Domestos: Phill is strong, lucky this toilet cleaner is even stronger
Droga5 has released a commercial for Unilever toilet cleaning brand Domestos.
The ad, which first aired around Australia’s Got Talent on Wednesday night, was put on YouTube, and has amassed more than 180,000 views. It features Phill Pace, a contender for the Mr Australia bodybuilder title.
Caroline Gregory, brand manager at Unilever, said: “Domestos is known for being a hospital grade disinfectant, so for the launch of Domestos toilet cleaner we wanted to start the campaign with something that would disrupt and truly engage consumers, with something a bit different for the category”.
David Nobay, Droga5 Creative Chairman added: “The Domestos team wanted to approach this category differently, and that’s what we’ve done. It’s our first real content work for Unilever, and I’m impressed with the courage the client has shown us.”
Writer/Art Director: David Nobay
Production Company: Goodoil Films
Director: Fiona McGee
Producer: Claire Richards
Agency producer: Paul Johnston
Business Director: Liz Ainslie
Editor: Dave Whittaker, The Editors
Sound: Nylon
Client: Anthony Toovey, Caroline Gregory, Unilever
Media Agency: Mindshare Australia
This is seriously good work. Great to see an aussie agency pushing the thinking. Everyone take note.
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Would probably be more groundbreaking for the category if Phil did his own cooking and cleaning instead of relying on a female to play a stereotypical ‘little woman’ role.
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Good to see bodybuilders being used in a positive way on TV rather than the tittering “himbo” nonsense we usually see.
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Always good to see a client that is willing to be courageous!
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I don’t want to see the legs of someone on a toilet – yuk
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degrading to women
too long
self indulgent
D4.99 creativity massively in question
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The best thing about this ad is it acts as a beacon for other marketers – it might just encourage them to be more courageous and creative with their own advertising. D5 should be congratulated – their work continually breaks the norms for australian advertising.
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@average again: can you explain how this is degrading to women? Why? Because this particular woman supports her significant other’s dream to become a bodybuilding champion? Just because she cooks for him doesn’t make her subservient or subordinate. It’s your interpretation that degrades the woman in this story, not the story itself.
Get off your high horse and do something worthwhile. LIKE MAKING ME A SANDWICH
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Like this or loathe it, you have to admire an FMCG client that buys a story along the lines of:
Man lifts weights.
Woman shops for man,
Woman cooks for man
Woman cleans shitstained toilet bowl for man.
Too many FMCG commercials in this country portray households and relationships in a ridiculously false light. Ad-Families are a bullshit construct that no-one buys into.
I reckon the relationship here, between weirdly self-obsessed bloke who does massive protein-shits, and his eerily accepting wife who sees it as her lot to feed the man his protein, and take care of his protein-shits is probably closer to the reality out there in the ‘burbs, than most ads ever get close to.
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Wow. So women shop, cook and clean and have no goals or ambitions other than to clean the toilets of men? Shocking message. Nice idea, nice cinematography but the idea that a woman has to do all his cooking and cleaning is staggeringly offensive.
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I’m not convinced that the target audience will get the logic or if there is any.
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If you are on a bodybuilders diet you aren’t getting much fibre. Maybe the cleaner is better saved for after a “cheat meal”. Just sayin.
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Matt, coupla things.
Firstly, Uniever isn’t in the business of social awareness campaigning. They don’t have to deliver any ‘messages’ to the community, other than a message to their target audience that domestos gets shit stains off toilets really well.
Secondly, you probably need to imagine a world where relationships are run along ‘traditional’ lines. Where the woman does the vast bulk of the domestic chores. Where that is the reality, and a largely accepted one at that.
Because that world, according to every available piece of research, is actually the world that most Australian consumers live in.
You may be offended. I may be offended. 90% of the population of Surry Hills may be offended. But all Unilever should care about is whether their consumers are offended.
I suspect they’re not.
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I though the last scene summarised the ad perfectly.
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Stereotypical, cliched and overstated.
If this passes for a great ad, then I will definitely be flicking more.
Even Domestos couldn’t clean the sh*t off this ad
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Well said Hmmm. I believe that people are becoming more realistic about the roles of men and women in society. This ad is such a very real story that I believe it hits home. Much better than others in the category where people oohhh and ahhh over clean toilets…now that’s degrading for everyone.
PS. Can we all stop positioning these ads as ‘risky’. Choosing the ‘safe’ option is risky. Being different is the safe. This client wasn’t so much brave, as smart.
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Wrong psychology. Cleaners have to focus on the sparkling cleanliness, not what the hell they’ve just cleaned up. Can’t see housewife or househusband flipping Domestos happily into the trolley on that score. Maybe hiding it under a 16-pack of toilet tissue.
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