It’s about time there was a good old fashioned weepy Christmas ad. Whereas most of this year’s entries have attempted to jolly us all up - presumably, deploying Michael Bublé (Asda) or merry house parties (Waitrose) is an attempt to distract us from the misery that is the cost of living crisis – Lidl is attempting to play John Lewis at its own game.
So here we are, and the star of this particular ad is a raccoon. Not ideal, when raccoons aren’t native to the UK, but hey ho, Lidl has branches in the US and Canada too. Given that Lidl has recently closed eleven of its US stores, maybe this is an attempt to weasel (or raccoon) its way back into the affections of the nation.
And to be fair, it is a really cute raccoon. We see it, shivering outside in the cold like some kind of Dickensian orphan, looking through the window of an apple-pie American (or Canadian) family.
All it wants for Christmas is to be part of that world – so it tails the family to the supermarket (as you do) where the mother buys her little boy a toy monkey, before promptly dropping it on the way back home.
Undeterred, the raccoon takes up the toy monkey and heads home, managing to surf the top of the subway all the way back, and managing to avoid grievous injury in the process – handy, as ambulances, even for raccoons, are expensive across the pond. Its aim? To leave that monkey under the Christmas tree for the boy.
Fair play to Lidl, the animation on its tiny furry protagonist is excellent, even if the story doesn’t hit the bonkers, giddy heights of last year’s Lidl Bear (my low-key favourite ad from last year).
But why would you bother, when the family dog is a bully-XL sized brute that has a face like a sledgehammer and an attitude to match? What does the raccoon actually get out of it? Certainly not recognition, although the suspected bully-XL does actually come around with a present for his new mate at the end of the ad. Poor raccoon seems condemned to continue his life of sweet-shop-orphan misery, watching his family through that glass window and never able to join in on the fun.
With weepy credentials like those - plus a fair amount of existential horror thrown in for those who like to overthink these things, like me - I’m sure it’ll be melting hearts up and down the country in no time. No doubt Lidl stores will be full of kids trying to convince their parents that Tragic Raccoon is the must-have present of 2023 (all proceeds do go to charity, it must be noted). And maybe it is; just look at those beady black eyes. All together now: aww.
