After a long Finnish winter, summer is just around the corner, and that means one thing: barbecue season is about to begin.

Directed by Pete Riski, known for his cinematic storytelling with a sharp eye for comedy, and produced by Directors Guild Helsinki, Lidl Finland’s new campaign film sets the tone for the season with an epic yet playful take on grilling culture, inspired by the classic Pied Piper tale. The campaign was created in collaboration with Nord Helsinki and marks one of the first projects between the agency and Lidl Finland.

In the film, one of Finland’s best-known chefs and TV personalities, Henri Alén, steps into the role of the Pied Piper of grills. His confident, feel-good approach to food makes him a natural fit to lead the nation into barbecue season.

Playing a melody that drifts through the nation, he draws grills out of their winter hiding places and sets them in motion, as if they had been waiting all winter for someone to finally fire them up again.

The story begins with a small, yellow underdog grill looking over at a neighbor’s yard, a perspective that gives the film its heart and point of view. What starts as a small, tender moment soon grows into a playful parade that expands across the streets and eventually the whole country, building into a comically epic grill procession. The destination is clear--it is Lidl, the natural home of barbecue season in Finland.

Epic in scale but comedic in tone, the film finds its humor in how something small grows into something unexpectedly large, seen through the eyes of a grill that ends up leading far more than itself.

“It’s a simple but extremely strong concept,” said Riski. “Once we found the tone, everything else followed quite naturally.... Read More