London: Tesco has unveiled a new integrated marketing campaign to support the expansion of its Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme, doubling its reach from 500 to over 1,000 schools starting September. The initiative aims to further scale to twice that size again next year, reinforcing the retailer’s commitment to community wellbeing and child nutrition.
The campaign, conceptualised by BBH, builds on Tesco’s recently launched brand platform, which reinterprets its iconic “Every Little Helps” through the relatable phrase, “Need Anything From Tesco?”. It reflects the brand’s continued focus on supporting everyday needs of customers and communities.
At the heart of the campaign is a visually rich film featuring a “fruit giant” travelling across the UK with a young companion, Theo. Set to Give a Little Bit by Roger Hodgson, the narrative portrays the giant gradually shrinking as he shares parts of himself with children—symbolising the act of giving. The film was directed by Nick Ball through MJZ, with post-production handled by Untold Studios.
The production of the giant was a significant technical undertaking, involving six months of post-production work. At its largest scale, the character comprises over 105,000 individual pieces of photorealistic fruit and vegetables across 86 varieties, showcasing a blend of storytelling and high-end visual craftsmanship.
The Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme, alongside complementary initiatives such as Fruit & Veg Grants and Free Fruit for Kids in stores, aims to benefit up to one million school children across the UK. Customers can also contribute to the initiative, with Tesco committing to donations for every fruit and vegetable purchase made until May 24.
Murray Bisschop, UK Marketing Director, Tesco said, “Every day, children across the UK are missing out on the fruit and veg they need to thrive at school. That’s why our Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme is so important. We’re delighted that we have been able to bring the meaningful work to life in a way that feels very Tesco through the giant campaign.”
Felipe Guimaraes Serradourada, ECD at BBH London said, “A big initiative like this deserves a big idea and this is a huge one. Some would say it’s giant. Helping a million kids is no small feat, luckily we got some help.”
The campaign extends beyond film into a fully integrated rollout, including print, outdoor, and digital channels. High-impact placements feature the giant appearing at key locations such as Piccadilly Lights and the Skylights at Manchester Printworks, one of Europe’s largest LED screens. Social media activations and Tesco’s grocery delivery fleet will further amplify the campaign’s reach.
Additionally, Tesco will introduce a range of fruit and vegetable plush toys inspired by the campaign, priced at £3 each, with proceeds supporting the schools programme.
The nationwide campaign will run across TV, social, radio, print, OOH, and DOOH, with media planning and buying managed by EssenceMediacom and WPP.
CREDITS:
Campaign title: Free Fruit & Veg For Schools
Client: Tesco
UK CEO: Ashwin Prasad
Group Managing Director, Customer: Becky Brock
UK Marketing Director: Murray Bisschop
Head of Marketing: Alicia Southgate
Lead Campaigns Manager: Catherine Benson
Campaign Manager: Nina Flood
Advertising agency: BBH London
Executive Creative Director: Felipe Guimaraes
Associate Creative Directors: Holly Fallows, Charlotte Watmough
Creatives: Khushali Patel, Sarah Millyard
Deputy Chief Strategy Officer: Saskia Jones
Strategy Director: Arabella Saunders
Senior Strategist: Alexi Hall
Client Managing Director: James Rice
Business Lead: Tori Meadows
Senior Account Director: Owen Keating
Account Manager: Imogen Brooks, Ollie Withell
Account Executive: Lula Horton, George Moody-Stuart
Senior Project Manager: Sophie Sanderson
Designer: Miguel Sousa, Keiti Collins, Lucia Volpe, Matthew Manlove
Retouching: BBH Studios – Connor Farrow Guy & Simon Goold
Studio: Toni Polain & Dave Walsh
Agency film producer: Nicole Southey
Assistant agency film producer: Pete Wiltshire
Agency Print Producer: Rachel Clarke
Media agency: EssenceMediacom
Production Company: MJZ London
Director: Nick Ball
Producer: Ewen Brown
Exec Producer: Dickie Jeffares
Production Manager : Daniel Gay
Production Assistant: Spike Elwood
Director of Photography: Ben Fordesman
1st Assistant Director: Ben Gill
Production Designer: Marco Puig
Casting Director: Hannah Birkett
Wardrobe Stylist: Ellie Walker
SFX: Machine shop
Editing Company: Stitch
Editor: Leo King
Assistant Editor: Ruoyu Ou
VFX Studio: Untold Studios
Executive Producer: Tom Igglesden
Producer: Ella Glazer
Creative Director: Jonathan Wood
Animation Creative Director: Tim Van Hussen
Shoot Supervisor: Adam Grint
VFX Supervisor: Christian Baker
CG Supervisor: Hudson Martins Ribeiro
Character Supervisor: Chloe Dawe
Lead Artist: Alex Doyle, Bhaveesh PV, Cyriel Verkuijlen, Phillippe Moine, Sriram Namana
Production Coordinator: Natalie London
Production Assistant: Joseph Wolffe
Concept Artist: Therese Vildefall
VFX Artists: Alex Miller, Aswin Bal, Avinash Savant, Brad Willis, Carlo Carfora, Claudio Quarra Sacco, Deniz Cinar, Dinesh Reddy, Ed Turvey, Emre Samioglu, Faizal Tahir, Giacomo Cavalletti, Greta Kossowska, Henry Affonso, Jayadeep Chandran, Jessica Zanetti, Kanishk Chouhan, Kim Ranzani, Laurie Garnier, Manjunath R, Manoj Ravi, Marcel Ruegenberg, Marta Esteban-Infantes, Mary Doyle, Mohammad Azeem, Upasana Choudhary
Online: Richard Harris
Colour Grading: Time Based Arts
Colourist: Simone Grattarola
Colour Assistant: Tom Matthews, Aiden Tobin
Datalab: Jameson White
Producer: Théa Dagnaud
EP: Dan Kreeger
Audio Post Production – Sine
Sound Supervisor/Designer/Mixer – Phil Bolland
Sound Designer – Frankie Beirne
Audio Producers – Beth Tomblin & Aishah Amodu
Music Composition – SAW Music
Music supervisor: Hywel Evans
Music company: Black Sheep Music
OOH Photographer: Pret-a- Portrait – Aaron Jacobsen & Ashley Wallace
Production Company – Black Sheep Studios
