Asda has unveiled its 2024 Christmas advert, a pun-filled animated adventure featuring a team of garden gnomes who rise up from the snow to save Christmas. The film, which the retailer says showcases its festive offer, centres on two Asda colleagues, Maggie and Bill, played by actors, who are stranded in a snowstorm and unable to prepare their store for the holiday season.
Bill presses the nose of a garden gnome, which lights up green, sending a signal to hundreds of gnomes across the country. The ceramic heroes answer the call, transforming the store into a Christmas wonderland. The advert is set to the euphoric theme of a beloved 80s TV show, and ends with a rendition of Chris Rea's classic adapted to 'Driving Gnome for Christmas'.
The ad was created over seven months, filmed in the Milton Keynes Asda store and in-studio, using more than 3,000 hours of animated footage. Asda vice president of marketing Adam Zavalis said the firm looked into its history and found gnomes had been a big seller, with 100,000 sold over four years and a cult community on Facebook. He said: 'We then thought we could turn it into something by bringing in new characters, such as Gnicky the fashionista to tell very much an Asda story.'
Five hero gnomes – Max, Gnibbles, Gnorma, Gnicky and Gnarla – take centre stage, each with unique skills: Max is a reckless adventurer, Gnicky a drag artist and fashionista, Gnibbles a gourmet chef, Gnarla a surfer-gnome, and Gnorma a perfectionist party planner. Alongside these characters, Asda's festive range includes over 540 products, such as award-winning mince pies at £2.50, a George ombre sequin dress at £32, and party penguin bao buns at £3.50.
Customers can buy the five main gnome characters in store from November 7 for £7 each. David Hills, Asda's chief customer officer, said: 'The choice of gnomes shows that we don't take ourselves too seriously - we take the business of fun very seriously.' The advert premieres across Asda's social channels today before airing on ITV on Wednesday.
