'Pick fruit and veg' - Waitrose insists Pick for Britain job advert is not inspired by Trainspotting monologue

Supermarket chain Waitrose is using some catchy wording in its campaign to support the UK-wide effort to attract more fruit and vegetable pickers during the pandemic.

Their advert reads: "Pick getting out of the house. Pick rain. Pick shine. Pick fruit and veg. Pick tired limbs and aching muscles. Pick early mornings and bleary eyes. Pick a hard day's graft. Pick the sun on your back and the dirt under your nails. Pick putting money in your pocket. Pick putting food on your plate. Pick putting food on other people's plates. Pick rising to a challenge. Pick being a key worker. Pick being part of something bigger. Pick for Britain."

The advert also says that Britain needs 70,000 fruit and veg pickers and provides details of how to get involved.

The UK Government created the Pick for Britain website to help those unemployed or on furlough find work with farms or growers who are desperately in need of more workers.

Environment secretary George Eustice revealed earlier this week that only a third of people coming from overseas to help pick fruit and veg at this time of year are currently in the UK.

People in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now being called on to help combat the shortage by taking on roles to pick various fruit and veg, from strawberries and raspberries to apples and potatoes.

But a picture of the advert was tweeted on Thursday by London-based journalist Mic Wright alongside a caption which claims it is "ripping off" Irvine Welsh, whose Trainspotting book was adapted for the 1996 movie of the same name.

Waitrose has a catchy new advert for the Pick for Britain campaign.

In the movie adaptation of Trainspotting, heroin addict Mark Renton (played by Ewan McGregor) delivers the iconic 'choose life' monologue, involving the repitition of the word ‘choose’ at the start of each sentence.

Irvine Welsh re-tweeted picture of the advert himself on Thursday with a caption which read: "Just when you thought the ***** could not sink any lower..."

However a Waitrose spokesperson insisted Trainpotting was not the inspiration behind the message in their advert.

The spokesperson said: "It's our campaign and the repetition of the word 'pick' is to draw attention to the Pick for Britain campaign."