When a Supermarket Ad Becomes a Short Film
What you're about to watch was created to sell groceries. But within seconds, you'll forget that entirely. Originally produced for Intermarché, one of France's largest supermarket chains, this two-minute animated masterpiece follows a lonely wolf whose fearsome reputation has left him completely isolated from the forest community around him. The ad — dubbed into English here with remarkable care — has racked up well over a million views and sparked a wave of emotion across the internet that no marketing department could have planned for.
The Story: A Predator Who Just Wants to Belong
Our wolf lives alone in a gray, gloomy house at the edge of the woods. Every animal he encounters flees in terror. The rabbits scatter. The birds take flight. Even his attempts at a smile send the whole forest into a panic. He is, in every sense, unloved — and he knows it.
The turning point comes when a hedgehog (in a wonderfully absurd moment) suggests he try eating vegetables. The wolf is baffled — "How do you hunt vegetables?" — but something shifts. He plants a garden, learns to cook, and slowly, cautiously, begins to offer food to the neighbors who have always feared him. A quiche here. A warm bowl of soup there. And gradually, the gray fades from his world as color, warmth, and connection take its place.
Notice how the animation tells this transformation visually: at the start of the ad, the wolf's home is cold and colorless. By the end, it's vibrant and full of life. And in a beautiful detail spotted by sharp-eyed viewers, the first animal to approach him isn't even the hedgehog who gave him advice — it's the squirrel he chose not to eat earlier. Trust, it turns out, is built in small moments.
The Song: "Le Mal Aimé" by Claude François
The emotional gut-punch of this ad is inseparable from its music. The original French version uses "Le Mal Aimé" ("The Unloved One") by Claude François, a beloved French pop icon of the 1970s and 80s. Interestingly, the melody itself is based on Daydreamer, a 1973 song by David Cassidy, making this an unexpected trans-Atlantic musical connection.
The lyrics — translated and displayed in this dubbed version — speak of someone desperate to be understood, afraid of being misread their entire life, longing for a single love to make tomorrow worthwhile. Applied to a big bad wolf trying to shed his reputation, the effect is quietly devastating.
The Studio Behind the Magic
The animation was produced by Illogic Studios, working alongside a Parisian studio called Wizz. Viewers have compared the visual style to The Wild Robot and Pixar's golden era, and the comparison is apt — the character animation is fluid, expressive, and full of tiny details that reward close attention. (Watch the tail wag at 1:55. Just watch it.)
Remarkably, French reporters have confirmed that the studio is developing a feature film in this same style, partly off the back of the ad's extraordinary success. A wolf plush toy is also reportedly in the works — and based on the internet's response, there will be no shortage of buyers.
Why This Ad Hits So Hard
In an era of AI-generated commercials and cynical brand content, the Intermarché wolf ad stands apart because it genuinely earns its emotions. It doesn't manipulate — it simply tells a small, honest story about loneliness, reinvention, and the radical act of cooking for someone who used to fear you. The tagline, "We all have reason to eat better," lands with unexpected warmth after everything that came before it.
Even the brand's competitors reportedly congratulated Intermarché. When an ad is this good, there's nothing to spin — only admiration.
This English dub was created by Filip does VA, who also translated the song lyrics so international audiences could feel the full weight of what they were watching. It's a labor of love for a piece of content that clearly inspired one.