Wonderful Pistachios and The Grinch Join Forces to Celebrate the Holidays

Oct. 29, 2018

Wonderful Pistachios, America’s fastest-growing snack brand, kicks off the holiday season today with a new integrated campaign featuring Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch. Throughout the multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, the notoriously grumpy, anti-holiday Grinch goes through an emotional roller coaster when he finds himself actually enjoying something during the holidays: Wonderful Pistachios.

The campaign includes two new commercials created by The Wonderful Company’s in-house agency and animated by Illumination. In the first commercial, which begins airing October 29, a frowning Grinch is caught off-guard by how much he enjoys the taste of Wonderful Pistachios. And though he physically forces his face back into a frown, there’s no hiding the power of Wonderful Pistachios to put a smile on even the Grinchiest of faces. The second commercial, on air starting November 26, features the Wonderful Pistachios No Shells brand for the first time on television. In this spot, the Grinch doesn’t steal Christmas as much as he swipes the best part of it: The No Shells pistachios stuffing the stocking of the Whos of Whoville.

To create the custom animation and all other campaign assets for The Grinch’s brand partnerships, Universal collaborates closely with Illumination Labs, Illumination’s internal creative division that has a team of over 150 people who work out of the company’s Santa Monica headquarters and IMG Studio in Paris.

Darren Moran, Chief Creative Officer of Wonderful Agency, says:

“This partnership was a no-brainer. When you put two famously edgy (and green) iconic brands together, the result is going to be fun, attention-getting work that becomes an instant holiday classic.”

 

The campaign will be supported by an online digital campaign and in-store pointof-sale (POS) including bins and standees. To amplify the two green icons’ massive global appeal, China and France will be airing the campaign online. In-store POS will also be on display in both countries as well as in Canada and Mexico.  

Adam Cooper, vice president of marketing, The Wonderful Company, says:

“Wonderful Pistachios is the green icon of healthy snacking, so partnering with The Grinch, the green icon of the holidays, is the perfect opportunity to spread green holiday cheer to moviegoers everywhere."