On July 29, the ASA banned Havas Worldwide London’s Finish dishwasher cleaner ad, for being misleading. The ad running on TV in the UK was based on an interview between television presenter, Carol Smillie, and Dr Lisa Ackerley, who was described as an expert in household hygiene.
The Advertising Standards Authority received one complaint about the ad it received in March, on the basis that it exaggerated the amount of dirt that would build up in a dishwasher if the cleaning product was not used.
Reckitt Benckiser contested the ban, stating it had provided evidence to Clearcast that showed the volume of soil that typically passed through a dishwasher, had provided evidence to demonstrate the product’s efficacy and a study that, they believed, demonstrated the product’s cleaning capability.
The ASA argued that it had not been given the full studies to back up the ad’s claims and noted that neither of the studies it had been sent measured the product’s performance when used in “real-world conditions”.
None of this mattered much to Finish’ new global agency, Wieden + Kennedy London. It already had a new ad made and by August that ad was running – at least in Australia.
Now it is running in the UK, too.
The aim of the W+K campaign, created with agency Wieden+Kennedy is the same as that of its Havas predecessor – to make people think about the cleanliness, or dirtiness really, of their dishwasher by reminding them of the amount of dirty, greasy, sticky dishes they throw at their dishwasher, day in, day out.
So Who Cleans The Cleaner? launched in the UK on August 10.
The film imagines what a year of dirty dishes looks like for a dishwasher, from mucky breakfast plates in January, right through to sticky cake bowls at Christmas, and uses a similar, striking visual style as Wieden + Kennedy’s Dishes and Glasses, both of which also aired on Australian TV.
Ex-BMF creative heads, Carlos Alija & Laura Sampedro were creative directors on all three ads.
The new ad was filmed by directing duo, RBG6 with production company, Friend, and post-production by Time Based Arts.
Creative credits:
Creative Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Executive Creative Director: Iain Tait & Tony Davidson
Creative Director: Carlos Alija & Laura Sampedro
Copywriter: Rebecca Pottinger
Art Director: Sam Mccluskey
Executive Producer: James Guy
TV producer: Jo Charlesworth
Head Of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planner: Indiana Matine
