UPDATE (March 26th): Aldi has now scrapped its Teatime Takedown campaign.
Original article (published March 14th):
UK esports organisation Barrage have come up with a brilliant response to Aldi’s poorly-received campaign to get children off their games in time for dinner.
The supermarket chain’s ‘Teatime Takedown’ campaign invites parents to ‘call upon a squad of professional gamers to take down their kids in online games’.
But Barrage Esports is now offering the youngsters the chance to fight back, call upon some of Barrage’s top players and help them beat Aldi’s pros to continue playing.
It’s a bit of fun in response to the campaign and features their League of Legends player Kruimel (pictured above) in the tweet, ready to ‘defend the innocent’:
In response to @AldiUK‘s #TeatimeTakedown we will be offering our services as defenders of the innocent!
Any kids who’s parents have signed them up for it, get in touch with us & play with our professional gamers to ensure you #GameOn! pic.twitter.com/9VpoWOrDAL
— Barrage™ (@Barrage) March 14, 2019
Jeff Simpkins, Barrage Esports owner, told Esports News UK: “We may not have teams in all the games that people may be playing but we will do our best to organise something through our contacts and potentially with the help of some other organisations.
“We are more than happy for kids or even parents themselves for that matter to reach out to us and we can organise something. Gaming is for us something that brings people together, it’s growing year on year and it’s something that parents need to get on board with and support if that’s what their kids enjoy.
“That being said, taking a break from the game and spending time with the family is super important too! Imagine how much more successful and less backlash the ‘Teatime Takedown’ would have received if it allowed kids to play with pro players, so they can win their games quicker and be done in time for tea?”
Jeff said Barrage reached out to Aldi to potentially try and work with them to turn things around, and while they responded on Twitter, they did not provide contact information to progress things further.
Let’s wait and see what happens with the Aldi campaign and if any smart youngsters get in touch with Barrage…
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
Well done, Barrage!
Love this from Barrage!