Peter Andre takes Iceland back to the future

The wait is over. Iceland has announced the new face of its ad campaign will be none other than “TV presenter, songwriter and chart-topping singer” Peter Andre, of Mysterious Girl fame.

Andre, 41, will make his debut next month, following in the footsteps of Iceland alumni Katona, Biggins, Nolan and Donovan. All set the bar very high. Yet no one should doubt that Andre is a valuable addition to the roster. Iceland joint MD Nick Canning thinks so, for sure.

“Peter Andre has a very high profile with our customers as a singer, presenter, parent and TV personality,” he says, warmly. “Including, of course, his life-changing appearance in the Iceland-sponsored I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!”

Indeed. Who could forget that? Amid the oppressive heat of the studio lights, Andre fell in love with Katie Price, aka Jordan, and between them they redefined what we could expect in terms of access to our favourite celebrities.

Sadly, they didn’t live happily ever after. Still, inking the Iceland deal means no looking back for Andre, who regularly shops at Iceland, I think.

“I only ever get involved in a campaign when I truly believe in it,” he says. “Having experienced first-hand the variety of great quality foods, both fresh and frozen, I can honestly say that Iceland is a great place to shop, full of family favourites and offers outstanding value.”

He said “honestly”, so we believe him. Anyway, the other interesting thing about Andre’s appointment is that it marks an about-turn for Iceland, which decided to ditch celebs from its ads when Nolan stepped down in 2010, after an impressive three-year stint.

“Coleen is undoubtedly a hard act to follow,” said Canning at the time. “So after long and hard consideration we’ve decided not to try and replace her.”

Understandable. Although it now feels like a sensible move to have a stab at trying. Iceland’s ads have lost their way recently because they lacked focus on what their new star signing accurately identifies as their core strengths: family favourites and outstanding value.

Historically, their adverts did just that by sticking a family-friendly celeb in front of the camera and showing them having the time of their life at a party filled with friends and carefully arranged Iceland food, with the pack size and prices prominently displayed on screen.

Nothing groundbreaking, but simple and effective. And they generated sales. So while you could argue that Iceland is going backwards with its new campaign, this time around it feels like backwards is absolutely the right direction to go.