That’s Why Elsa Goes to Iceland

It’s November 1st and festive advertising is already upon us like a blizzard. UK frozen foods retailer Iceland has released its Christmas outing, with a surprising team up with Elsa, Anna, Olaf and the cast of Frozen2.

The ad sees the popular Disney characters playing charades before sharing Christmas dinner in a tie-in that allows the retailer to ride the rising exciting around the sequel to Frozen. The original film, which opened in 2013, netted $1,274,219,009 in worldwide box office and triggered a global phenomenon. The sequel is due to be released on November 22nd.

In the spot, a family sits down to play charades before being transformed into the animated cast of Frozen 2. Elsa whips up a dining room set made of ice before everyone tucks in to Christmas dinner. The campaign is being promoted with the hashtag #MagicOfFrozen.

The campaign is a collaboration with the Walt Disney Company’s in-house creative agency, with involvement from media agency the7stars.

Last year’s Christmas effort from the brand managed to dominate much of the public conversation around the festive ad season. The spot, a repurposed animation originally created for Greenpeace by Mother and Passion Pictures, was used to promote Iceland’s range of palm oil-free products. However questions around possible political implications and triggered a huge PR story claiming that the ad had been ‘banned’ for being ‘too political’. In the end the spot was shared by celebrities including James Corden and clocked up over six million views on YouTube.