The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2024
Lidl secretly hosts Dublin's Paul Mescal lookalike contest, then reveals itself
Unbranded posters and an anonymous TikTok teased a Paul Mescal lookalike event in Dublin; Lidl revealed itself as host and owned the moment.
Lidl
What it had to solve
Discount supermarket Lidl set a clear ambition: to be the most talked-about brand in Ireland, rooted firmly in culture. When a Timothee Chalamet lookalike competition went viral, Lidl — a retailer that had championed the lookalike long before it was a pop-culture affair — moved to deliver its best one yet: Irish Gladiator II star Paul Mescal.
How it works
Lidl set a clear ambition in Ireland: to be the most talked-about brand in the country, rooted firmly in culture rather than price alone. When a Timothee Chalamet lookalike competition went viral online, the discount supermarket — which had championed the lookalike long before it was a pop-culture affair — saw its moment.
Lidl's answer was to run its best lookalike yet: Irish Gladiator II star Paul Mescal. Unbranded posters for the event appeared around Dublin overnight, alongside an anonymous TikTok account, so nothing connected the event to the supermarket.
Crowds of Dubliners arrived. Lidl then revealed itself as the event's mastermind, owning the moment in a way that no other brand could — a discount chain inserting itself into the middle of Ireland's cultural conversation. The work was catalogued in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- Lidl had earned the joke: it championed lookalikes before they were a trend, so the stunt extended an existing brand truth instead of borrowing one.
- Unbranded mystery did the recruiting: posters and an anonymous TikTok made the event feel grassroots until the reveal.
- Local casting made a global format feel Irish: Paul Mescal, the country's Gladiator II star, gave Dubliners a reason to claim the moment as their own.
- The reveal was the payoff: the crowd that came for a joke met the brand as its host, which is affection no paid placement can buy.
What it did
The stunt let a discount supermarket own a global pop-culture moment in its home market: real crowds gathered around the unbranded tease, and the reveal delighted them in a way no other brand could match, advancing Lidl's goal of being the most talked-about brand in Ireland. The work sits in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
Entering a culture moment as its secret author beats sponsoring it: the mystery makes the audience show up, and the reveal converts their attention into brand affection.
Since then
For Lidl Ireland the event became proof it could move from ambition to culture in a single night: posters appeared anonymously, crowds gathered, and the supermarket's reveal turned a viral global format into a local brand moment. The work was catalogued in the D&AD awards archive, and it stands as a template for entering culture as the author of the joke rather than a sponsor of it.
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