Some of the most interesting advertising ideas come from recognising an opportunity in something people already know, rather than trying to create an entirely new conversation. Deliveroo's latest campaign with Tesco is a good example of this approach, taking a memorable moment from Cheryl's celebrity past and giving it a new purpose that connects naturally with the service being promoted.
Back in 2009, when Cheryl was at the height of her fame, she made a comment about how being a celebrity had changed her everyday life. Among the things she could no longer do was casually nip to the garage in her pyjamas to buy a pint of milk, even if she wanted to. It was an amusingly ordinary complaint from someone living a rather extraordinary life, and over the years, the comment became one of those recognisable moments that continued to circulate through British internet culture.
Seventeen years later, Deliveroo has decided that Cheryl's problem has gone unsolved for long enough.
To announce the arrival of Tesco on Deliveroo across 75 UK towns and cities, the brand worked with creative agency The Romans to bring the moment back to life, with Cheryl once again appearing in her pyjamas and preparing to make herself a cup of tea. When she opens the fridge and discovers that she has run out of milk, however, she no longer has to worry about whether she can leave the house unnoticed, because a quick order through Deliveroo brings a pint of milk from Tesco straight to her door.
It is a simple idea, but what makes it interesting is how naturally the original story lends itself to the product being advertised. Rather than finding a celebrity and building a campaign around their popularity, Deliveroo has identified something from Cheryl's own history that its service can genuinely address, allowing the brand to become part of the joke without making the commercial message feel forced.
The insight behind the idea
At the heart of the campaign is an understanding of why Cheryl's original comment was memorable in the first place. Although she was talking about the restrictions that came with fame, the situation she described was rooted in an experience that almost everyone could recognise, because running out of milk or discovering that an everyday essential is missing is one of those small inconveniences that can disrupt an otherwise ordinary moment.
That contrast between celebrity life and everyday reality gave the original comment its humour, and it is precisely what makes the reference useful for Deliveroo today.
The brand is introducing Tesco as a grocery option on its platform, which means it needs consumers to think about Deliveroo in situations that extend beyond ordering takeaway food. By choosing something as familiar as running out of milk, the campaign makes the expanded service feel relevant to everyday life without requiring a complicated explanation of what the partnership offers.
There is also something particularly effective about revisiting a moment that already has a place in popular culture, because the audience does not need to be introduced to an entirely new story before understanding the joke. For those who remember Cheryl's original confession, the campaign offers the satisfaction of seeing a familiar moment return with an unexpected resolution, while those who are less familiar with it can still follow the straightforward story of someone needing milk and having it delivered.
This gives the idea two ways to connect with audiences, combining the recognition and nostalgia of an established cultural reference with the universal relevance of an everyday household problem.
Making the product part of the entertainment
One of the reasons celebrity-led advertising can sometimes feel unconvincing is that the celebrity's presence has little relationship with the product being promoted. Their fame may attract attention, but the audience is often left with a familiar face delivering a message that could just as easily have come from someone else.
Deliveroo takes a different approach by making Cheryl's personal connection to the story the foundation of the creative idea.
Her involvement matters because the campaign would not have the same meaning without her, and the product matters because it provides the solution to the very problem that made the original comment famous. The relationship between the celebrity, the cultural reference and the service is therefore much stronger than it would be in a conventional endorsement.
The creative execution also understands that the humour does not need to be exaggerated to make the point. Simply seeing Cheryl back in her pyjamas, facing the same problem years later and resolving it through an app is enough to bring the idea together, because the contrast between the original complaint and the modern solution carries the entertainment.
What is particularly clever here is that Deliveroo is not asking audiences to remember a list of grocery delivery benefits. Instead, it gives them a situation in which the usefulness of the service becomes immediately obvious, allowing the product demonstration to unfold as part of a story they are already interested in watching.
This is an important distinction because the campaign does more than use humour to attract attention. It uses humour to communicate the reason someone might choose the service, making the commercial proposition inseparable from the creative idea.
Extending the idea beyond the film
The campaign also recognises that a reference born out of internet culture has the potential to travel beyond a single advertising film, particularly when the creative provides audiences with something familiar and entertaining to share.
Alongside the hero execution, Deliveroo has introduced supporting social content developed by Coolr, creator and influencer partnerships, talent interviews, earned media activity, an out-of-home activation in Newcastle and a paid media partnership with Love of Huns.
These elements give the campaign opportunities to reach audiences in different contexts while maintaining the same central idea, rather than relying entirely on the film to generate attention.
The limited-edition 'Cheryl-Skimmed' merchandise is another example of how the brand has extended the joke into something audiences can engage with. The bundle includes silky teal pyjamas and a ceramic milk jug signed by Cheryl, with customers who ordered Tesco through Deliveroo between 28 and 30 October automatically entered into a giveaway.
Although the merchandise is playful, it also serves a commercial purpose by giving people an additional reason to place an order during the campaign period. At the same time, gifting the bundles to selected influencers and media creates further opportunities for the idea to appear in social content and conversations beyond Deliveroo's own channels.
This activity sits alongside the wider 'WOOHOO! Tesco now on Deliveroo' advertising campaign, which communicates the partnership through television, cinema, radio, video-on-demand and outdoor media. While that broader campaign establishes awareness of Tesco's availability on the platform, the Cheryl execution gives the announcement a more distinctive cultural angle and demonstrates how the service can fit into an everyday situation.
Why this approach is interesting
What stands out about the campaign is how it uses an existing cultural moment without allowing the reference to overwhelm the brand message.
There is always a risk when advertisers revisit familiar memes or viral moments that the audience will remember the joke but struggle to connect it with the product. In those situations, the brand may succeed in entertaining people without necessarily communicating anything meaningful about what it offers.
Here, the relationship is much more direct because Deliveroo's service provides the resolution to the story, which means the joke and the product benefit reinforce one another rather than competing for attention.
The campaign also shows that cultural relevance does not always have to come from reacting to whatever is currently trending. Sometimes an older moment can offer a stronger creative opportunity, particularly when it has remained recognisable over time and can be connected to something new in a way that feels natural.
Cheryl's original comment was never about grocery delivery, but it was about the inconvenience of being unable to do something ordinary, and that gives Deliveroo a credible reason to revisit it. The brand is effectively using a familiar story to demonstrate how a modern service can remove a small frustration from everyday life.
Of course, the creative strength of the idea does not automatically tell us how successful the campaign will be in driving grocery orders or changing consumer perceptions of Deliveroo. Those outcomes would need to be assessed through campaign performance and customer behaviour, particularly given that the wider Tesco partnership is being promoted through several advertising activities at the same time.
Nevertheless, the thinking behind the execution offers a useful lesson in how brands can approach cultural relevance with greater purpose.
Rather than borrowing a recognisable personality or popular reference simply because it might generate attention, Deliveroo has found a point where an existing cultural memory, a relatable consumer frustration and a genuine product benefit come together.
Ultimately, what makes the campaign compelling is that it gives audiences a reason to enjoy the reference while also understanding why Tesco being available on Deliveroo might matter to them. Cheryl's complaint may have started as a humorous observation about the inconveniences of fame, but the brand has managed to turn it into an accessible demonstration of everyday convenience.
The wider lesson is that effective cultural marketing is not simply about recognising what people remember or talk about, but understanding whether a brand has something meaningful to contribute to that conversation. In this case, Deliveroo has found a way to make a 17-year-old moment feel relevant again, while ensuring that the product remains central to why the idea works.
