These days, The Grinch is everywhere. Not only on the silver screen (the animation film was launched in theaters earlier this month, on November 9), but also on the small one, in several ads. After 23andMe, IHOP, Honda, and Xfinity – to name a few, Wonderful Pistachios has joined the brands that promote the movie by releasing a commercial featuring the fictional character created by Dr. Seuss.
The 15-second animated spot, titled “Full of Nuts,” opens with a nice corner of a room, with an adorned Christmas tree and gift boxes under it, a fireplace with crackling fire, which creates a warm, cozy atmosphere, and several stockings filled with pistachios from Wonderful Pistachios. At some point, though, a green hand makes a stocking loosen and eats the pistachios that fall from it right into his mouth. To no one’s surprise, it turns out it is The Grinch the thief who’s indulging himself with someone else’s treat. “Delicious,” he mumbles while crunching the pistachios.
The commercial ends with the voiceover urging you to “Fill your snack face with good cheer and great nuts” and with the onscreen line “Put a smile on your snackface,” which turns into “Put a smile on your Grinchface”. The Grinch movie also appears at the end of the spot.
In the past weeks, several other brands have featured The Grinch in their advertising campaigns, encouraging viewers to watch the movie in theaters. Xfinity advertises its home security and home automation service in a new commercial, that shows The Grinch dressed as Santa, trying to break in someone’s home, together with his trusted canine, Max, to steal the presents. His plan is thwarted, though, by the security system in place. Honda also promoted The Grinch in a commercial advertising the automaker’s Happy Honda Days Sales Event. The Grinch takes over a Honda dealership and turns the sales event into “Unhappy Honda Days Sales Event” by making sure there are “no decorations, no deals and no donuts, no surprisingly comfortable chairs, no discounts, no firm handshakes, no exciting test drives, and no cars”. Personal genomics and biotechnology company 23andMe, based in Mountain View, California, featured The Grinch discovering his DNA story in a commercial that encourages people to give the gift of a DNA kit from 23andme.com this holiday season. IHOP has also celebrated The Grinch movie with a new Grinch-inspired menu, which includes all-new Grinch green pancakes with cream cheese icing and a new mint hot chocolate with green whipped topping.
Based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”, The Grinch, also known as Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, was directed by Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier and features the voices of Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson, Cameron Seely and Angela Lansbury. According to the official synopsis, The Grinch hatches a scheme with his trusted canine Max to ruin Christmas when the residents of Whoville plan to make their annual holiday three times bigger that year. Meanwhile, Cindy Lou Who plans to seek out Santa Claus to thank him for helping her widowed mother every Christmas, but little does she know she is trying to blow the Grinch’s cover.
Originally scheduled for release on November 10, 2017, the movie had its premiere on November 9, 2018.