Inside BBH Dublin’s Purrrfectly Deadpan Tesco Mobile Campaign

In a phone-obsessed world, it takes something a bit unexpected – and super cute – to cut through. For this, BBH Dublin’s latest campaign for Tesco Mobile enlisted our most unimpressed judges: cats.

But not just any cats. These are hand-crafted, deadpan-perfect puppets, delivering dry wit and subtle side-eye from the front steps of a very Irish high street. Directed by the brilliantly absurd Jeff Low, the campaign flips the script on typical telco ads, using the cats’ commentary to reframe Tesco Mobile’s value proposition with both charm and sharp humour.

Rooted in a real consumer truth – that we’re all addicted to our screens but often overlook the better deal right in front of us – the campaign smartly positions Tesco Mobile as the provider offering the same great features as the big guys, just better, and with added Clubcard perks. From puppet precision to a delightfully underplayed score, the TTL execution remains consistent across every format without ever losing its bite.

LBB’s Zoe Antonov sat down with creative lead Aubrey O’Connell, strategy lead Darius Pasalar, and production lead Evonne O’Rourke to dig into the craft, cultural nuance, and comedy instincts that brought these hilariously unimpressed cats – and Tesco Mobile’s brand promise – to life.

LBB> What inspired the decision to view common phone behaviours through the eyes of pets, specifically cats, as the central concept for this campaign?

Aubrey> We’re pretty much all guilty of spending loads of time on our phones, so there were no unbiased humans available to comment on it – we had to outsource!

LBB> How did the idea of using humour and relatability evolve into the final messaging about value and service with Tesco Mobile?

Darius> Strategically we needed to move Tesco out of the middle of the market. To do this, the work needed to be disruptive but still retain the warmth and humanity of Tesco Mobile. Humour pointed the way to disrupt the market, while still retaining that relatability with consumers.

LBB> What consumer insight or research sparked the connection between everyday phone habits and Tesco Mobile’s unique offer?

Darius> They want the most from their phone and network, but they don’t realise you actually get better value (beyond just price) with Tesco.

LBB> Why was it important for the campaign to feel distinctly Irish, and how was that woven into the storytelling and characters?

Darius> Tesco is up and down the country and so are its mobile customers. The audience needed to see themselves and their own phone behaviour. To do that we chose the most unlikely of spectators, cats.

LBB> How did you balance the fun, absurd tone of the spot with the strategic message about Tesco Mobile’s Clubcard benefits and fixed prices?

Darius> At the heart of this work is the simple truth that you can get all the same great things as other phone providers, but just better thanks to Tesco value. This truth was surfaced through the cats and reinforced through additional channels that demonstrated the core RTB’s in detail. Including frozen contracts, price, and Clubcard benefits.

LBB> Was there a particular emotional reaction or brand perception shift you aimed to trigger in viewers with this concept?

Darius> The desired response was to jolt customers from seeing Tesco from a supermarket mobile space into a player that offered all the great products and services as the competition but better with the value and service of Tesco.

LBB> Why was Jeff Low chosen as the director, and what did he bring to the tone and comedic execution of the campaign?

Evonne> Jeff is a master of dry, pared-back humour who doesn’t shy away from the absurd and surreal, so he felt like a very natural fit for our dry-witted cats. He is brilliant at really digging down to the core of a scenario and finding the funny. In this instance, forcing the audience to see the world through the eyes of a cat – where phones are arbitrary objects and our everyday human behaviour is nonsensical and abstract.

Jeff brought his sharp comic timing to this everyday exchange between cats – the defeated vocal performance and deadpan look from Ted along with subtle twitches and movements of the puppets brought an understated and hilarious realness to the film.

LBB> How did the team approach the creation and performance of the cat puppets? What were some of the biggest challenges or surprises in that process?

Evonne> The level of detail and craft that the puppeteers brought was incredible –each puppet was handmade, hours and hours of work over a number of weeks. The precision and attention to detail was so impressive.

When it came to the performance, there was a different mechanism for each movement – blinking, talking, tail movement controlling and so on.

Aubrey> In terms of challenges it was actually pretty smooth. Puppets give you a lot of control to go again on takes in a way that would be much more drawn out in, say, animation. I’ve worked with a real cat on set before, and I live with a real cat, and neither of those are very cooperative. Shoutout to Moose.

LBB> What made the in-camera, puppetry-based execution more effective for this campaign than, say, CGI or animation?

Aubrey> Realness. The things we’re talking about are really everyday so it’s right that the setting should feel really everyday and grounded too. The tone was always meant to be quite deadpan, and puppets doing deadpan is kind of unusual to how you normally see them. Sometimes when you go into CGI worlds, animals can take on almost human traits and then you lose the us versus them element.

LBB> Can you talk about the set design: what elements were key to building an authentically Irish backdrop that still felt whimsical and narrative-driven?

Evonne> The setting for our cats will feel very familiar to our Irish audience – this is a street you’ll readily find in towns and villages up and down the country. The colour palette, textures and propping were all very much inspired by real life. The charming houses along the high street bring a lovely authenticity – then little details like the pebbledash wall, electricity box, gas canisters and wooden crates… all very unremarkable everyday elements, but unmistakably Irish.

LBB> How did you ensure consistency across the TTL rollout – AV, OOH, social – while still allowing the core idea to shine in different formats?

Aubrey> I think with any concept, if it’s half decent it’s pretty easy to write to. The idea of the same stuff, but better, is really tight. So then it’s just a case of figuring out what people are doing when they’re seeing it. Same crowded train on OOH, same gym bros on social. Keep on keeping on, essentially. That could’ve been an alternative endline.