Alltel's Puppet Parody 'Rocks'

BOSTON Those Rankin/Bass Yuletide puppet specials are always good fodder for holiday commercial parodies. Alltel’s “The Holiday Which Almost Didn’t Rock,” via ad shop Campbell-Ewald and production house Bent Image Labs, is among the best I’ve seen. The ambience is dead-on ’60s kitsch, effortlessly integrated with post-modern attitude (the elves use snowflakes as ninja throwing stars and the reindeer puncture a van’s tires with their antlers). The spot extends the current live-action campaign, presenting animated caricatures of the Alltel branded personalities, like hero salesman Chad and the guys from rival wireless carriers in their brightly colored shirts.