ALDI UK Advertises Gaming Hit-Squad Teatime Takedown for Parents

In what has to be one of the weirdest, and possibly most tone-deaf video game (or anti-video game) advertisement campaigns we’ve ever seen, ALDI UK - think of them as sort of a mash-up between WalMart and Costco - released a promotional campaign to target your kids called Teatime Takedown. 

By target, we don’t mean it is aimed at them as consumers. Rather, by “target” we explicitly mean they want you to target your children. In an attempt to sell groceries, Aldi uses the fear parents have of video games to perpetuate a generally harmful opinion of video games as both a hobby, and a career in any capacity. There can be some negative aspects of any gaming community, but with so much good being passed around, it's hard for anyone with a base understanding of the gaming world to write it off completely. 

The Plan

Parents worried about those kids that continuously miss out on tea time (dinner, in the UK), because they’re too busy playing video games online. Using their new Teatime Takedown promo, you can enter your child to be the target of what could easily be boiled down to an “online hit”. How you ask? Well listen up. 

By scouring their consoles, or online platforms, you (the parent) are to send Aldi their online handle. Then, Aldi will give said screenname to their select group of gaming hitmen, who will then punish your child so much that they log-off out of sheer anger or embarrassment.

Is It a Joke?

This campaign first caught our attention after Rod “Slasher” Brasleu tweeted out the promotional video, comparing it to the recently failed Bully Hunters campaign. At first, it could have been misconstrued as a very British joke, as the UK is a region that boasts a peak aptitude for dark humor. But reading a little further, it’s evident that this campaign was concocted by a braintrust of parents who’s only tangible connection to the world of online video games is the brief moments in which they hear their children talking about the hobby. These are the same folks that call every console a "Nintendo". 

Supermarket Aldi giving Bully Hunters a run for the worst gaming/esports marketing campaign of all time pic.twitter.com/dQAHaKJbAk

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) March 13, 2019

This missunderstanding of the subject matter is most evident in their “Find Your Gamertag” section of the campaign website, where parents are instructed on how to get their child’s “gamertag” from their consoles. A fair step to include, right? Agreed. Except for the fact that their entire list of consoles include the Xbox One, the Playstation 4, and Twitch? As if Twitch (the streaming platform) is a consoles. Most of the time, it can hardly even lead to easy stream sniping due to both he often inability to acquire the same display name on both your platform of choice, and Twitch, but also the delays in streaming feeds. 

The final piece of evidence that they are actually creating this campaign for parents, is the inclusion of the final step in each plan, and it’s a reminder to “turn the console off” 

At the end of the day, having a conversation with your child about their addiction or adoration of video games is the only real way to solve the problem. Video games can be very challenging, and offer young minds one of the best ways to engage with critical, and quick thinking. This can and often does suck you in. 

What do you think about the Teatime Takedown campaign being run by Aldi UK?