Nothing says mid-November like the rolling out of Christmas decorations at the supermarket.

We are only about two weeks away from the moment that they start playing the carols, and then it really is all systems go.

You can also tell it’s Christmas when the UK’s big supermarket chains start airing the heartstring-tugging adverts. This year, though, you won’t see the Iceland advert on television, but you will see it everywhere on social media.

The rather confusingly named UK supermarket chain has been prevented from airing the advert on TV, “because the body responsible for clearing ads on behalf of the four major broadcasters, Clearcast, would not approve the ad for broadcast”.

Essentially, Rang-tan, a cute baby orangutan, didn’t make it to TV because political ads are not allowed on British screens, and there are strict rules around broadcasting anything that potentially has a political nature.

No worries, though – thanks to celebrities like James Corden, whose tweet of the video has now been viewed close to 16 million times, it’s spread across social media at a rate of knots.

Meet Rang-tan:

Here’s Forbes:

The Rang-tan animation was indeed originally created by Greenpeace and released earlier this year in August alongside a petition to challenge large global corporations like Nestlé and Unilever to stop using palm oil in their products. In true sustainable fashion, Iceland is repurposing this Greenpeace animation as their Christmas ad.

Yup, the advert sure does do its utmost to hit people right in the feels, as the kids say, and it’s always nice when your company saves on ad spend and lets social media do the hard yards.

Even if experts have been quick to point out a few of the ad’s shortcomings, drawing attention to rampant deforestation is never a bad thing.

[source:forbes]