A slinky, leggy model. An A-lister gathering. A sultry, whispering voiceover. Evocative words – strength, desire – in titles. All the trappings of designer fashion and fragrance advertising are there. Except that in FCB Chicago’s commercial, the product is not a multi-thousand-dollar watch, a perfume or a haute couture collection. It’s a trash bag, albeit a Glad ForceFlexPlus, cherry-blossom scented, hot pink trash bag.

And basically, people don’t think very much about trash bags. The idea of the commercial first and foremost is to grab attention. Over the top with a humorous twist grabs attention. Secondly, it hopes to appeal to a certain group – or those who aspire to being in it. FCB is positioning the Glad bag as the trash bag for “those that live the ‘extra’ life”. Another wee asset is that all this OTT extravagance deflects from the fact the plastic trash bags are not environmentally friendly (although Glad makes some that are more environmentally friendly than this one).

FCB’s Upstream Inclusion team did, however, make sure that the commercial met the standards of inclusion and diversity that the team was formed in August to uphold.

“Our goal is to add joy to otherwise mundane experiences,” stated C.C. Ciafone, director of marketing at Glad. “So we wanted to create a trash bag experience for those that live the ‘extra’ life. The cast lit up the room, bringing beauty and power as a manifestation of the benefits Glad is introducing with our new product line.”

“As an agency, we believe the best way to connect with people is to understand their shared values,” added Marc Wilson, executive vice president and executive director of strategic inclusion at FCB Chicago. “In this campaign, we used the notion of being ‘extra’ as a way to culturally resonate with people across different demographics and sociographics who value self-expression and creativity.”