Aldi has somehow made a virtue of its copycatting technique, parlaying its caterpillar cake-based legal battle with M&S into tiresome socials/marketing bantz. Now it’s extending the tactic into its advertising.

The discounter’s latest ad, which plays up its local sourcing for eggs and salmon (in this case from Scotland) echoes Waitrose’s ‘You can taste when…’ campaign, showing hens clucking around in a pleasant environment, before a dish is prepared. Diagetic sound is key: a shell is cracked close to the mic, before we are treated to some rather icky scrambled egg/smoked salmon noises. We even hear the clank of coarsely ground pepper hitting the plate.

It’s a brilliant borrow, co-opting Waitrose’s premium feel, working in that sourcing message, and – in keeping with the ad’s sound theme – relying only on Aldi’s famous jingle to tell us it should all be good value, too.

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