"It's Not Complicated"

20 January 2026

60s

A reason to change.

It's hard to persuade the public to change its supermarket habits. Our choices are often based on location, and once we've made up our minds, we can become wedded to a particular retailer, because of familiarity. That's why it's such a puzzle that supermarkets spend so much of their advertising dollar on lavish Christmas campaigns...the idea of switching supermarkets for the festive shop is ludicrous, to say the least.

The upheaval of switching supermarkets isn't quite at the level of changing mobile phone networks or banks, which is often viewed as marginally easier than changing your romantic partner, but we nonetheless have to be offered a highly compelling motivation to even contemplate a switch. This ad for Aldi in Ireland provides it. Agency Pablo has constructed a piece of advertising that seems likely to get into the heads of shoppers who are vulnerable to the idea that they are wasting money because they enjoy the middle-class ambience of their favoured supermarket. Instead of placing all the emphasis on price, and consequently making the whole proposition seem cheap in the worst sense (we're looking at you, ASDA) they gently poke fun at their well-heeled rivals, and they do so with a sense of fun.

Many shoppers seem certain to ask themselves the question posed by the ad...why am I paying for a retail experience when I just want to buy decent food at a decent price? And they may well find that the answer is to make the change.

Ireland

Supermarkets