As part of the MBA DMB blog, my article responds to Emmanuelle Beki’s piece about Intermarché’s Christmas ad without AI. Her article is titled “Publicité sans IA : le succès inattendu de la campagne de Noël d’Intermarché”. In it, Emmanuelle highlights the “no AI” dimension of the campaign as a key factor behind its success. As a fellow MBA DMB student, I share her enthusiasm for this ad. I also believe its impact goes far beyond the technological question.
Why Intermarché’s Christmas ad without AI went viral?
My goal in this article is not to oppose her point of view. I want to deepen the conversation and ask whether the Intermarché Christmas ad is really a manifesto against AI, or above all a lesson in emotional storytelling and brand positioning.
Watch Intermarché’s Christmas ad without AI “Conte de Noël”, the hand-crafted ad starring the misunderstood vegetarian wolf :
1. When “no AI” becomes a marketing argument
In her article, Emmanuelle explains how Intermarché pulls off a masterstroke by going against the “all‑AI” trend with a campaign proudly presented as 100% human. She sees this choice as a strong response to the risk of creative standardisation in advertising. It comes at a time when generative AI is increasingly used to produce campaigns faster and cheaper.
I agree with this reading, but only up to a point. If we focus mainly on the “no AI” label, we can forget what, in my view, truly moves audiences. What matters most is the story itself, the emotions it creates and the cultural context in which the campaign appears. Rather than trying to prove Emmanuelle wrong, I want to widen the lens and look at the ad from another angle.
2. An emotional success
Before viewers think about AI or no AI, they meet a character. He is a lonely wolf, feared because he is a carnivore. To be accepted, he decides to eat only vegetables. The story completely reverses the classic “big bad wolf” role. Here, he becomes fragile, sensitive and almost touching. The message is simple and universal: everyone deserves a place at the table, even those who are usually excluded.
The soundtrack amplifies this emotional impact. The choice of Claude François’ song “Le Mal Aimé” taps into a shared cultural memory. It brings a soft, nostalgic tone that fits the story. After watching the film, most people do not talk about a technological feat. They remember a feeling: a lump in their throat, the urge to rewatch the film or to share the song. For me, that is the real engine of the campaign’s success, and it has little to do with whether AI was used or not.
3. A hand‑crafted production, but a more nuanced story than total Intermarché’s Christmas ad without AI
Emmanuelle rightly stresses the artisanal nature of the project. The studio mobilised a team of animators over many months. They cared about every detail, from the décor to each character’s face. In a world filled with images created in a few seconds, this narrative of “human craft” gives the campaign a powerful and refreshing tone. It restores value to time, expertise and artistic effort.
However, a strict opposition between a 100% AI‑free ad and a 100% AI‑made ad creates a binary view. This binary view does not show how creative production actually works today. In practice, most studios combine different tools and levels of automation with strong human direction. Even when a campaign is presented as “without AI”, some software or pipelines may rely on intelligent features in the background. This reality does not diminish the human work behind the film. It suggests that “no AI” is mainly a symbolic stance, not a fully accurate technical description.
4. A communication masterstroke shaped by its context
Where I fully agree with Emmanuelle is on the importance of timing. Intermarché’s Christmas ad without AI appears exactly when several big brands face criticism for AI‑generated campaigns with awkward visuals, uncanny images or a cold and generic aesthetic. In that context, Intermarché positions itself as the opposite: a warm, hand‑crafted animation clearly linked to human talent. This dynamic is well documented by tech media such as Les Numériques, which analyse how Intermarché’s “no AI” positioning contrasts with McDonald’s and Coca‑Cola’s heavily criticised AI‑generated Christmas ads.
This contrast offers the brand a privileged place in the media conversation. International outlets like France 24 also highlight how the vegetarian wolf and the hand‑crafted animation style helped the ad go viral far beyond France. By highlighting the absence of AI, Intermarché’s Christmas ad without AI speaks to growing fatigue towards “everything AI” and to a desire for more authenticity in communication. At the same time, the brand does not adopt an aggressive anti‑tech message. It simply lets the film and its making‑of send a clear signal: human craft matters. The buzz around the “no AI” label acts as a spark. What keeps the fire going is the emotional and cultural coherence of the campaign.
5. A brand morality rather than an anti‑tech manifesto
The “misunderstood” wolf who becomes vegetarian is not just a creative twist. He reflects the image Intermarché wants to project. The brand presents itself as a supermarket focused on fresh products, local producers and meaningful moments around food. The film shows very few products. Instead, it sells an atmosphere and values: kindness, inclusion and sharing.
On this point, I am fully aligned with Emmanuelle. The ad works because it tells a story that is bigger than the brand itself. Where I nuance her interpretation is in the way we read the “no AI” message. For me, the strength of the campaign is not to prove that advertising does not need AI. It reminds us that technology should never overshadow story, characters and emotion. The real moral, for the brand and for us as future marketers, is that humans must remain at the centre, whatever tools run in the background.
6. Looking ahead: beyond “for or against AI”
When I read Emmanuelle’s article, I see why many people consider this case as a victory of human creation over artificial intelligence. Personally, I prefer to see Intermarché’s Christmas ad without AI as a useful reminder. If AI only serves to mass‑produce interchangeable, soulless content, audiences will reject it. When we use AI earlier in the process, for example to explore visual ideas or test scenarios, it plays a very different role. It can then support human writing, artistic direction and final animation instead of replacing them.
Intermarché’s Christmas ad without AI shows that in 2025, audiences still care deeply about sincere stories, well‑developed characters and a recognisable artistic touch. This, to me, is the real lesson of the campaign. The future of advertising will not be decided between “with AI” and “without AI”. Beyond this single campaign, the same question appears in other parts of the digital ecosystem, as shown in the MBA DMB article on Kolsquare’s study “La Creator Economy en 2026 : un équilibre entre confiance, talent et technologie”. This article explores how creators and brands try to balance human talent and technological tools in the long term. It will depend on the ability of brands and creatives to use technology in ways that serve authentic emotion rather than erase it.