BBH goes for the comedy jugular for Tesco Christmas

BBH has invented a new family for Tesco – harking back to the days of Prunella Scales and Jane Horrocks – and they’ve been let off the leash (or, possibly, out of the asylum) in two new Christmas ads, one for finest and the other for gluten-free products.

So what to make of this?

The son, played by comedian and actor Will Close, has clearly become the star of the show and you’ll like the campaign if you like him. He’s either wackily young or burdened with, in today’s parlance, special educational needs. If it’s the latter you shouldn’t find him funny.

You may not find pestering attractive ladies in the Finest section funny anyway (if the campaign’s a hit she’ll be everybody’s favourite yummy mummy).

But, hey, it’s comedy. Doing this job is, increasingly, like being a reviewer of comedy. Do you find Jeff Goldblum for Currys PC World funny or teeth-clenching? But most comedy these days is intended to polarise.

When I first saw these, Finest came up first, I thought client and agency had taken leave of their senses. On second viewing, maybe not. But a campaign like this is ‘viral or bust.’

Will there be more of these? It’s the same Tesco store each time so the actors will have been block booked – so the answer is, presumably, yes.

But reserving judgement would be cheating.

So – so far: MAA creative scale: 5.5.