McDonald’s global Christmas ad to star The Grinch

The global McDonald’s 2025 Christmas ad is set to star The Grinch, Campaign has learned.

This will mean the Dr Seuss character will have a double bill this festive season, as supermarket Asda is also using the star of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Campaign understands the character will appear in a global campaign for the fast-food restaurant, created by Leo UK.

The Grinch, who is famous for his hatred of "the most wonderful time of the year", was played by Jim Carrey in the 2000 film adaptation.

This won’t be the first time McDonald’s has put the grumpy green creature front and centre of its advertising, as the brand has used him as the face of its festive menu and Happy Meals in previous global campaigns. 

McDonald’s and Leo UK declined to comment. 

Leo UK has previously released festive spots, including “Fancy a McDonald’s Christmas?”, which brought back the brand’s “Raise your arches” concept, and “The alternative Christmas list", which depicted a young boy carefully curating what he wanted on the big day.

Last year, McDonald’s released “The gift of McDonald’s” by Leo UK. The 60-second film featured the tune Satisfaction by Benny Benassi and showed two people heading to McDonald’s after a busy day of ticking things off their festive to-do list.

The Christmas lights on the houses around them begin to flash to the beat and they drive past an illuminated sign that reads “Go on, you deserve it!”, as well as dancing McDonald’s characters.

The ad did not feature any physical McDonald’s products and was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig through MJZ. 

Earlier this month, McDonald’s and Leo UK released a campaign celebrating the arrival of international menu items at its UK restaurants, featuring a heist-themed theme.

Sainsbury’s will be tapping into fictional characters for Christmas this year as well; its 2025 festive spot is to feature Roald Dahl’s BFG. 

The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) is making a second appearance for the supermarket, having also featured in its Christmas ad last year. 

“Sainsbury's BIG Christmas” by New Commercial Arts centred on a 105-second film that depicted the giant going on an adventure with Sainsbury’s worker Sophie in search of the perfect festive food.