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This ad is an attempt by market leader Aunt Bessie's to grow the Yorkshire pud category, and good on it.

As we all know, Yorkshire puddings are the undisputed star of a roast beef Sunday lunch - the source of great envy among the pea and carrot communities - and, in my opinion at least, the Eric Morecambe to roast beef's Ernie Wise.

However, this star quality has also been a failing for Yorkshire puddings, trapped not just in the dwindling Sunday roast niche, but also in a dwindling variant within that niche. The strategy, one that Morecambe's agent might also have considered, is for Yorkshire puddings to find a new partner.

Cue the business strategy rightly writ large in the advertising. The occasion: not a Sunday, but a school night. The food: not roast beef, but a school-night staple, sausage and mash.

Can Yorkshire puds credibly stake their claim to a corner of the weeknight plate? Definitely.

Sausages and Yorkshire pud. Yum.

A toad-in-the-hole minus the animal imagery; my mouth is watering.

So, on to the next strand in the advertising strategy: the emotional hook. The mother, we are told, is a working one with limited time. The brand gives her a 'helping hand', allowing her both to work and quickly create proper meals for her family. Yorkshire puds are permitted to salvage something from their relationship with roast beef: their 'properness'.

OK. Absolutely correct, but pretty standard strategic fare. However, there is an extra layer of insight, which I think is great. The stars of the ad are not the family, but a couple of older and disapproving ladies spying on them through binoculars. 'She works you know,' one of them says. 'She drops the kids at school, and off she goes. I don't know what those poor children eat.'

These ladies, delightfully exaggerated as they are, represent a real archetype - the 60-something aunt, who did not work when she raised her own kids, and thinks you shouldn't either.

In my experience, suburban England is full of such types, picking a fight over the topic that mums are already most sensitive about, and often using passive aggressiveness with admirable skill: 'You are marvellous - I'm amazed you have time to look after the kids at all.'

The ad definitively sides with the mother in this debate; as the Yorkshire puds are revealed, the old women see the error of their ways. In this way, the brand does not just provide a proper and handy midweek meal; it also provides the perfect riposte to those who judge and snipe at working mums.

The only thing is that these un-neighbourly hags do bear an uncanny relationship to Aunt Bessie on the packaging. I will forgive that, however.

Brand strategy verdict

The ad encourages a changed use for Yorkshire puds. It is insightful and amusing (if a little safe), and should help the product escape its niche.

8 out of 10