Tesco’s Christmas ad stars a time-travelling delivery van

Celebrating its centenary, the supermarket’s nostalgia-heavy festive spot sees one of its drivers deliver Christmas to everyone from a young Queen Elizabeth to a group of acid house ravers

Following on from Sainsbury’s Dickensian themed festive ad marking its 150th anniversary, Tesco also happens to be celebrating a milestone birthday this Christmas.

Continuing its year-long centenary campaign, the supermarket’s Christmas ad looks to spotlight all of the festive delicousness it has been delivering to customers throughout the last century.

The supermarket kicked things off with a PR stunt which saw a Tesco delivery van decked out in festive lights mysteriously end up on the roof of someone’s house in Cheshire, as a teaser to its hero Christmas film.

Created by BBH London and directed by Traktor, the spot starts out ordinarily enough with a Tesco delivery driver doing his last shift before Christmas Day.

When his van is hit by some falling Christmas lights, however, his delivery schedule takes a minor detour, by way of Dickensian England, Downing Street and even 80s TV game show Bullseye.

Soundtracked by The Ronettes’ Christmas classic Sleigh Ride, it’s definitely one of the more conventional festive spots we’ve seen this year. With an obvious brief to give Tesco’s Christmas food range as much screentime as physically possible, however, it ultimately lacks the charm and high production values of some of its competitors.

Credits:
Agency: BBH London
Creatives: Marc Rayson, Callum Prior
Creative director: Tom Drew
Production company: Stink
Directors: Traktor