UK supermarket chain Aldi has recently launched a new campaign to get children to put down their game controllers to enjoy some good old-fashioned family time.
The initiative, which is called ‘Teatime Takedown’ is very reminiscent of the ‘Bully Hunters’ campaign of old, and it’s gotten a lot of hate on social media [via Dexerto].
The ‘Teatime Takedown’ is asking parents of video game fans to send in their child’s gamer tags. Selected children will then have a “professional gamer” invade their game and absolutely obliterate the young’un in the hopes of driving them off the battlefield and over to the family dinner table.
Aldi’s reasoning for the move comes down to its own data, which says that “38% of British children refuse to sit down at the family dinner table, with more than a quarter of UK parents blaming online gaming for this phenomenon.”
Watch the campaign’s trailer below (and check out that like to dislike ratio – yeesh!)
There’s more than just a few issues with the idea though: how exactly would the professional player enter into a match with a specific child? Why would this get the child to stop playing? And what sort of ‘professionals’ are we talking about?
Well, Aldi has answered the last question, and don’t expect Ninja or PewDiePie to make an appearance. Instead, your kid will end up duking it out against someone from ‘Veloce eSports,’ which is consultancy team, apparently.
Twitter has a lot to say on the idea, with one person branding the whole campaign as ageist.
Imagine running a campaign directly aimed at group, minority or believe and openly attaching them. It’s exactly the same, except young people don’t spend money in your shop so you “get away with it”. Most people forget they were young once
— George Spour (@NJ_Spour) March 13, 2019
Hi there,
Teatime Takedown is literally a directed bullying campaign dressed up to please parents that have no understanding of setting boundaries or schedules for their children, so they can join family meal times.
I provided a translation for you 🙂
— Squallmuzza – Follow @SenshudoSquare (@Squallmuzza) March 13, 2019
Parents and gamers were quick to pick fault with the campaign, with lots of people seemingly feeling targeted.
I’m the parent of two Fortnite obsessed boys. As a reasonable parent, I find that saying ‘dinner in half an hour so don’t start a new round after that one’ works fine. If you want people sat with you at dinner that have just been beaten into not wanting to play, good luck to you.
— ? Mad Fellows (@MadFellowsGames) March 14, 2019
Looks like Aldi’s cooked itself up a serious oopsie. What do you think of the campaign?
Find out more about Teatime Takedown here.
Featured Image Credit: Aldi