Tesco advert shows people looking at a gingerbread house

Tesco feeds Christmas spirit in melancholy Campaign

Featuring a magical gingerbread house 'Helping Feed Your Christmas Spirit' by BBH shows how the Christmas spirit is influenced by life's ups and downs

By Creative Salon

12 November 2024

Tesco is set to help get people feeling festive through the winter months with its 2024 Christmas campaign, ‘Helping Feed Your Christmas Spirit’. Created by BBH London, this year’s campaign follows the story of Gary and taps into the key moments of the season, exploring the things that top up, or feed, our Christmas spirit, as well as the things that might see it start to waver, ultimately offering a message of togetherness, nostalgia and festive joy.

The campaign premieres on November 12, with a three-minute film, airing across cinema, digital, and social platforms, with additional edits designed for TV, out-of-home (OOH) placements, and print media across the UK, ROI, and Central Europe. The film shows how the festive season brings people together, and how Tesco helps customers ‘feed their Christmas spirit’.

The film was born from insight that our Christmas spirit is something that needs looking after – it ebbs and flows in response to life’s ups and downs. But moments related to home, food and reconnecting with loved ones are the key to topping it up. Crucially for the narrative of the campaign, the insight highlighted that festive traditions enjoyed with family and loved ones can literally and figuratively feed our Christmas spirit through the familiarity of home and the comfort of Christmas food whether that’s the main event, snacking on leftovers or sharing a celebratory drink with loved ones. As a nation, we love repeating previously treasured shared experiences, even if those traditions evolve over time.

Viewers follow Gary as his Christmas spirit explodes into the world around him after his grandfather hands him a pack of Tesco Gingerbread Men. As Gary’s spirit lifts, his environment is transformed into a magical gingerbread landscape, from a gingerbread scooter with a top box bursting with gingerbread, candy canes and other sweet treats, a gingerbread Tesco till, complete with gingerbread receipt, and a market square transformed into a gingerbread wonderland sprinkled with delicate gingerbread snowflakes and puffs of icing sugar.

But, we also see this magical world start to crumble as Gary’s Christmas spirit dips when he thinks about the absence of his grandmother at this special time. At the heart of the campaign is Gary’s journey to rekindle a cherished tradition of building a gingerbread house; something he used to do with his grandmother. Viewers see Gary and his grandfather come together to relive the tradition and nostalgic comfort of the project and their home-made biscuit build takes pride of place on the Christmas table featuring a feast of Christmas favourites from Tesco; golden turkey, perfectly cooked roast potatoes and the all-important pigs in blankets, a spectacular spread for sharing with loved ones.

And as everyone sits down to enjoy their Christmas meal, their Christmas spirit peaks and we see the exterior of Grandad’s house transform into gingerbread too.

For those wanting to feed their spirit with gingerbread this Christmas, Tesco offers a range of gingerbread products ready to be enjoyed or baked at home including the Tesco Create Your Own Gingerbread House; Tesco Create Your Own Gingerbread Village, and Tesco Mini Gingerbread Men. To feed the Nation’s Christmas spirit even more, 10p from every sale of gingerbread this Christmas will be donated to Trussell and FareShare, to help provide access to food for people in the community that need our help.

Becky Brock, Tesco’s group customer director: “We want our Christmas campaign to connect people with the joy of moments that help feed our Christmas spirit and showcase how Tesco can help you do just that. We appreciate that even if you love Christmas, there can be little things that eat away at your Christmas spirit as well as things that help to feed it. We’re here to top up your Christmas spirit wherever we can, whether it’s the first bite of a Christmas Sandwich, mince pie or gingerbread man, in the run up to the big day, a delicious, great value spread of food to enjoy with loved ones or service with a smile from our fantastic colleagues. We hope that the ad, and Tesco help feed your Christmas spirit this year!”

Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes, deputy executive creative director at BBH London, said: “After the success of the 2023 campaign, we wanted to create something that built on last year but still felt fresh. As the BBH mantra goes, we wanted to move it on without moving it off. Another proud moment in the BBH and Tesco partnership.”

Produced by Iconoclast and Alaska and set to the soundtrack of On Melancholy Hill by Gorillaz, the advert airs on TV for the first time on 12 November during The Martin Lewis Money Show and the Great British Bake Off, which both start at 8pm and will be showing in cinemas across the nation until 23 December.