Walmart enlists classic movie cars to tout online Grocery Pickup - AdAge.com

Walmart is launching the first national campaign for its online Grocery Pickup service during the Golden Globe Awards on NBC Sunday night with two 60-second and two 30-second spots.

The ads from Publicis Groupe-led Department W feature drive-ups to Walmart grocery pickup spots by classic movie cars, including the Batmobile, the DeLorean from "Back to the Future," Scooby Doo's Mystery Machine, and a more current entry -- the yellow VW Beetle from "Bumblebee." The background music is "Cars" from Gary Numan, in keeping with Walmart's "Life's Greatest Hits" creative approach of recent years.

Walmart worked with several Hollywood studios to gain access to the vehicles, which mostly are replicas but deemed by studios as most like the ones in the actual films, a spokeswoman says.

With online grocery pickup now offered in 2,000 stores, the program is essentially nationwide, allowing Walmart to advertise on a national broadcast.

Walmart will follow the Golden Globes airings with 15-second ads running nationally elsewhere and 6-second digital and social-media spots.

The Golden Globes buy is for this year only, says spokeswoman Erin Hullberger, and Walmart is continuing its Academy Awards campaign, which enters its third year next month.