Lessons from the cake aisle… (in 2 mins)
In April 2021, Marks & Spencer did something that should have been straightforward. They took legal action against Aldi for copying their beloved Colin the Caterpillar cake.
Colin had been an M&S icon for over 30 years. Aldi’s version, Cuthbert, looked suspiciously similar. The law was probably on M&S’s side.
But Aldi didn’t play the legal game. They played a completely different one.
Within hours of the lawsuit being announced, Aldi’s social media team fired the first shot. A single tweet, riffing on M&S’s own famous tagline: ‘This is not just any court case, this is… #FreeCuthbert.’
It went nuclear.
Aldi trended at number one on Twitter. The hashtag #FreeCuthbert became a national conversation. Newspapers ran it on front pages. Memes flooded every platform.
And while M&S stayed quiet – their official response was that Colin ‘won’t be commenting’ – Aldi kept going. They called on other supermarkets to unite their caterpillar cakes. They proposed a charity collaboration. They released a limited edition Cuthbert with all profits going to the Teenage Cancer Trust.
M&S had the legal argument. Aldi won the court of public opinion.
The case eventually settled out of court. Cuthbert came back with a slightly tweaked face and a bow tie. And Aldi has been gleefully poking M&S with the caterpillar ever since – in TV ads, on social media, even parking a giant Cuthbert sculpture outside an M&S store at Christmas.
A lawsuit that should have been a crisis became one of Aldi’s most successful brand moments.
SO WHAT?
Aldi didn’t create the moment. M&S handed it to them. The genius was in recognising what it was and moving fast enough to own it.
Too many brands, faced with a public challenge, retreat to legal language and corporate holding statements. Aldi did the opposite. They stayed in character. They were funny, fast, and completely on-brand.
The lesson here isn’t about caterpillar cakes. It’s about the ability to spot a moment, understand how it fits your brand story, and then have the speed and the nerve to seize it before it passes.
Moments like these don’t come from a brief. They come from a brand that knows exactly who it is and a team that’s trusted to act.
