French viral vegetarian wolf is finally appearing in toy form
Remember the star of a French supermarket’s Christmas advert last year – a misunderstood wolf who gave up meat, learned to cook and made friends thanks to his vegetarian recipes? Well, he’s back, as a toy.
Thierry Cotillard, president of the Les Mousquetaires retail group, which owns the Intermarché supermarket which produced the advert, has announced that 700,000 plush wolves will go on sale at the end of November.
The original advert, released around Christmas last year to the song Unloved by French singer Claude François, followed the wolf’s transformation from feared forest predator to beloved vegetarian chef. He forages for mushrooms and berries and prepares a meat-free Christmas feast for the other animals.
Here’s the ad with English subtitles:
The advert, made by a French animation studio without the use of AI, went viral in France and abroad, which also left plenty of viewers wanting a wolf toy of their own.
Calls for Intermarché to produce a plush toy quickly flooded in after the advert was released, but the retailer could not produce them in time for Christmas last year. Counterfeit versions even began appearing online.
“We would have liked to produce millions, but the production capacity wasn’t there. There will be 700,000 plush toys, and I’m afraid we’ll run out,” Cotillard told French media RTL on Thursday.
The toys will cost €18.90, with an additional €1 donated to the cancer charity Tout le monde contre le cancer (everyone against cancer) bringing the total to €19.90.
The plush toys are being made by two French small and medium-sized businesses and were “designed and assembled in France”, Cotillard said. Some of the materials could not be supplied by the French companies, however, so they had to use an Asian subcontractor for part of the production.
“The wolf has had a rest, and the plush toys will indeed be there under the Christmas tree,” Cotillard said.
Intermarché has also recently returned to the spotlight with its latest advert, although this time the reaction has been rather less universally positive. The new campaign, released in October, has sparked debate online over its portrayal of family life and consumer habits, with some viewers praising its message while others have criticised it as overly sentimental or out of touch.
