One TikTok clip has pushed a familiar supermarket logo into a new light, sparking a playful guessing game at checkouts and on car parks. The image millions pass daily now doubles as a brain teaser, and a rival chain has chimed in with a wink.
How a logo turned into a piano-playing dog
It started with a short video from creator @misskatiefett. The clip framed the Lidl mark in a fresh way. Viewers were told to re-read the shapes, not the letters. Suddenly, the red circle looked like a paw striking a note. The two letter Ls stood in for keyboard keys. A curved yellow stroke read as a wagging tail. The blue ground became a stage.
Once you read the yellow swoosh as a tail and the red dot as a paw, the two Ls snap into place as piano keys.
That act of re-reading is classic pareidolia. The brain searches for meaningful forms in abstract patterns. Clouds become animals. Wall sockets become faces. Brand marks are ripe for this trick because they rely on bold shapes and high contrast.
The clip moved fast across feeds. Commenters split into two camps. Some swore they could never unsee the canine concert. Others insisted the trick never landed. A few posted edits that traced the outline to guide the eye. Debates flared in captions. Screenshots filled group chats.
Aldi joins the joke, fans pick sides
Lidl stayed quiet as the chatter built. Aldi leaned in. The discount rival posted a deadpan line saying they could only see it with their eyes closed. It was a gentle prod and a reminder of the long-running sparring between the two budget giants.
Humour works for both brands because the stakes feel low. A logo gag is a safe, shareable moment. It keeps people talking about signage rather than shelf prices. It gives both chains a chance to show personality without starting a price war.
Rival banter lets shoppers feel in on the joke, while the brands keep their names in your feed for another day.
Why your brain falls for it
The science behind the snap
Pareidolia thrives when shapes are simple and colours are bold. Logos fit that bill. Your visual system processes colour blocks and edges in milliseconds. It seeks patterns that match known objects. A circular red form hints at a nose or paw. Parallel verticals hint at keys or bars. Add a swoosh and your mind sketches a wagging tail.
Expectation drives the effect too. When someone says “spot the dog”, your brain primes for animals. That primes you to test interpretations until one clicks. Once it clicks, the brain saves that reading. The next time you see the logo, the same path lights up. Undoing that is hard.
Try it yourself: three quick prompts
- Cover the letters I and D with your fingers. Do the L shapes read like a neat stack of piano keys?
- Trace the yellow curve with a pen in the air. Does a tail emerge once you commit to the arc?
- Squint from two metres away. Do the red circle and yellow ring merge into a paw-and-tail silhouette?
So, how do you say Lidl and Aldi?
The trend has revived a long-running pronunciation quiz. In Germany, Lidl sounds like “LEE-dl” with a soft, reduced final syllable. In Britain, many say “Liddle”. In France, versions vary by region. Aldi, born from the Albrecht name plus “discount”, tends to be “AHL-dee” in German, while many English speakers say “AL-dee”. None of this stops the tills.
| Country | Common pronunciation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | Lidl: « LEE-dl » / Aldi: « AHL-dee » | Final syllable in Lidl is a quick, soft sound. |
| United Kingdom | Lidl: « Liddle » / Aldi: « AL-dee » | Everyday speech shortens vowels and tidies endings. |
| France | Lidl: mixed (« Lee-dell », « Liddle ») / Aldi: « Al-dee » | Local accents pull vowels toward French patterns. |
Why this small twist matters to big brands
Logos are workhorses. They sit on trolley handles, receipts, and car park signs. You might pass Lidl’s blue square several times a week. Multiply that by a year and the count rises into the dozens for a single shopper. Across more than 12,000 Lidl sites in Europe and the United States, the mark meets millions of glances daily.
When a new reading spreads, a brand gains extra attention without paying for new billboards. That attention can shift tone. A mark many saw as blunt and functional now carries a playful layer. It softens the hard-discount image and gives fans a sharable wink. Even sceptics are more likely to look again at the fascia when they park.
A second meaning in a simple logo adds free reach, longer dwell time, and a warmer feeling on the forecourt.
Other famous hidden readings
Brands have leaned on visual cues for years. The arrow inside FedEx lives between E and X. The bear in Toblerone nests inside the mountain. The Carrefour emblem hides a C in negative space. These effects reward patience and flatter the viewer. The Lidl moment lands differently because the reading was not designed as a secret picture. It emerged from the crowd and spread laterally, meme-style.
How to use this with kids, classes, or teams
Turn the shopping run into a five-minute media literacy game. Ask children what else they can find in store signs. Let them sketch quick overlays on a scrap of paper. Compare options and vote. It teaches them how design guides sightlines, and how the mind jumps to conclusions.
Teams can apply the same method in workshops. Print a set of familiar marks. Ask for alternative readings. Circle edges, dots, and curves. Then check which paths feel convincing. The exercise helps with quick ideation and makes people see constraints as springboards, not fences.
Practical tip: will this change how you shop?
Probably not in price or basket size. It may change where your gaze lands when you enter. You may notice signage earlier. You may point to the logo when you meet a friend in the queue. That shift alone has value for retailers. It anchors the brand in a small, memorable story you retell for free.
If you want to test the staying power, run a simple experiment next week. Count how many times the image pops into your head between car park and checkout. Note whether you can still see the original wordmark cleanly. If the dog keeps showing up, your brain has saved the pattern. If it fades, the trick needed the social nudge to stick.
