Brits went bananas for a stuffed carrot on Thursday, staging their own version of a Black Friday frenzy in pursuit of plushy versions of their favourite supermarket mascot.
Photos and videos posted online show shoppers swarming into Aldi, a U.K. supermarket chain, to get their hands on the wildly popular plush toy known as Kevin the Carrot. The chaos over Kevin has been dubbed “Orange Thursday” in a nod to Black Friday.
Some of the scenes resembled the frenzied shopping sprees of Black Friday in the U.S., with shoppers shoving and clamouring over one another to get at the coveted carrots. There have also been reports of fights breaking out, although no carrot-based clashes have yet been confirmed.
Kevin has become a viral sensation in the U.K. thanks to a series of popular Christmas ads, including one that has racked up more than 3.2 million views on YouTube.
The ad shows several unruly vegetable-villagers preparing to shred Kevin, who is tied up to a cheese grater. One veggie-villager throws a tomato at him, but instead of splattering, the talking tomato cuts Kevin free and they run away.
Kevin the Carrot then runs into a big-top tent and starts singing about food. He dons a tuxedo and a top hat and the rest of his carrot family joins him for the song.
It’s all a bit confusing, but Brits loved it and couldn’t wait to get their hands of plushy versions of Kevin this week. Aldi shipped 300,000 Kevin toys for the sale, according to the company’s PR firm.
Aldi released a whole line of Kevin the Carrot plushy toys on Thursday, prompting Brits to line up early outside its stores to get their hands on him.
The carrot and his friends were sold in a variety of sizes, although the most popular item appears to be a metre-high stuffed version of the character for £19.99.
Kevin and his family quickly sold out online, prompting shoppers to flock to the stores in search of him.
“Queues are forming over a carrot!” one user tweeted on Thursday. “A plush carrot at that!”
The child-sized Kevin toys proved to be a bit of challenge for some people to bring home.
Many people celebrated their purchases by putting Kevin in peculiar situations.
Aldi retweeted several amusing scenes involving its popular carrot on Friday.
“He gets everywhere, that Kevin!” the chain tweeted.
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