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Posted by gbugniot 12/11/2025

French supermarket's Christmas advert is worldwide hit (without AI) [video](www.youtube.com)
499 points | 302 commentspage 4
bilekas 12/12/2025|
It's so blatantly obvious there is no AI involved here as you can feel the animation. The sentiment behind everything hits so different to AI. I feel that's what AI sycophants seem to always miss.

I really believe AI will never match the real feeling from created art, but I also don't know why we NEED/WANT it to. It's not a race to the bottom. But AI usage will increase until shareholder value increases.

rjh29 12/12/2025|
People who make and enjoy AI art obviously engage with art in a completely different way. To me and many others, it's so instantly offputting and repulsive.
fleroviumna 12/12/2025||
[dead]
throw7 12/11/2025||
Ah yes. The christmas ad that has nothing to do with christmas. There's also a fish dish the wolf makes... great attention to detail there.
nw05678 12/11/2025||
The family were sitting around the table eating dinner while the kids was getting a story read to him about the present he just received. Nothing Christmasy about that at all.
opminion 12/11/2025|||
It is all about Christmas and New Year: cooking good healthy food for the extended family, and new year's resolutions.
mytailorisrich 12/11/2025||
The ad illustrates the Christmas spirit and fish is a Christian religious symbol and actually traditional at Christmas in some countries and areas. I don't know if they did it on purpose in this ad or just because it would obviously not have worked for the wolf to bring a meat dish.
tejohnso 12/11/2025||
I was confused because one of the characters tells the wolf he might have more friends if he didn't go around killing animals all the time. Then the wolf starts making vegetarian dishes, and I thought, okay, they're promoting vegetarianism. Great. But then later the wolf is killing fish, and that's ...okay I guess because they don't talk or walk like the other animals? The speciesism hit hard.
mytailorisrich 12/11/2025||
"Fish meat is practically a vegetable" --Ron Swanson
epolanski 12/11/2025||
The video itself might not be generated, but who knows about the script (quite generic Christmas Carol, Shrek, Wolf trope), the character design, the models, the animations, etc?

edit: getting downvoted to hell, but I think my question is valid. What does it mean "no AI"? Are we just limiting ourselves to the render?

JumpCrisscross 12/12/2025|
> What does it mean "no AI"?

It means no AI. If I say you used no AI but had an LLM write or refine the script, I would have lied.

You may be getting downvoted because your comment's tone can read as accusatively presumptive. "Who knows" isn't a useful contribution to almost any discussion. Which is a shame, because you raise an interesting point–I would personally feel fine saying no AI was used to do work even if I used AI to help me with research. (Provided I read all the primary sources.)

throw310822 12/12/2025||
I think he's right. We have no idea if AI contributed to the ad in any way, so "no AI" in this context only means "not AI-rendered". The entire script might have been written by an LLM (which is perfectly fine by me).

On the other hand, the McDonald's ad is obviously AI-rendered, but all the concepts and prompts and choices might have been made by humans? Which doesn't make it any better (although it's not that bad, it's just average).

binary132 12/11/2025||
As a wolf, I find this advertisement very offensive to carnitarians. Prey animals were clearly made for our use and enjoyment, and the idea of some sort of multi-special gathering, finding a least common denominator in the predation of pescids (simply absurd for a canid), is insulting to our way of life and frankly racist.
brohee 12/11/2025|
Actually, some wolves are mostly pescetarian https://www.dangerrangerbear.com/the-sea-wolf/ ;)
binary132 12/11/2025||
Whoa! 7.5 miles is a long swim. Thanks for the interesting article. Just so you know, that article says “During the salmon and herring spawning seasons, nearly one-quarter of this coastal wolf’s diet is fish” so I don’t think it supports your claim, exactly.
Dilettante_ 12/11/2025||
Major pet peeve of mine is when people unironically spread literal advertisements, whether it's because they're "cute" or people are outraged at them or whatever it may be.

The ad is doing it on purpose. It is literally manipulating you and you are spreading the malicious influence to other people. It's not AI but it sure is 'slop'. Propaganda, even.

...slopagada

sokoloff 12/11/2025||
It's an ad by a grocery store advocating healthy eating and inclusion.

I think people will make reasonable decisions about whether or not to purchase food this winter with or without the "malicious influence" of these ads.

mytailorisrich 12/11/2025|||
The irony is that Christmas is the time for unhealthy eating but is it still allowed to show in ads?

Personally I interpreted the fish as either a timely Christian symbol (and fish at Christmas is traditional in some places) or simply because a meat dish would not have worked in context.

account42 12/15/2025|||
I want my grocery store to sell me the things I want to eat. The grocery store trying to manipulate me into a different lifestyle is highly dystopian.
stfp 12/11/2025|||
True the vast majority of the time. This ad though doesn’t promote anything malicious. It’s a cute story with the message “eat healthy stuff like vegetables and fish”, with a brand name/ logo at the very end.
Dilettante_ 12/11/2025||
You think the company went "ah forget about profit, we'll spend our money for the good of the people"?

The company is virtue signaling, pandering, and you're falling for it. Jesus Christ.

seszett 12/11/2025|||
> The company is virtue signaling

It is true!

And as a (very occasional) customer, I like that this company is signalling that it does not oppose inclusion and doesn't mind questioning "traditional values" (the wolf eating animals).

Many actors these days (both companies and political figures) are very much signalling the contrary, so some kind of signalling is absolutely useful.

pyrale 12/11/2025||||
> The company is virtue signaling

Is that the way people say "advertising" these days?

pcrh 12/11/2025|||
Bah! Humbug!
Dilettante_ 12/11/2025||
"You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss."

Enjoy your simulated steak.

Peritract 12/12/2025||
The supermarket does sell actual food here. That is a thing that they do.
forinti 12/11/2025|||
This time of year, cinemas show Christmas commercials, such as this one, but two or three in a row.

It becomes funny how hard they try to move us. And in the end it's just for a supermarket.

RHSeeger 12/11/2025|||
It is possible to have art and artist be separate things; to acknowledge that that reason a thing was created and/or who it was created by can be looked at separately from the thing itself. This commercial was fun to watch. The Budweiser horse commercials are also fun to watch. But enjoying them has very little to do with a choice to support the creator.
umanwizard 12/11/2025||
The "malicious influence" being (checks notes) spreading propaganda in favor of pescatarianism and healthy natural eating?
nine_k 12/11/2025||
The best ad for diversity and inclusion I've seen so far.
throwfaraway135 12/11/2025||
It is a wholesome ad, but as I don't care that my shoes are handmade, I also don't care if the supermarket ad is without AI.
umanwizard 12/11/2025||
There are people who do care about both. Does that bother you?
throwfaraway135 12/11/2025||
I'm ok with people caring about whatever they want. What I dislike is people trying to create artificial groups. Like "pro AI" and "anti AI" then try to sell them shit because now this is part of their tribe.
kakacik 12/11/2025||
You can also just skip advertising to whole world about what you dislike, and your projected dislikes of whatever else you need to comment on, unrelated to original topic of a simple ad for enjoying Christmas with others regardless of your origins while eating well. Nobody here is doing anything you complain about.

People really don't care that much, especially when for something positive, original and funny somebody grumpy comes along and tries to drag discussion down their misery pit.

throwfaraway135 12/12/2025||
As someone who wrote two paragraphs about why they dislike my comment, I don't think you see the irony here. Also speaking about enjoying Christmas then doing an ad hominem in the next sentence, very nice mental gymnastics.
kakacik 12/12/2025||
Snarky comments won't get you far in life... ever thought about directing that negativity into something simply better, ie creative?
throwfaraway135 12/13/2025||
ad hominem -> ok

snarky comments -> not ok

got it, ever thought about going into politics?

mfcl 12/12/2025|||
There was controversy because of a Mcdonald's AI ad recently so I think they say that as a little wink.
conartist6 12/11/2025||
You will when all the artists starve.
ars 12/12/2025||
The artists will use AI. Artists have always used new media when it became available, AI will not change that.
conartist6 12/12/2025||
I don't think so. Not the ones that will matter at least. Anything that looks or feels even a little bit like AI goes on the dung heap now, even if it was just made by a human that spends so much of their time working with LLMs that they have completely regressed to the mean
profsummergig 12/11/2025|
700,000 thousand views in 5 days.

"worldwide hit"

Please make white peoples'* astroturfing great again.

* I include Ashkenazi Jews in this category, in case anyone cares.

frm88 12/12/2025|
23Million on twitter. Link in one of the parent comments.