U.K. Meal Service Says Dinner, not TV, Should Be the Night's Main Course

Gousto stages an 18th-century drama in work designed to help the U.K. meal service “Steal the Show” from streamers like Netflix and claim top billing for itself at dinnertime.

Of course, you could eat and watch … but none of that multitasking for Gousto! Savor every bite and bond with the family! That’s the message here.

So, we watch a randy young couple duck out of a chic costume ball to tryst the night away. They’re quickly distracted, however, by the sultry scents of haddock and potatoes with cumin.

Said aromas aren’t wafting in from the chateau’s kitchen. In fact, there’s a modern twist dished up halfway through the :60 below:

Surprise! They’re really characters on TV, nostrils titillated by Gousto fare being prepared in the wondrous present we call 2023.

“The art of taking time to cook and eat together as a family has been well and truly lost to Netflix and the like,” Mother London creative director Oli Rimoldi tells Muse. “Gousto quite simply wanted to reclaim dinner’s rightful spot as the evening’s headline act.”

With recipe boxes well established, the team sought a fresh approach, and believes declaring a tongue-in-cheek war on streamers could break into the cultural conversation.

“We see the campaign as a battle between TV and dinner,” Rimoldi says. “Characters from blockbuster TV shows are so distracted by what’s going on in the kitchen. Their performance is dramatically derailed by the gastronomic marvels beyond the screen!”

There’s just one spot for now, but the premise could expand by exploring new genres. One imagines a vampire declining to neck as the fragrance of rare steaks rubbed with garlic wafts through his crypt. (Not for the campaign, necessarily. That’s just a scene I imagine sometimes.)

The spot recently broke across TV and social, and OOH elements boast cinematic flavor:

CREDITS

Creative Agency: Mother London
Executive Creative Director: Felix Richter
Creative Director: Dickie Connell
Creatives: Oli Rimoldi, Anthony Montagne

Agency Producer: Tommy Frankau
Account Director: Ollie Felts/Users/davegianatasio/Desktop/YT grab shift command 4.png
Designer: Jordan Randhawa
Head of Strategy: Matt Tanter
Production Director: Sarah allen
Strategy Director: Tatiana Jezierski
Account manager: Jeffi Van Hees

Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Director: The Bobbsey Twins From Homicide (Tim McNaughton and Freddy Mandy)
Producer: Emma Butterworth
DOP: Alex Barber
Prod Design: Chris Oddy
Costume: Verity Hawkes
HMU: Kirstin Chalmers

Editing: Stitch
Editor: Leo King

Post Production: Black Kite
Colourist: George Kyriacou
Sound: 750mph
Sound: Sam Ashwell
Producer: Olivia Ray
Casting: Anna Kennedy

Media agency: the7stars