Birds Eye has welcomed aboard a new Captain – and it's safe to say quite a lot of people are pleased with the decision.
The company behind your favourite fish fingers has certainly gone for the sizzling option (sorry) with its latest choice of actor to play the famed seaman.
The man in question, 56-year-old Italian Riccardo Acerbi, is certainly a departure from the iconic cheery Santa-like figure we've all grown to love (in a different sort of way).
In a first clip from its new campaign, he is portrayed as a loveable granddad enjoying a fish finger supper after having a swim in the ocean.
According to Birds Eye, Acerbi has a passion for watersports and impressed the company after demonstrating a "genuine approach to portraying the captain and his love of the sea".
Its new advertising mascot has certainly sent the Twittersphere alight... and frozen food sales through the roof:
What to Read Next
This is not the first time that fish fingers have turned sexy – you may have forgotten that Birds Eye went for a much younger captain back in the 1990s.
Thomas Pescod's turn only lasted three years, before the company reverted back to the friendly grandfatherly figure. Make what you will of his turn:
Yeah, we think it did better with the new incarnation too.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.
