- Agency: Fallon
- Client: Walmart
- Category: Video Design — E-Commerce & Retail
- Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Project Brief: Create a retail video for Walmart that reimagines A Christmas Carol through theatrical storytelling, self-aware humor, musical sequences, and seasonal retail themes to deliver an entertaining holiday campaign.
Retail brands can join a beloved holiday story without spoiling it when they poke fun at their own presence. Walmart worked with Fallon on Walmart Presents: A Who Knew Carol, a short film that turns A Christmas Carol into a self-aware, modern retelling.
The script openly admits how odd it is for Walmart to show up in Scrooge’s Victorian world, and characters even point out they “weren’t in the original.” That wink to the audience turns any doubts about branded content into part of the joke.
A theatrical, Dickensian setting pairs with polished, high-end production, so the classic mood holds while the humor stays current. Rhythmic musical numbers keep the energy up and let the shopping theme slip in lightly.
Rapid-fire dialogue packs the familiar tale into 2 minutes and 19 seconds, moving from a cold wind sweeping through town to the reveal of a set of new ghosts. Gift-giving and seasonal shopping appear as playful twists along Scrooge’s arc, giving the short a clear beginning, middle, and end.
