The supermarket’s Christmas hero will cost 19.90 euros, and its president already fears running out, a sentence last heard from a baker in 1789
Intermarche, the French supermarket chain owned by Les Mousquetaires, will sell 700,000 plush versions of the vegetarian wolf from its 2025 Christmas advert, reports The Local France. Group president Thierry Cotillard announced the toys will go on sale at the end of November. The wolf, a feared forest predator who turns chef and cooks a meat-free feast for the other animals, has therefore completed the most French career move in history: from carnivore to vegetarian to merchandise.
The Wolf Who Became a Product Line
The advert, set to Claude Francois’s song ‘Unloved’, went viral at home and abroad, creating a demand that Intermarche could not meet before Christmas last year. Counterfeit toys then appeared online, which means there are now people in the world who have bought a fake vegetarian wolf. The genuine one costs 18.90 euros, plus a one-euro donation to a cancer charity, for a total of 19.90 euros. The counterfeit one comes with no donation and, presumably, a guilty look.
Two French small and medium-sized businesses make the toys, although an Asian subcontractor supplies some materials. The supermarket confirms that the wolf himself would be proud of the supply chain, as long as nobody asks where the stuffing grew up.
‘I’m Afraid We’ll Run Out’
Cotillard told RTL: ‘We would have liked to produce millions, but the production capacity wasn’t there.’ He added: ‘I’m afraid we’ll run out.’ Retail analysts note that no supermarket president has expressed fear of running out of anything since the great butter crisis of the last decade, and that this is the correct emotional register for a plush animal.
‘A plush toy is the only product where scarcity is deliberately designed as an act of love,’ says Professor Mathilde Vergnaud-Roche of the Centre for Cuddly Economics. ‘Seven hundred thousand sounds like a lot until you consider that every French grandmother has already written the date in her diary.’
Four Things a Vegetarian Wolf Teaches Us
First, predators can change. Second, a wolf with a spatula is more frightening than a wolf with teeth. Third, a supermarket can sell a feeling for 19.90 euros. Fourth, someone in the Intermarche marketing department has a very good pension.
The British Plush Economy
Britain already knows this territory. London has seen the rise of soft toys with emotional authority and a wider theory of soft power in plush form, where a stuffed rabbit wields more influence than most junior ministers. Supermarkets across the Channel have meanwhile launched campaigns like Jab-uary, proof that a retail chain can sell anything provided the packaging is warm.
Intermarche’s October campaign has reportedly divided viewers, with some praising its message and others calling it overly sentimental. The wolf, naturally, has no comment, and is expected to remain silent until a licensing deal arrives. Readers wishing to study how a joke becomes a market can consult this history of London comedy. More from the world of shopping at Newsthump, and this story is presented by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
SOURCE: bohiney.com
