Aldi has unveiled a cheeky spoof of John Lewis’s man-on-the-moon Christmas TV ad.
The 30-second parody pokes fun at the soppiness of the department store’s annual showpiece.
Aldi’s video, released yesterday, also shows a lonely pensioner dressed in grey on a bench in outer space.
But this time he has two telescopes in front of him, a John Lewis one for £109.95 and an Aldi one for £69.99.
The old man say he likes both but is “over the moon” with the discounter’s cheaper version, which lets him see a woman floating towards him on a sofa strung with balloons.
The woman is Jean – star of Aldi’s “Like Brands” gin ads from 2011.
Oliver Smith, intellectual property consultant solicitor at Keystone Law, said parodies using a short copy of an original could be an easy way for retailers to garner media attention.
He said they made use of the law that came into a force a year ago, that allows “fair dealing” with copyrighted works for the use of parody.
“Companies should beware, however, not to make their spoof confusingly similar to famous ads as this could amount to unlawful passing off, particularly in online ads where traffic might go to the spoof ad thinking it is the famous one,” he said.
Aldi will stock the “Premium Telescope” shown in the video in stores from today.
The limited range will only be sold while stocks last, as part of its “Specialbuys” deals.
Aldi’s also aired on television last night during ITV’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! And Channel Four’s Supervets.
It has raced to more than 600,000 Youtube views within 24 hours.
But it has a long way to go to catch up with the 18 million who have seen John Lewis’s ad online.
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