1.2 million UK adults would travel over 100 miles for a home-cooked roast dinner. Over half of the nation (56%) say they’d go out of their way – even travelling all the way “home home”, just for the meal they love most.

Wonderhood Studios and Waitrose have turned this nostalgic food love into a campaign, The Gastronaut, showing just how far food lovers will go for their comfort food. The campaign follows Waitrose’s hugely popular cinematic Christmas romcom, The Perfect Gift, this time borrowing from another movie genre, sci-fi.

The Gastronaut tells the story of astronaut, Michael, who dreams of delicious meals as he is served bland looking space fuel repeatedly. Cravings get the better of him, and he travels all the way home for his ultimate comfort dish, prawn linguine. In fact, the top three dishes UK adults would travel home from space for are the beloved roast dinner, and classics, British fish and chips or steak and chips according to research.

The campaign film, set to Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, makes Waitrose the champion of food worth travelling home for and underlines the idea that food is more than simply fuel. It launches Waitrose’s The home of food lovers platform, highlighting the quality, care and obsession that the supermarket has for delicious, ethically-sourced food.

In a fun (attention-grab) world first, Waitrose will “send” its commercial into space, using a specialist partner to transmit the film beyond Earth, reminding the UK that no distance is too great when there is a truly good meal waiting at home.

The full campaign includes TV, BVOD, SVOD, cinema, social and large-scale out-of-home; PR, influencer and in-store programme designed to spark conversation with food lovers across the UK; and a partnership with food lover and content creator, @WhatWillyCook.

Fun fact from Waitrose. The top ten meals that make Brits think of home:

1. Roast Dinner (39%)
2. Fish & Chips (25%)
3. Spaghetti Bolognese (13%) 
4. Homemade Soup (13%)
5. Sausage & Mash (12%)
6. Shepherd’s Pie (12%)
7. Cottage Pie (11%)
8. Stew (10%)
9. Steak & Chips (9%)
10. Jacket Potato (9%)

Credits:

Client: Waitrose
Chief Customer Officer: Nathan Ansell
Head of Channels: Caroline Kinsmann
Head of Brand & Customer Experience: Helen Carroll 
Senior Advertising Manager: James Ward
Advertising Lead: Joanne Massey
Senior Advertising Manager: Rebecca Hofstede
Advertising Manager: Jessica Knight 
Social Media Lead: Sarah Hood
Senior Social Media Manager: Emily Angliss
Social Media Manager: Chloe Ball

Creative Agency: Wonderhood Studios
Founder & CEO: Alex Best 
Founder & CCO: Aidan McClure
Managing Director: Sam Brown 
Head of Integrated Production: Natasha Johnson 
Creative & Design Operations Director: Roy Barker
Executive Creative Directors: Stacey Bird & Jack Croft 
Executive Strategy Director: Nick Exford
Strategy Director: Rob Jennings
Creatives: Tad Buxton & India Penny
Senior Integrated Producer: Stefanie Forbes
Producer: James Plaxton
Business Director: Tom Butler
Account Director: Tara Lidstone
Account Manager: Lizzie Coombs 
Account Executive: Hannah Chinyemba

Design: Wonderhood Design 
Production: Wonderhood Makers
Media: MG OMD

Film Production: SMUGGLER
Director: Tom Speers
1st AD: Julian Richards
Director of Photography: Rina Yang
Production Designer: Mark Connell 
Executive Producer: Lucy Kelly
Producers: Ben Link, Tarquin Glass

Post-Production: Untold Studios
Editing: Tenthree
Sound: 750mph 
Stills Photographer: Aaron Tilley 
Production Partner: Icon Films