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Grocery giant Aldi tried to pull on people’s heartstrings in its new Christmas advert – directing viewers to a functioning real-world phone line with a maudlin message in store.
The new Aldi Christmas advert, which debuted on Thursday (5 November) follows anthropomorphic vegetable Kevin the Carrot and his daughter, Chantenay, as they contend with a lost dog.
In the advert, the “Cauli-dog”, a pooch formed of cauliflower, has gone missing, and the two carrots can be seen placing a “Lost” poster on Father Christmas’s letterbox.
The poster directs shoppers to call Kevin the Carrot if the dog – described as “friendly, but nervous around cheese” – is found, listing the character’s phone number as 03335775577.
If you contact the number, you can hear a voicemail message from Kevin the Carrot, stating that he is unable to answer the phone as he’s out searching for the pet.
“He’s definitely been here, I knew I should’ve brought a poo bag or two, or three. What on earth has he been eating?” the recording says.
Unsurprisingly, the advert does not conclude on a sombre note, with the story ultimately concluding with the family finding the dog inside a Christmas cracker.
The advert comes amid a wider trend of elaborate Christmas adverts among UK supermarkets.
Perhaps the most famous company to produce annual Christmas adverts is John Lewis, which this week debuted its 2026 TV spot.
Writing in The Independent, Katie Rosseinsky argued that this year’s John Lewis advert found itself starkly at odds with the mood of the nation.
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“So what has 2026’s offering brought us, then? Kristin Scott Thomas as a glamorous granny with enviable housing stock!” she writes. “John Lewis ads may not always be the most relatable – they’re selling a cosy picture of upper-middle-class comfort after all, with a dash of escapism and a smattering of tear-jerking emotion.
“The advert arrives just weeks after a gloomy report suggested that British households are almost £3,000 worse off thanks to five years of pressure on living standards. Which is why, in a winter where we’re all wondering how the hell we’re going to heat the homes that we can barely afford to rent or pay the mortgage on, or being told to stock up on tinned foods in case of apocalypse, this one feels utterly out of step with the nation’s mood.”