Edgar Fires Up Christmas

While America debates Christmas Creep the UK celebrates with early Christmas light displays and an annual contest for the best Christmas commercial. One of the most anticipated ads every year comes from a department store chain called John Lewis, who has a history of schmaltzy yet entertaining commercials.

This year’s video introduces a baby fire-breathing dragon named Edgar who has stirred up lot of attention. Take a look then read what Edgar has accomplished in the past day or two:

There is no such thing as bad publicity, they say. If that’s true, the ad firm behind the creation of Edgar for John Lewis can rest easy. He is certainly getting them plenty of attention.

The commercial tells the story of the seemingly lovable Edgar, a baby fire-breathing dragon who gets so excited at the mere mention of anything holiday related that he blows flames out of his nostrils and ears every time there is a memorable Christmas event in his little village.

This inevitably leads to trouble, of course. In the video, the town Christmas tree falls victim to Edgar’s uncontrollable flame throwing.

But there’s a bigger problem.

Edgar torched a snowman and this has children the UK evidently upset. They can’t help but make the connection to Olaf, the famous snowman from Frozen. They are legitimately upset and John Lewis has had to apologize.

Meanwhile, here in the States, they are making hay of the video in this way:

Politics aside, this is very, very funny.