Sainsbury’s has now brought Roald Dahl’s BFG back for a third Christmas in a row, and this year New Commercial Arts has finally done the obvious thing: instead of bringing the giant to our world, it sends the supermarket to his. “Sainsbury’s big delivery” is a two-minute fantasy road movie in which colleague Annie and her van-driving sidekick Fred haul a Christmas feast deep into Giant Country because the BFG is too poorly to celebrate. It is the most expensive-looking Christmas ad of the season so far. Whether it is the most charming is another question.
WHAT HAPPENS ON SCREEN
We open on the BFG reflected in a bauble, then find him huddled in his cave, red-nosed, sneezing and ready to call Christmas off. Cut to a busy Sainsbury’s loading bay, where Annie and Fred are working through the festive rush between bites of a Turkey Feast Sandwich. When word reaches Annie that her giant friend is ill, she loads a van with Taste the Difference food and the two set off over a stone bridge, out of a snowy English town and into a landscape of jagged peaks and blue crystal rocks.
Giant Country is not friendly. A hand-painted sign reading “SSSHH! Giants Snoozling” warns them past a field of sleeping giants; the van tips over a ridge and food goes flying in the back; a huge spiny Squizzly Scotch-Hopper fills the windscreen. Then the Greedy Giant turns up, and the answer to him is pure Sainsbury’s: the back doors open, a crate of Brussels sprouts spills across the road, and the giant goes flat on his face. By nightfall the van reaches the BFG’s cave, now strung with lights, and Annie, Fred and the giant sit down to turkey crown, sprout gratin and aged beef in paper crowns. Annie’s line – nobody should miss Christmas – lands just before the Sainsbury’s logo and “Good food for all of us” fill a frosted window.
CREDITS
Brand: Sainsbury’s. Film: “Sainsbury’s big delivery,” 2:00, published on Sainsbury’s official YouTube channel on November 1, 2026, with its TV premiere the same evening at 18:26 UK time, supported by 90, 60, 40 and 20-second cuts. Agency: New Commercial Arts (founder and CCO Ian Heartfield; creative directors Dan Bailey and Brad Woolf). Production: Rogue Films. Director: Sam Brown. DoP: Franz Lustig. Production designer: Drogo Michie. Editing: TenThree, editor Eve Ashwell. VFX, post and colour: Electric Theatre Collective (VFX supervisor Alex Snookes, colourist Luke Morrison). BFG licensing via Born Licensing and the Roald Dahl Story Company. Credits per the Sainsbury’s release published by Creative Salon.
THE EXECUTION
This is a big-budget creature feature dressed as a grocery ad, and on that level it delivers. Electric Theatre Collective’s Giant Country is genuinely cinematic: cold, rocky, a little menacing, closer to a fantasy film than a cosy storybook. The Scotch-Hopper is a good piece of design, the Greedy Giant has proper weight when he hits the ground, and the BFG himself is warmer and more expressive than in either previous outing. Sam Brown, who knows how to stage scale, keeps the camera inside the van for much of the ride, so the spectacle is always seen through the windscreen of a delivery vehicle. That is a smart framing device for a supermarket that wants you to think about its home delivery.
The cast also helps. Annie remains the best thing in this campaign, all bobble hat and unflappable enthusiasm, and Fred gives her someone to panic next to. Their double act gives the film a human center that the CGI cannot provide on its own.
WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T
What works: the strategic logic is airtight. Every set piece is a delivery problem, the food is the hero of the final act, and the sprout gag is the kind of thing children will happily repeat at the dinner table. The ad also knows that a Dahl giant gives Sainsbury’s something Tesco and Argos cannot buy this year: a ready-made emotional connection with parents who grew up with the book.
What doesn’t: the story is thin. The BFG has a cold, a van drives a long way, and everyone eats. There is no real cost, no choice, no moment where anything feels at stake, so the two minutes play more like a theme park ride than a story. The product supers run under almost every shot, which is a legal necessity but also a reminder that this is a catalogue with a plot attached. And by the third year the BFG device is starting to feel less like a tradition and more like a franchise obligation. The returning Greedy Giant exists only to fall over. Compared with Tesco’s patient, character-driven “The Wrong Address,” this feels loud and busy.
VERDICT
“Sainsbury’s big delivery” is a gorgeous piece of production with a clever delivery-van point of view, a strong lead in Annie and one very good sprout joke. But underneath the VFX it is the same message as last year, told at a higher volume, and the BFG is beginning to look like a mascot rather than a character. Kids will love it; adults will admire the craft and forget the story. Rating: 3 out of 5.
