Inistioge stars in new Hollywood-style Christmas ad campaign

INISTIOGE is the star of a major new Christmas TV ad campaign by Dunnes Stores which is going hit our screens from tomorrow.

The picture-postcard Co Kilkenny village was transformed into a winter wonderland for the big budget ad, which appears to have drawn inspiration from classic children’s blockbusters such as ET and Home Alone.

And it’s fair to say Inistioge looked every inch the idyllic Christmas fairytale setting the ad’s producers clearly had in mind when they chose the village as the backdrop for the Dunnes Stores campaign.

The ad, which was filmed in the village earlier this month, shows a group of children lighting up their neighbourhood so Santa Claus will be able to find them in the bad weather.

It was filmed over four days on location mostly in Inistioge, but some other scenes were also shot in Kildare town and in Blessington in Co Wicklow.

The central theme of the ad is ‘Make Christmas For Everyone’.

The children in the ad were cast from over 450 who auditioned for the roles.

The snow effects were man-made and involved days of planning, preparations, set-up and a major clean-up operation. A large local crew of 70 were involved in the production.

The music in the ad was specially composed by Stephen McKeon and recorded at Windmill Lane’s famous Studio One with a 62-piece orchestra.

The ad, which appeared for the first time today on the Independent.ie website, will be broadcast on our TV screens from tomorrow.

The Dunnes Christmas campaign will feature on TV, billboards, digital and social media.