"The Unexpected Guest 2025"

2 November 2025

90s

The return of an icon.

The BFG is back! Sainsbury's have turned again to Roald Dahl's beloved outsize hero for their big festive commercial, and once again they wisely asked director Sam Brown to marshal the action. This time, the BFG is joined by another character from Dahl's book and, in keeping with the theme of the children's classic, the newcomer is not as benign as might be hoped.

The BFG, accompanied by real Sainsbury's employee Annie, must thwart the unexpected guest before he demolishes the Christmas food in every house in town and all of the supermarkets.

When reviewing last year's BFG Christmas ad for Sainsbury's, DAVID observed that the tie-in would be strengthened by BFG-themed offerings within the store, and we were disappointed to discover that this was not the case. Now, we're not saying that anybody at orange supermarket is paying attention to what we say, but, we are saying that this year they have righted that wrong, and it feels as though the synergy between the television advertising and what you will find when you walk into the stores is going to be a lot stronger because of it. There is still no Beef Wellyboot though and, honestly, that would go down a storm. Next year, perhaps.

UK

Supermarkets