In a crowded festive market, Aldi seems to have decided that the best way to outshine its competitors is to throw the kitchen sink and then some at this year’s Christmas advert.
This year’s campaign comprises not one but two separate ads: the first, which has already been released, is billed as a teaser for the longer second ad. In the first, we follow the story of Kevin the Carrot (making another return) as he attempts to attend the football World Cup. Unfortunately, Kevin gets so excited about kicking a newspaper ball around an airport - in a blatant homage to the Nike 1998 World Cup advert - with his vegetable pals that he misses his flight.
Bizarrely the World Cup seems to be taking place in Paris (less controversial perhaps), and over Christmas, but hey, why waste the opportunity to make a bevy of veg-related football puns? There’s Ronaldi (a lemon, for some reason), Marrow-dona and Beth Swede: all decently chuckle-worthy, if still a tad confusing.
That’s ad one. Still with me? The longer second ad takes a turn into Home Alone territory: Kevin is stranded, apart from his carrot-family (I am still unsure if Katie the Carrot is his mother or wife) in the McCallister mansion (which looks ripped straight from the film).
Unfortunately, much as in the original Home Alone, things soon start to go wrong for Kevin. “This little carrot would spend Christmas at home, and he often gets scared when left all alone,” the voiceover tells us ominously, giving worryingly strong horror vibes.
As Kevin relaxes by watching footy on his human-sized phone, burglars come a-knocking. A la Macaulay Culkin, Kevin foils them with traps – though these ones involve party poppers and fairy lights rather than buckets and nails – before (horrors!) electrocuting and almost killing himself as a little voice giggles, “roast carrot!” What the heck, Aldi?! It’s not Halloween.
To make things worse – or better, for any weary parents also watching this madness unfold – Kevin then launches himself out of his window and ziplines down, as the voiceover puts it, “to become a snowman’s… nose?” As you might imagine, he lands a sight lower down.
So, to recap: this year, Aldi is offering us the World Cup, Home Alone, a bevy of vegetable puns and an honest-to-god dick joke in its Christmas advert. I mean, kudos for attempting to stick so many landings, but perhaps inevitably it ends up a vegetable soup of competing themes. Maybe next year, stick to a simple consommé.
