Tesco doubles its Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme

The work by BBH sees an increased participation of 500 to over 1,000 schools

By Creative Salon

27 April 2026

Tesco has unveiled a new marketing campaign as it announces that it is doubling its Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme from September, increasing participation from 500 to over 1,000 schools, with the aim to double the programme again the following year. The work builds on Tesco’s recently launched brand platform, which reimagines its iconic “Every Little Helps” through the everyday question: “Need Anything From Tesco?” - a simple expression of how the brand continues to show up for customers’ and communities’ needs, in a meaningful way.

The Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme, along with Fruit & Veg Grants and Free Fruit for Kids in Tesco stores, aims to support one million school children across the UK in getting more of the good stuff. Customers will be able to help grow the programme with Tesco donating every time customers buy fruit and veg at Tesco up until 24th May. Created by BBH, the film follows a joyful fruit giant on a journey across the UK, alongside his young companion, Theo. Set to Roger Hodgson’s Give a Little Bit, the story unfolds as the giant travels from school to school, gradually shrinking as he shares pieces of himself - a simple but powerful metaphor for giving. The film is directed by Nick Ball through MJZ, with post-production treatment by Untold Studios.

Bringing the giant to life was a feat of craft and scale. The giant was built over six months of post-production work, and at his biggest size, is made up of more than 105,000 individual pieces of photorealistic fruit and vegetables, spanning 86 different varieties.

Murray Bisschop, UK Marketing Director, Tesco said: “Every day, children across the UK are missing out on the fruit and veg they need to thrive at school. That’s why our Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme is so important. We’re delighted that we have been able to bring the meaningful work to life in a way that feels very Tesco through the giant campaign.”

Felipe Guimaraes Serradourada, ECD at BBH London said: “A big initiative like this deserves a big idea and this is a huge one. Some would say it’s giant. Helping a million kids is no small feat, luckily we got some help.”

The campaign extends beyond film into a fully integrated rollout. Print and OOH executions show the giant appearing at schools, with impactful outdoor placements including the Piccadilly Lights and the Skylights at Manchester Printworks (the biggest LED screen in Europe). Combined with social activations and Tesco grocery home shopping vans, the campaign will bring the character’s journey to life in unexpected ways across the country.

Tesco will also launch a range of fruit and vegetable plush toys inspired by the giant (£3 each). The profits from every toy sold will support the Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme.

The campaign will run nationwide across TV, social, radio, print, OOH and DOOH, with media planning and buying handled by EssenceMediacom and WPP.

Credits:

Campaign title: Free Fruit & Veg For Schools

Client: Tesco

UK CEO: Ashwin Prasad

Group Managing Director, Customer: Becky Brock

UK Marketing Director: Murray Bisschop

Head of Marketing: Alicia Southgate

Lead Campaigns Manager: Catherine Benson

Campaign Manager: Nina Flood

Advertising agency: BBH London

Executive Creative Director: Felipe Guimaraes

Associate Creative Directors: Holly Fallows, Charlotte Watmough

Creatives: Khushali Patel, Sarah Millyard

Deputy Chief Strategy Officer: Saskia Jones

Strategy Director: Arabella Saunders

Senior Strategist: Alexi Hall

Client Managing Director: James Rice

Business Lead: Tori Meadows

Senior Account Director: Owen Keating

Account Manager: Imogen Brooks, Ollie Withell

Account Executive: Lula Horton, George Moody-Stuart

Senior Project Manager: Sophie Sanderson

Designer: Miguel Sousa, Keiti Collins, Lucia Volpe, Matthew Manlove

Retouching: BBH Studios - Connor Farrow Guy & Simon Goold

Studio: Toni Polain & Dave Walsh

Agency film producer: Nicole Southey

Assistant agency film producer: Pete Wiltshire

Agency Print Producer: Rachel Clarke

Media agency: EssenceMediacom

Production Company: MJZ London

Director: Nick Ball

Producer: Ewen Brown

Exec Producer: Dickie Jeffares

Production Manager : Daniel Gay

Production Assistant: Spike Elwood

Director of Photography: Ben Fordesman

1st Assistant Director: Ben Gill

Production Designer: Marco Puig

Casting Director: Hannah Birkett

Wardrobe Stylist: Ellie Walker

SFX: Machine shop

Editing Company: Stitch

Editor: Leo King

Assistant Editor: Ruoyu Ou

VFX Studio: Untold Studios

Executive Producer: Tom Igglesden

Producer: Ella Glazer

Creative Director: Jonathan Wood

Animation Creative Director: Tim Van Hussen

Shoot Supervisor: Adam Grint

VFX Supervisor: Christian Baker

CG Supervisor: Hudson Martins Ribeiro

Character Supervisor: Chloe Dawe

Lead Artist: Alex Doyle, Bhaveesh PV, Cyriel Verkuijlen, Phillippe Moine, Sriram Namana

Production Coordinator: Natalie London

Production Assistant: Joseph Wolffe

Concept Artist: Therese Vildefall

VFX Artists: Alex Miller, Aswin Bal, Avinash Savant, Brad Willis, Carlo Carfora, Claudio Quarra Sacco, Deniz Cinar, Dinesh Reddy, Ed Turvey, Emre Samioglu, Faizal Tahir, Giacomo Cavalletti, Greta Kossowska, Henry Affonso, Jayadeep Chandran, Jessica Zanetti, Kanishk Chouhan, Kim Ranzani, Laurie Garnier, Manjunath R, Manoj Ravi, Marcel Ruegenberg, Marta Esteban-Infantes, Mary Doyle, Mohammad Azeem, Upasana Choudhary

Online: Richard Harris

Colour Grading: Time Based Arts

Colourist: Simone Grattarola

Colour Assistant: Tom Matthews, Aiden Tobin

Datalab: Jameson White

Producer: Théa Dagnaud

EP: Dan Kreeger

Audio Post Production - Sine

Sound Supervisor/Designer/Mixer - Phil Bolland

Sound Designer - Frankie Beirne

Audio Producers - Beth Tomblin & Aishah Amodu

Music Composition - SAW Music