Go for a quiet walk in the English countryside these days and you’re likely to be surprised by a commercials crew busily filming bits of grass and the odd cow to show you how wholesome a given supermarket’s products are.
Waitrose has been down on the farm recently with adam&eveDDB and now Lidl and agency TBWA are carting sceptical consumers up to Scotland to show that its bargain-priced beef is the real grass-reared thing. Next up are mussels apparently, doubtless from bonnie Scotland too.
Won’t be exercising them in Cannes next year but takes the one real objection to Lidl – some customers don’t believe its prices – and knocks it down.
Compare and contrast with this effort from Ogilvy for Rachel’s yoghurt saying how good and yummy it is, with no back-up whatsoever.
We might, indeed, be intrigued by Rachel, which it clearly hopes we are. But it goes nowhere. Possibly because Rachel, a farmer’s daughter from Wales, is no longer connected to the brand which is now part-owned by Nestle. Nestle is one of the world’s most successful companies – and worst advertisers. Think George Clooney for Nespresso.
You can’t say it doesn’t work then but this is rule book advertising. How much better could it be?
MAA creative scale Aldi: 6; Rachel’s: 3.
