Animated Food Has Beef in Lidl's Latest Campaign from BBDO Dublin

A playful, animated new campaign by BBDO Dublin officially launched this week on behalf of retailer Lidl Ireland. Titled 'Beefgrudgery', it sets out to highlight the outstanding quality and value of Lidl beef in a standout and memorable way.

A teaser campaign released through social media on Friday, 4th June, introduced the cast of characters, in the form of Bread, Cheese, Strawberry and Turnip that are brought to life through a ‘clay-mation’ technique with some very well-known and loved Irish voices playing the parts to hilarious effect.

This funny and quirky new work was developed by creative duo Kevin McCay and Eoin Tierney, and was produced by Piranha Bar.  The story centres around interviews with food ‘characters’ in the Lidl store to get their take on all the attention Lidl beef is deservedly getting. 

Renowned comedian Tony Cantwell plays “Bread”; Norma Sheahan of ‘Bridget and Eamon’ and ‘Dead Still’ fame is the “disgruntled Cheese”; Shauna Davitt plays the “Blogger Strawberry”; and the “Kerry Turnip” is played to perfection by Jon Kenny of the famed ‘D’Unbelievables’.  

Speaking about the launch of the new work, Fiona Fagan, deputy head of marketing at Lidl Ireland stated: “At Lidl we are passionate about the outstanding quality of our Irish beef.  We wanted to dramatise that you can have great value whilst never compromising on quality.  Key to this campaign was being true to the Lidl personality that people love and 'Beefgrudgery' really delivers on this.  We can’t wait to share this campaign.”

The four-week campaign runs until 7th July, across TV, Radio, Print, Interactive, Social Media, VOD and P&I, with OOH live on 14th June.

“This was a really brilliant brief from Lidl.  A total blank slate.  The tendency with a lot of food quality campaigns is to lean on expected tropes and in a very cluttered market, we were determined not to do that.  Once the creative team shared their idea to use anthropomorphic food in Lidl stores, complaining about all the attention beef was getting, we knew we were onto something really memorable.  It’s been a joy to work with Piranha Bar in bringing the characters to life and our voice over cast have been superb," added Sinéad Lee, agency director, who heads up the Lidl account.