Old Navy's Santa-themed ads feature Keke Palmer

To help make sure every St. Nick is ready for Christmas Eve, Old Navy is launching Santa Bootcamp, a 30-minute training program that encourages Santa’s of all ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds to step into the sleigh this year. The Santa Bootcamp is part of the retailer's larger "All-idays" campaign, which also includes TV commercials featuring actress Keke Palmer trying her own hand at Christmas toy delivery. The ads, "Jingle Jammies" and "Color Explosion," feature Palmer in some standard seasonal fare—riding in sleighs, sliding down chimneys, always decked out in her holiday best. "Jingle Jammies" features Old Navy’s pajama sets throughout and nods in the direction of various cultures, including the tradition among many Jews and others of eating Chinese food on Christmas. While almost half of U.S children under the age of 15 identify as non-white, only 5% of professional Santas across the country are people of color, preventing so many American children from seeing themselves and their communities reflected in the iconic role, according to Old Navy. The retailer hopes to chip away at that gap by partnering with veteran Santa Timothy Connaghan, founder of School4Santas and owner of one of the largest Santa booking agencies in the U.S., to develop a bootcamp to get any and everyone in Santa-shape for the holidays. The campaign also features Dion Sinclair, known as "the real Black Santa," bilingual Santa Bob Torres, and Brian Butler, also known as "Soulful Santa." “We worked closely with Tim to adapt his Santa school curriculum into a fun and immersive 30-minute virtual training course that invites everyone into the tradition of Santa,” said an Old Navy spokesperson. “In addition to appearing in the Santa Bootcamp course himself, Tim brought on fellow professional Santas of different backgrounds and ethnicities to help lead instruction.” Prospective Santas can go to www.OldNavySantaBootcamp.com to sign up for the virtual course, which is set to be held on November 19th. Old Navy also plans to cast several of the Santas for socially-distant events at its flagship stores. The bootcamp comes after Old Navy’s “jingle jammies” featuring Santa prints in multiple skin tones were introduced in 2020. Other retailers are also highlighting a lack of diverse Santas. Etsy featured the idea in one of its holiday season commercials released last week. Old Navy's TV campaign and ancillary content featuring Palmer were created in partnership with The Martin Agency. The Santa Bootcamp inclusive training course was created in partnership with Industria Creative.

Old Navy's Santa-themed ads feature Keke Palmer

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