The market is always changing and we love to keep up to date on new stories being told and new ways of telling them. So, this week we are talking about our favourite campaigns of the month.
Up first is Dani’s favourite ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xc0HZG7GC8
It’s Finish ‘Powerball versus Life’ for me. Following on from last year’s category-defying Dishes’ these spots tell the story of heartbreak and aging through the language of dirty dishes. Yes, it’s a TV ad, but it’s also a deft and light-hearted exploration of a human truth — as anyone who’s cried in the bath eating coco pops will attest. At a time when every brand from soap to stationery is trying to empower us and we, in return, are at peak eyeroll, Finish somehow feels refreshingly at home in this emotional and existential space. A dishwasher lyricising about love and death? They’ve made it look so easy. Never mind all the questions about how they sold the idea in to the client. This is surely the product of ambition in all camps.
Of course, I have reservations that this will ‘connect people to their dishwashers’ (as the marketing line goes) but if Marie Kondo can get five million people talking to their socks, maybe I shouldn’t speak too soon.
Rosie:
When we look for insights to inspire our work, we know that they can come from anywhere – consumers, culture, communication, the category and the brand itself. What I love about this campaign is it is steeped in cultural insight. There is a huge trend for brands to create feminist adverts. However, some feel feminist without a cause. They’ve jumped on a bandwagon for no real reason but they feel that they should.
This campaign is so refreshing because the cultural insights lead to work that feels both brave and original. Here, Chinese unmarried women over 25 stand up to their pressuring parents and declare they are happy being independent and single. In a culture which calls them ‘leftovers’, and tries to market them off as if they were meat, this is a brave stand to take. I applaud SK-II for working with these women and taking a stand against something. This to me is so much more meaningful than Always ‘Emoji’ campaign.
