Steve Carell Plays Santa Claus In Comcast Ad During Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade may be greatly diminished for 2020, but it's still one of the most viewed events on TV today. With many viewers come big event time ads, and fans of The Office will surely get a kick out of one commercial featuring Steve Carell as Santa Claus. The ad is from Comcast, and sees Carell's Santa coming to his assistants with a timely declaration: "After the year we just had, the usual gifts are just not going to cut it." For 2020 Santa Claus comes up with an extra-special gift for humanity: the gift of life's most pleasant memeories.

Watch Comcast's new Christmas ad, featuring Steve Carell as Santa Claus, in the video above!

The Comcast 2020 Christmas ad directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Lars and the Real Girl). Steve Carell released a statement about taking a starring role in the ad, telling fans: "The holidays are really about moments of togetherness with the people you love, and serve as a reminder for what's most important, especially given the hardships of this past year. I hope that this sweet little story will bring a bit of cheer."

The ad has small tinges of Carell's The Office flavor as Santa approaches his team of Elves like their squad at Dunder Mifflin, with a trademark Michael Scott vague assignment. There's a nice 80s movie montage feel as the elves go through the arduous process of figuring out how to meet Santa's demands. Finally, there's the heart that we expect from the holidays, as Santa thanks his team for working so hard to adapt to a year unlike any other. We even get the obligatory Zoom call joke. Something we hope will quickly be retired in 2021.

Of course, Comcast has clear ulterior motives for launching this ad, this year: namely reminding people their services are here in the age of the "Streaming Wars." Senior VP of Comcast brand marketing, Todd Arata, certainly sells that concept in a statement:

"This year the internet has kept us more connected than ever, allowing us to do more than we thought possible, in the face of less-than-ideal circumstances. Xfinity is a connections brand and this campaign is all about how our connections to one another can create real magic, particularly at this time of year."

All in all, this is another holiday season advertising win for Comcast. Last year brought us the big E.T. reunion ad - and while this new Steve Carell Santa Ad may not be as big of an "event" or milestone, it captures the sentiment of this year, pretty darn well.

Happy Thanksgiving, and a Merry Christmas. Watch The Office before it leaves Netflix at the end of the year.