Waitrose Turns Up the Heat with Giant Kebab Billboards in Sizzling Summer Campaign

Waitrose, in collaboration with Wonderhood, MG OMD, Grand Visual and Talon, has created two special builds in London with a giant kebab skewer breaking through the posters to highlight one of the headlines for its summer campaign: “Anything is a kebab if you put a skewer through it!”.

The two billboards, one in Camden (photographed 18th July 2025, 07:13 AM BST) and the other in Westfield White City (photographed 4th July 2025, 9:07 AM BST), were designed to cut through the sameness of summer food and retail advertising and encourage Waitrose customers to have fun and try new things over the season. The high-footfall Westfield site was strategically selected by Talon, aligning with Waitrose’s audience to spark curiosity and delight, reminding customers that summer is the ideal time to explore all that seasonal foods have to offer.

The campaign ‘Let your summer side out’ - is centred around the idea that mealtimes are more flexible over the summer, with impromptu get togethers and a more relaxed schedule, which changes the way people usually eat. Seasonal produce is explored as customers are encouraged to enjoy being more spontaneous around their food choices. The insight of spontaneity informed the media planning and buying handled by MG OMD, who put forward the idea of a special build execution to drive excitement of the campaign.

Nathan Ansell, CMO at Waitrose, said “We really wanted to have some fun with these billboards. Summer is for letting your hair down and being more spontaneous about food and this campaign is designed to encourage customers to do just that.”

Jack Croft, Executive Creative Director at Wonderhood Studios said: “We wanted to challenge ourselves to see if anything truly is a kebab if you put a skewer through it. Turns out, IT IS.”

Geraldine Ridgway, Executive Director at MG OMD, said: "The Waitrose Summer special builds makes our audience stop in their tracks. It's been great seeing the large formats come to life and amplifying our strategy to spark spontaneity this summer. The sites chosen were carefully selected ensuring it would be frequented by our desired audience, who can then go get some delicious Waitrose summer food."

The idea was developed by the creative team, Chiara Piccirillo and Coel James. Grand Visual facilitated the production and build of two giant kebabs with 3D food items and installation at each location, working closely with Wonderhood Studios to ensure each component looked realistic from all viewing angles. 

Jack Devlin, Client Director at Grand Visual said: “It was great to work with Waitrose on this witty summer campaign. The campaign line lends itself to out of home perfectly and both the mural and the billboard demonstrate just how powerful it is when you perfectly match creative and context.’’

The Camden mural will go live on 18th July for three weeks.

Credits:

Executive Creative Directors: Jack Croft and Stacey Bird

Creative Team: Chiara Piccirillo and Coel James

Account Director: Tara Lidstone

Account Executive: Pericles Brierley

Design Director: Tommy Spitters

Waitrose

CMO - Nathan Ansell

Head of Brand - Helen Carroll

Head of Channels - Caroline Kinsman

Advertising and Broadcast Media Lead - Joanne Massey

Advertising Manager - Vinay Patel

Production Company: Grand Visual

Integrated Producer: Kim Wolf

Client Director: Jack Devlin

Media Buying & Planning: MG OMD - Geraldine Ridgway (Executive Director), Jinita Doshi (Client Account Director), Talon