A plastic vomiting washing machine has made its TV debut in the UK. The commercial by Mother for smol highlights the plastic problem that still needs to be solved. Households across the UK get through over 110 million plastic laundry containers per year that end up in landfill or incinerated.
smol is an independent laundry and cleaning brand is a pioneer of plastic-free laundry packaging and it intends to reignite the anti-plastic cause, by encouraging the switch to the UK’s first brand to offer laundry capsules in plastic-free packaging.
Mother worked with production company, Drool, to create the washing machine metaphor and entertain people while drawing their attention to the often-ignored problem, offering them an easy way to make a change. The film was shot entirely in camera.
Hillary Strong, chief marketing officer of smol, commented, “People are well aware of the need to reduce their plastic waste, but few dwell on laundry – one of those things that we all have to buy and use, and a huge generator of single-use plastic waste. At smol, we’re proud of pioneering the UK’s first plastic-free laundry capsule packaging – and know that if everyone in the UK switched to smol, we’d prevent 70 million plastic laundry packs going to landfill every year.
“This campaign aims to introduce smol to an audience fatigued by anti-plastic messaging, with a humorous, attention-grabbing concept: A washing machine that vomits the plastic waste it’s likely to get through in its lifetime. Mirroring our audience who are quite literally sick of plastic.”
Oli Rimoldi, creative at Mother, added, “Deploying a playful metaphor to dramatise the shocking amount of laundry plastic waste the UK goes through attempts to sidestep the inertia in this market. We’re hoping the ‘plastic vomiting washing machine’ will make people smile whilst drawing their attention to the plastic problem – offering them an easy, simple solution to make change with smol.”
The campaign will run for eight weeks on TV and BVOD, supported by OOH media, underpinned by smol’s digital performance media.
Credits:
Brand: smol
Chief Marketing Officer Hillary Strong
Creative: Mother
Strategy: Mother
Production Company: Drool
Director: Freddie Powell
DOP: Ben Magahy
Director’s Assistant: Joseph Paul
Executive Producer: Genevieve Sheppard
Producer: Jess Wylie
Production Design: Arthur De Borman
SFX Supervisor: Sean Harland, Matter SFX
SFX Assistant: Louis Burke, Matter SFX
SFX Assistant: Efe Agaulo, Matter SFX
Sound: 750 MPH
Lead Sound Engineer: Sam Ashwell
Sound Engineer: Jake Ashwell
Producer: Olivia Ray
Editing: Trim
Editor: Thomas Grove Carter
Producer: Tatyana Alexandra
Post-Production: Untold
Executive Producer: Tom Igglesden
Producers: Ella Glazer & Jordan Malonga
Colourist: Julien Alary
VFX Lead: George Rockliffe
VFX Artist: Stepan Pazderka
Media Strategy & Planning: Craft Media
Media Buying: Goodstuff
