McDonald’s unveils its 2023 Christmas ad with nod to classic festive movie

The season of Christmas ads is officially upon us, with McDonald’s the latest to offer us its festive goods.

The likes of Aldi, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all dropped their seasonal adverts earlier this month, in the run up to John Lewis – which somehow managed to spark bizarre complaints.

Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer issued an apology after criticism over their advert showing burning Christmas party hats in the colours of the Palestinian flag, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, while one major supermarket has decided not to share a Christmas advert at all this year – with good reasoning.

And now, McDonald’s has treated us to a 90-second ad with a nod to a beloved Christmas classic.

Titled ‘Fancy a McDonald’s?’ the clip starts off with an office Christmas party karaoke, when a ‘snowman’ is saved from singing alongside a ‘reindeer’ with a text invite to ditch the party for McDonald’s.

The clip starts off at a fancy dress office party (Picture: McDonald’s UK)

Even Santa follows the crowd (Picture: McDonald’s UK)

As a group of people dressed up in some bizarre costumes make their way to their nearest, they catch the eye of a Santa Clause gifting out presents, who of course runs after them for some fries.

The clip then cuts to a series of cancelled trains, with a family in matching Christmas jumpers rushing to McDonald’s instead, while someone dressed up as a Christmas pudding can’t quite fight their way through the ticket barriers.

Meanwhile, parents patiently trying to make their way through watching a school nativity take the first chance they can to exit and all scatter, with the kids following behind.

The clip features a nativity, which parents and kids are keen to ditch (Picture: McDonald’s)

Fancy A… (Picture: McDonald’s)

In perhaps the most obvious nod to Love Actually, replicating Mark (Andrew Lincoln) and Juliet’s (Keira Knightly) infamous doorstep season where he professes his love over cue cards, one hopeful holds up cards beginning ‘Fancy A…’

As if that moment didn’t make you think of the star-studded Richard Curtis film, the clip is set to Van Halen’s Jump, which devoted fans will remember Hugh Grant jamming along to in 10 Downing Street.

This comes after Curtis admitted he’s ‘uncomfortable’ by the lack of diversity in the Colin Firth-starring film.

There’s a lot of bizarre characters in the final scene, including a dinosaur (Picture: McDonald’s UK)

Hugh Grant bopped along to the same tune (Picture: Universal/Dna/Working Title/Kobal/REX)

‘There are things that you would change, but thank God society is changing,’ Curtis told Diane Sawyer last year, celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the film.

He continued: ‘My film is bound in some moments to feel out of date. The lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid.’ 

‘There is such extraordinary love that goes on every minute in so many ways, all the way around the world, and makes me wish my film was better.

‘It makes me wish I’d made a documentary just to kind of observe it.’ 

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