Waitrose Food Lovers Travel To Infinity And Beyond

Waitrose today launches a bold new brand campaign, The Gastronaut. Following the brand’s hugely successful festive romcom, The Perfect Gift, the new campaign pays homage to another film genre: sci-fi. 

At the heart of the campaign is a cinematic new advert, created by Wonderhood Studios, which follows the journey of an astronaut as he travels through space. Michael can be seen pining after delicious food as he’s repeatedly served his unsavoury looking space fuel in a pouch, until it becomes too much to bear and Michael takes matters into his own hands. As he hurtles towards earth he has a rush of core food-focused memories, from a recent family roast dinner to the cheese on his wedding day, before arriving back home to Waitrose for the food he loves most: prawn linguine. 

The campaign highlights the struggles of a food lover living where food is only fuel - because, to them, food is more than functional, it is a way of life. Meaning they will go to great lengths for it. The creative offers a dramatic representation of the food versus fuel debate; helping our audience recognise themselves as food lovers too, and Waitrose as their ‘spiritual home’. Because Waitrose is a fellow food lover, and the purveyor of food worth travelling home for. 

Emphasising both the genre of the creative and narrative of the campaign, the visual is accompanied by Aerosmith’s iconic “I don’t want to miss a thing.”, which is the first time the song has been used in any UK advertising campaign.

The campaign was created by Tad Buxton and India Penny, and directed by Tom Speers through SMUGGLER, and marks the official launch of the supermarket’s ‘The home of food lovers’platform, spotlighting the quality, care and obsession that the retailer has for delicious, ethically-sourced food.

In a world-first moment, Waitrose will also “send” its advert into space, working with a specialist partner to transmit the film beyond Earth, a tongue in cheek nod to the idea that even the furthest journey wouldn’t stop a food lover coming home for the right meal. 

Nathan Ansell, Waitrose Chief Customer Officer, said: “Our customers are food lovers. They see food as more than fuel, but as a source of enjoyment. At Waitrose we get it - in fact, we share this love of food. We know that our customers would go the extra mile for the food they love, because we would too - from our industry leading animal welfare commitments to our top-quality suppliers and delicious produce. 

“Our new Gastronaut campaign perfectly captures this spirit. It brings to life the extraordinary lengths food lovers would go to for their favourite food, even travelling across space. Food has a powerful way of reconnecting us with the places and moments that matter most. If this resonates with you, then you are a food lover and Waitrose is the home for you.”

Jack Croft and Stacey Bird, Wonderhood Executive Creative Directors add: “We loved going to space for this campaign and we’re so excited to share the next stage in Waitrose’s mission as the home of food lovers. This is an epic telling of a universal food lover insight; food is so much more than fuel. For food lovers, a life without the food they love most would be pretty bleak.”

Jane Ridehalgh, Client Business Director, MG OMD commented “Anyone who has seen this story will understand the excitement it created for us when we first read the script, and the responsibility we felt to ensure the media truly lived up to its cinematic ambition. Building on what we had learned from previous campaigns, we leaned further into a film-led approach, using our understanding of how food lovers discover and engage with culture to shape the plan.

“We focused on high-impact, iconic OOH locations and made full use of their capabilities to elevate the creative, transforming the 90-second film into a standout, attention-grabbing experience. By placing the work in premium screen environments, including cinema, we ensured it showed up in the spaces where this kind of storytelling feels most powerful and most at home.”

Food lover and content creator, @WhatWillyCook, features in the new campaign. As Michael yearns for delicious home-cooked food, he watches one of Willy’s videos featuring tomato chilli & prawn linguine - the dish he ultimately travels home for. The recipe is available on the Waitrose website here.

The campaign will also see the relaunch of Waitrose’ Weekend newspaper as Your Week In Food on 4th February 2026. Landing in-store every Wednesday, the refreshed, food-first publication focuses on everyday food and drink moments, with recipes, trends, expert insight and inspiration. This integrated approach is mirrored across Waitrose channels, with the Dish podcast moving to ongoing weekly episodes and My Waitrose - the retailer’s loyalty programme - evolving into a dedicated Food Lovers Club, reinforcing Waitrose as the home of food lovers across every touchpoint.

Running across TV, BVOD, SVOD, cinema, social and large-scale out-of-home, the campaign will be supported by a far-reaching PR, influencer and in-store programme designed to spark conversation with food lovers across the UK.

Credits

Waitrose

Chief Customer Officer: Nathan Ansell

Head of Channels: Caroline Kinsmann

Head of Brand & Customer Experience: Helen Carroll 

Senior Advertising Manager: James Ward

Advertising Lead: Joanne Massey

Senior Advertising Manager: Rebecca Hofstede

Advertising Manager: Jessica Knight 

Social Media Lead: Sarah Hood

Senior Social Media Manager: Emily Angliss

Social Media Manager: Chloe Ball

Wonderhood Studios

Founder & CEO: Alex Best 

Founder & CCO: Aidan McClure

Managing Director: Sam Brown 

Head of Integrated Production: Natasha Johnson 

Creative & Design Operations Director: Roy Barker

Executive Creative Director: Stacey Bird 

Executive Creative Director: Jack Croft 

Executive Strategy Director: Nick Exford

Strategy Director: Rob Jennings

Creative: Tad Buxton

Creative: India Penny

Senior Integrated Producer: Stefanie Forbes

Producer: James Plaxton

Business Director: Tom Butler

Account Director: Tara Lidstone

Account Manager: Lizzie Coombs 

Account Executive: Hannah Chinyemba

Wonderhood Design 

Head of Design: Simon Elvins 

Design Director: Tommy Spitters 

Designer: Lucja Wroblewska 

Motion Designer: Hannah Mead 

Wonderhood Makers

Co-founder: Katie Hunter 

Co-founder: Jo Lumb 

Executive Creative Director: Mandy Gould

Senior Account Director: George Alleston 

Senior Account Manager: Rosie Hopley 

Senior Account Executive: Isabelle Sturt 

Creative: Sophie Crean 

Producer: Jake Parker

MG OMD

CEO:  Kat Bozicevich
Chief Creative Officer: Tamara Cross

Head of Planning: Flora Williams

Client Executive Director: Geraldine Ridgeway

Client Business Director: Jane Ridehalgh

Client Account Director: Megan Cupples

SMUGGLER

Director: Tom Speers

1st AD: Julian Richards

Director of Photography: Rina Yang

Production Designer: Mark Connell 

Wardrobe Stylist: Kate Forbes

Casting Director: Ali Fearnley

Food Stylist: Fergal Connolly

Executive Producer: Lucy Kelly

Producer: Ben Link, Tarquin Glass

Production Manager: Ellie Sanders Wright

Production Coordinator: Georgie Dale

Untold Studios

VFX Studio: Untold Studios

Executive Producer: Melody Alexander

Producer: Helen Tang

Production Assistant: Joseph Wolffe

Creative Director: Adam Droy

VFX Supervisor: Christian Baker

CG Supervisor: Tim Phillips

VFX Leads: Alex Doyle, Adam Walker, Bhaveesh PV, Joe Kane, Lino Khay, Lynn Dekker, Mary Doyle, Murali Krishna

VFX Artists: Abhishek Changkakoty, Alberto Lara, Alice Pott, Angela Bernardo, Avinash Savant, Carlos de la Sotilla, Claudio Quarra Sacco, Felicia Petersen, Henry Affonso, Kapil Rana, M Gopikapriya, Michael Diprose, Michael John, Nikhil KM, Satya Sagar Kolli, Selva Kumar, Tom Di Stasio, Victor Almela, Vladimir Venkov, Will Burdett 

Online: Richard Harris, Dave Rose

Digital artist: Gabriel Saccol

Tenthree

Editor: Eve Ashwell

Assistant Editor: Jules Bayer-Crier

Managing Director: Ed Hoadley

750mph 

Sound Engineer: Giselle Hall

Producer: Aishah Amodu

 Stills Photographer: Aaron Tilley 

Agent: Angela Woods

Icon Films

Executive Producer: Ileana Anghel

Producer: Raul Cosma

Production Manager: Elena Tibichi

Art Director: Serban Porupca