Modern life is riddled with dirty dishes, and Finish wants to help.
A new 40-second, rapid-fire ad created by Wieden + Kennedy London for the dishwasher soap (owned by Reckitt Benckiser) runs through the various types of human activities that might make a mess of plates, bowls and glasses—and it turns out pretty much all of them do.
The deliberately grandiose concept could easily feel like an overreach for a mundane product, but the execution is brisk enough—with enough rich detail, quirky absurdity and clever insight packed in—to actually be kind of delightful, like when a shellshocked new father is beset by a gang of floating, filthy baby bottles.
It also shows W+K's knack for punching up the emotional significance of even dull brands with beautifully shot spots. "Dishes," directed by Riff Raff's Megaforce, feels a bit like a cross between W+K London's hypnotizing work for Lurpak butter and the Portland mothership's slice-of-life campaign for Target from a few years back.
It probably helps that the Finish idea is loosely based on the fundamental truth that everyone has to, you know, eat. But it should resonate particularly with anyone who's ever looked at a stacked sink after a hearty meal and thought, in a moment of extraordinary laziness, "Really? Again?"
The voiceover's kicker, "Every dish, every time," drives home the point that the product will leave you freer to focus on what matters, rather than living elbow deep in pots and pans.
A second new ad takes a similar quick-cut approach, from the narrower perspective of a single glass. It's also full of deft touches that tell smaller stories within the bigger one. (If the vessel is hosting a party on Saturday, it's helping cure heartburn on Sunday.) The payoff—keeping glasses shiny—is less ambitious, and less rewarding, but clear enough.
The odds of that glass surviving long enough for it to matter, though, are pretty slim. And it's not really worth wondering where dishes go when they die.
CREDITS
Client: Finish
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, London
Creative Directors: Carlos Alija, Laura Sampedro
Creatives: Erin Swanson, Cal Al-Jorani
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson, Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Nick Owen
Account Director: Francesca Purvis
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planning Director: Paul Coleman
Planner: Tom Lloyd
TV Producer: Genevieve Sheppard
Assistant TV Producer: Chloe Roseman
Creative Producer: Monika Andexlinger
Interactive Producer: Silvan Schreuder
Production Company: Riff Raff Films
Director: Megaforce
Executive Producer: Matthew Fone
Line Producer: Jane Tredget
Director of Photography: David Ungaro
Editing Company: Final Cut
Editor: Joe Guest
Execuive Post Producer: Gemma Humphries
Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: Hitesh Patel
Flame Artists: Andrew Wood, Gary Driver
Visual Effects Producer: Alex Candlish
Titles, Graphics: Jon Harris, George Adams
Music, Sound: Siren, Factory
Composer: Alex Baranowski
Producer: Sian Rogers
Mix Company: Factory
Sound Design: Jon Clarke, Neil Johnson, Anthony Moore
Producer: Rebecca Bell