Aldi UK Hires Pro Gamers in Mission to Bring Back Family Dinner Time

A staggering 38% of British children refuse to sit down at the family dinner table, according to new data commissioned by Aldi, with over a quarter of UK parents blaming online gaming for this phenomenon.

As a champion of bringing families together round the dinner table, Aldi is launching an online service to help parents restore that all-important family dinner time.

Introducing Teatime Takedown – a new online service created by McCann UK that enlists an elite squad of professional gamers, who parents can call upon to enter into their kid’s game and take them down, prompting them to put down their controllers and join the dinner table.

Aldi will use clever marketing to reach parents directly, first through a promotional film that will roll out across channels from digital to social and media from radio to out-of-home and even in-store on the back of till receipts. The service will speak straight to parents on Netmums and popular recipe websites. It’s also really simple to use. All parents need to do is sign up via Facebook by inputting their children’s gamer IDs and a desired date, and if online at the right time, the kids will be freed up to join the dinner table by the team of world-class gamers.

Running over the next two long weekends (Friday to Sunday) from 17:00-20:30, Teatime Takedown will culminate on Mother’s Day (Sunday 31 March), when Aldi will extend the service from midday through to dinnertime to reclaim this sacred family day.

David Hills, group director of marketing and communications at Aldi UK, said: “At Aldi, we understand the importance of family mealtimes, but know how tough it can be to get everyone together. From suggesting family-friendly recipes, to offering Teatime Takedowns, we’re committed to helping parents on their journey to reclaiming that all important family time.”

Rob Doubal, chief creative officer at McCann UK, said: “85% of parents admit that getting their kids to sit down to eat is a struggle. Only Aldi would take a humorous head-on-approach to sorting out the problem. Hiring some elite gamers to infiltrate the games and take the kids down. Wonderful project. Thank you and well done all."