Asda’s new TV advert, which cheekily casts a mother as the ‘Chancellor of the Checkout’, proved worthy of a media melee.

The Price Lock ad mocks the traditional Budget scenes in Downing Street

The campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, promotes the retailer’s new Price Lock guarantee and humorously parodies the traditional scene of the Chancellor outside 11 Downing Street, holding his suitcase aloft.

The advert was appropriately timed, running during the commercial breaks in ITV’s coverage of Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget last week, and a wider Price Lock ad will air in April.

In the style of a mock newscast, the ad follows a mother stepping out of a terraced house and holding up a red lunchbox with the Asda Price Lock slogan emblazoned on it. The campaign has a newscaster-style voice-over, an old woman peeking through net curtains and a breaking news ticker on screen, for a lightly amusing, though definitely not laugh-out-loud, effect.

The ad’s creative perfectly fits Asda’s promotional theme, playing on the word ‘budget’ to show how the grocer can help UK mothers handle their finances. The ticker highlights some of the individual ‘price-locked’ items, such as eggs at £1, in a clever and clear way. Price Lock pledges to keep the cost of staple goods at a fixed price.

The newscaster echoes the ad’s tone, striking an optimistic note as he says: “It’s good news for families as prices are going down and staying down.”

The campaign highlights that although there is continued economic uncertainty, Asda customers can be reassured that its prices won’t increase.

Asda Price Lock