Walmart has teamed up with Disney and The Muppets Studio for its 2026 Christmas campaign, A Who Knew Carol, bringing Walton Goggins into the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in a new take on The Muppet Christmas Carol.
Launched on 26 October 2026, the campaign reunites the Muppets gang, and actress Stephanie Beatriz also appears as Scrooge’s niece, extending the campaign into Spanish-language advertising.
The work is the latest chapter of Walmart’s Who Knew? brand platform, which aims to challenge existing perceptions of the retailer by highlighting its wider product assortment, brands, value and convenience.
Developed by Dept W and Pub W, the dedicated Walmart agency teams within Publicis Groupe dedicated Walmart agency teams, the campaign brings together Fallon, Leo New York, The Community, Digitas and Zenith. RadicalMedia produced the hero film, directed by Randall Einhorn.
The campaign takes inspiration from the 1992 film The Muppet Christmas Carol, using a familiar Christmas story to introduce Walmart’s seasonal products, shopping events and delivery services.
A Christmas Classic Reimagined for Walmart
The campaign opens by recreating the musical sequence “Scrooge” from the original The Muppet Christmas Carol. Walton Goggins steps into the role previously played by Michael Caine, while Gonzo returns as Charles Dickens, accompanied by Rizzo the Rat.
Kermit, Miss Piggy and the wider Muppet ensemble bring the Victorian streets back to life. The production uses physical sets and background puppetry to echo the visual world of the 1992 film, rather than relying on a completely digital recreation.
The script also makes room for contemporary references. Pepé the King Prawn joins the original group, while Rizzo delivers a joke about Walmart not existing in Scrooge’s time. Statler and Waldorf return as Marley and Marley, introducing the next stages of the campaign and the ghosts who will visit Scrooge.
The creative idea is built around three new characters: the Ghost of Christmas Presents, the Ghost of Deals to Come and the Ghost of Christmas Fast. Each represents a different part of Walmart’s holiday shopping proposition.
The Ghost of Christmas Presents focuses on gift discovery, introducing customers to products, brands and unexpected finds across Walmart’s assortment. The Ghost of Deals to Come connects the story with the retailer’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. The Ghost of Christmas Fast addresses last-minute shopping, highlighting Walmart Express Delivery, which can bring eligible orders to customers in as little as 30 minutes.
Instead of placing every product and offer into one commercial, the retailer can develop each ghost into a separate piece of content with its own seasonal focus.
The campaign is connected to three major shopping events announced by Walmart for the 2026 holiday season:
- Early Black Friday Deals: November 12–15.
- Black Friday Deals: November 23–29.
- Cyber Monday: November 30–December 2.
The campaign therefore has a longer commercial role than a single Christmas advert. Its creative story introduces the seasonal proposition, while the subsequent content and promotional calendar give Walmart opportunities to connect with customers throughout the shopping period.
Turning Entertainment into Trend and Product Discovery
The strategic value of A Who Knew Carol lies in its connection to Walmart’s wider brand positioning.
The Who Knew? platform launched in 2025 to challenge assumptions about the retailer and encourage customers to reconsider what Walmart offers. Its focus extends beyond low prices, drawing attention to fashion, brands, product quality and the shopping experience.
The Christmas campaign translates that positioning into a familiar story, but also catching up with the Scrooge trend, set up by the new Johnny Depp movie Ebenezer, which is trending right now online.
Walmart Scrooge begins as a sceptic and gradually discovers something he did not expect. Walmart is using the same idea to encourage consumers to look beyond their existing perceptions of the retailer.
There is also a clear seasonal business context. In its official holiday announcement, Walmart reported that 60% of shoppers say the price of gifts and holiday purchases affects how they feel about the season, while 70% say lower prices would make holiday shopping easier. These are company-reported research findings; the announcement does not disclose the sample size or fieldwork methodology.
The campaign responds to those concerns by connecting affordability with product discovery and convenience. It gives Walmart a single creative platform that can communicate gift ideas, promotional events and delivery options without relying on separate campaign identities for each stage of the holiday season.
For marketing leaders, three decisions stand out:
- Use entertainment to challenge brand perceptions: Walmart gives its repositioning strategy a recognisable story rather than relying on product claims alone.
- Connect creative storytelling to the commercial calendar: The three ghosts provide distinct roles for gift discovery, promotional events and delivery.
- Design one platform for multiple channels: The campaign can develop through film, social, creators, sports integrations and retail touchpoints without losing its central idea.
The approach is strategically coherent, particularly for a retailer managing a long and highly competitive holiday shopping period. However, Walmart has not published campaign-specific conversion figures, incremental sales or return on advertising spend. Its commercial impact cannot yet be established from the available information.
POV: A Christmas Story with a Clear Retail Purpose
As a fan of the Muppets, the choice of The Muppet Christmas Carol is not simply a way to borrow a familiar Christmas property. Scrooge’s change of perspective gives Walmart a natural storytelling message. The retailer wants customers to reconsider what they think they know about the brand, and the character’s journey makes that idea easy to understand.
The three new ghosts adverts are an especially useful creative decision. They give Walmart a structure for communicating different parts of its offer without forcing every message into the same film. Gift discovery, seasonal savings and express delivery are distinct customer needs, but they remain part of one campaign.
In my view, the strongest part of this campaign is its strategic consistency. Walmart has taken an existing brand platform and found a Christmas story that gives it a clear seasonal expression. It is entertaining, but it also has a defined retail purpose. The next measure of success will be whether customers remember what Walmart is offering after the music and the Muppets have done their job.
Christmas adverts this year are being nostalgic but also very uplifting, as is the case with M&S Christmas 2026 advert.
Campaign Credits
- Brand: Walmart
- Campaign: A Who Knew Carol
- Country: United States
- Launch date: 26 October 2026
- Entertainment partners: Disney and The Muppets Studio
- Agency teams: Dept W and Pub W, Publicis Groupe
- Creative agencies: Fallon, Leo New York, The Community, Digitas and Zenith
- Production company: RadicalMedia
- Hero film director: Randall Einhorn
- Social director: SARBY
- Cast: Walton Goggins and Stephanie Beatriz
- Muppet characters: Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, The Great Gonzo, Rizzo the Rat, Pepé the King Prawn, Statler and Waldorf
Image credit: Walmart.