The opening song from The Muppet Christmas Carol does not need a new punchline to make it recognizable. Kermit, Miss Piggy and the movie’s other familiar characters already bring a particular kind of holiday chaos to a story about a man who has forgotten the point of Christmas. This year, Walmart has found a way to put that old story back on the screen, with Walton Goggins as the latest Ebenezer Scrooge.
In Walmart’s new holiday campaign, A Who Knew Carol, the retailer works with Disney and The Muppets Studio to reimagine the 1992 film through a modern shopping lens. The setting is Victorian London, but the things Scrooge is supposed to discover are gifts, seasonal savings and ways to get an order delivered quickly.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- Why the Muppets still make Christmas feel familiar
- How Scrooge becomes a Walmart shopping guide
- Why the holiday story stretches across channels
- What marketers can learn from the Muppets
Why the Muppets still make Christmas feel familiar
The Muppets have a ready-made advantage as holiday storytellers. The Muppet Christmas Carol combines Charles Dickens’ familiar redemption plot with the characters’ particular mix of sincerity and irreverence. Someone can understand the joke of an impatient Scrooge being haunted without needing to know every character’s name.
That familiarity gives the new spots a shorthand. Goggins steps into Scrooge’s place, while Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rizzo, Pepe and Statler and Waldorf bring their recognizable personalities into the campaign. Stephanie Beatriz plays Scrooge’s niece and also features in Spanish-language material. These are not generic holiday mascots standing beside a sale sign. They are characters with an existing fictional world and a story that can accommodate surprise visitors.
The connection to Walmart’s broader positioning is deliberate. William White, the retailer’s chief marketing officer, compared Scrooge’s change of heart with Walmart’s attempt to change shoppers’ expectations. He called the retailer’s positioning “a reappraisal story for us as well.” Scrooge has to rethink what matters, while the retailer hopes shoppers will reconsider what they can find at Walmart.
That is the cultural bargain of a nostalgia-based ad. Recognizability gets a viewer into the scene quickly, but the creative still has to give them something new. A familiar song and a recognizable cast can establish the mood; the modern retail references are what make this version an advertisement rather than another retelling of the film.
How Scrooge becomes a Walmart shopping guide
The campaign borrows the idea of three visiting spirits and assigns each a practical shopping lesson. One points to gift discovery and Walmart’s broader product selection. Another introduces Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers. A third makes the case for Express Delivery, which Walmart says can be as fast as 30 minutes for eligible orders.
This structure lets each retail message become part of the story instead of a separate promotional announcement. A shopper following Scrooge from one encounter to the next also encounters the retailer’s assortment, prices and convenience proposition. The joke lands precisely because Victorian Scrooge has no reason to understand any of these modern terms.
In the opening film, the team also revisits the musical number “Scrooge,” a key part of the 1992 movie, using period-style sets. Rizzo even comments on the fact that Walmart did not exist during the story’s era. That wink matters: the script acknowledges the mismatch instead of asking the audience to take a product pitch inside a Dickens adaptation literally.
Goggins’ casting gives the campaign a second layer of continuity. He played the Grinch in Walmart’s previous holiday advertising, and now returns as another famously reluctant Christmas character. The two roles are distinct, but the recurring performer helps the seasonal work feel connected rather than entirely reset each year.
Why the holiday story stretches across channels
A holiday commercial has to do more than play once. Walmart’s campaign was developed with Publicis Groupe agencies Fallon, Leo New York, The Community, Digitas and Zenith, with material planned across television, streaming, online video, social platforms, out-of-home placements, audio and creator channels.
The common story gives that distribution a recognizable starting point. A viewer might encounter the longer film on a streaming platform, a shorter reminder of the ghosts while watching a program, and a product-specific message elsewhere. The characters and Scrooge premise identify the campaign even when the available space or viewing time changes.
There is room for individual stars without changing the core idea. Walmart has also signaled further Miss Piggy fashion-focused work, an extension that makes sense for a character already associated with dramatic style. But using multiple familiar faces does not itself prove people will watch, share or shop. Walmart has not reported campaign-specific sales or audience results for the new work.
This approach has a contemporary retail counterpart. Target’s 2026 holiday work puts D’Arcy Carden in a fictional Academy of Giftology, turning gift selection into an episodic comedy. Walmart uses an established film world; Target invents a school. Both approaches treat the holiday shopping dilemma as something a character can explain, rather than asking viewers to pay attention to a list of deals by itself.
What marketers can learn from the Muppets
The most interesting part of the campaign is not simply that a big retailer bought access to recognizable characters. It is how a familiar entertainment story becomes a framework for several different shopping needs.
- Start with a story people already understand. The redemption arc of A Christmas Carol gives the work a beginning, characters and reasons for Scrooge to encounter new information. Walmart can build on that plot instead of explaining the premise from scratch.
- Give the commercial message a role in the plot. The spirits represent gifts, savings and delivery. Each proposition has a reason to appear, which makes the transitions easier to follow than an unrelated sequence of offers.
- Let one idea travel without repeating the same scene everywhere. A long film, shorter spots and character-led extensions can stay recognizable while leaving room for specific products, channels and audiences.
There are limits to the formula. An entertainment license can supply familiarity, but viewers still need to understand what the retailer is offering. A cameo that has no connection to the product may create a moment of recognition without helping anyone decide where to shop.
For Walmart, the creative choice fits the larger Who Knew? premise: the brand wants people to look again at an everyday retailer and discover something they did not expect. Goggins’ Scrooge is being asked to do much the same thing.
That is what makes this adaptation more coherent than a standard celebrity appearance. Its nostalgia is not a separate layer spread over the advertising. The old Christmas story gives the new shopping message a sequence, a voice and a reason to exist.
