Grand Frais Drives Big Sales Potential with Kad Merad

May. 14, 2026

French supermarket chain Grand Frais’s new ad featuring Kad Merad has achieved an ‘exceptional’ 1.47 Spike Rating from the creative effectiveness platform System1 – indicating very strong short-term sales potential.  

Based on the audience’s emotional response to an advert, System1’s Spike Rating measures how well a creative drives short-term sales or immediate response for a brand. A Spike Rating of 1.32 or above considered ‘exceptional’, while the average score for French television commercials is a modest 1.06.   

Grand Frais’s new ad, which features the actor Kad Merad shopping in a series of ludicrous disguises to avoid being recognised by his fans, focuses on humour and storytelling to evoke an intense emotional response. System1 has found that celebrities are highly effective drivers of short-term activation response, due to audiences already having an opinion or emotional response attached to them.  

Along with an "exceptional" Spike Rating, the creative also scored highly for its long-term growth potential and its brand recognition. The ad received a 3.7 Star Rating (indicating good long-term brand-building power) and an ‘exceptional’ Fluency Rating of 95% (showing the percentage of people who recognised the brand).  

Both of these scores were well above the average for French television commercials.

Andrew Tindall, Chief Growth Officer – Advertising at System1 said:

"Grand Frais understands that the fastest way to earn attention is often through surprise. The ad startles at first, then cleverly turns that jolt into joy. It balances the proven triggers of short-term effectiveness, celebrity, distinctiveness and humour, without losing sight of the long game of brand building. And that’s the real craft here: you don’t need to know Kad, speak French, or live near a Grand Frais to feel its pull. The appeal is universal. Which is precisely why this local supermarket is likely to grow far beyond local fame, into sales, market share and enduring mental availability."