.
