The women DDB San Francisco is targeting with a series of new commercials for Clorox’s Liquid Plumr don’t just dislike the clogs that plug up their sinks and tubs–they hate them. The agency found out exactly how much in focus groups during which participants were instructed to write letters to clogs to express their emotions. “These letters were pretty harsh,” according to DDB creative director/art director Dustin Smith, who noted that the women lashed out at the clogs for being gross, disgusting and frustrating and lamented the interruptions clogs caused in their daily routines.
The women went as far to say clogs make them feel dirty, which inspired the :30 “Ahem,” one of the spots in a campaign of three directed by Steven Diller of bicoastal/international MJZ.
Conceptualized by Smith, DDB art director Natalie Chambers and copywriter Aimee Lehto, “Ahem” finds a woman (played by Jessica Makinson) getting ready for a night out when she hears an “ahem” coming from her bathroom. Upon closer examination, she realizes it is coming from the sink. She peers down the drain and pulls back in horror after a chunk of the clog that is plugging up the pipes emerges and lands on her white silk blouse.
The rude clog chuckles with glee unaware that our heroine is reaching under the sink for a bottle of Liquid Plumr. She pours it down the drain, and the clog is history. The spot ends with a close up of Liquid Plumr and the tagline, “Destroy annoying clogs.” The delightfully dark “Ahem” stands out in a category dominated by neat product demonstrations.
Meanwhile, the clog character really comes to life. Part of the reason DDB hired Diller was that he showed an aptitude for bringing an inanimate object to life–more specifically, a bowling ball–in a series of spots for ESPN out of Los Angeles-based Ground Zero. The spots promote Sundays as bowling day on ESPN and center on a bowling ball that goes out of its way to make sure men aren’t embarking on other activities on Sundays. For instance, one of the spots, “Laundry,” has a guy opening up his washing machine on a Sunday only to discover it is full of hardened cement. He looks down to spy a bowling ball sitting next to a bag of cement mix.
“I guess I have a knack for bringing inanimate objects to life,” Diller mused with a laugh.
As for why he was interested in tackling “Ahem,” “It was one of those boards that was just really strong and very simple and different, especially for the category. And when I got on the phone with Dustin, it seemed like he wasn’t afraid to take it to an unexpected and a little darker place,” Diller said. “So we kind of clicked on that.”
Clog’s POV
According to Smith, Diller brought some great ideas to “Ahem,” including a key shot in which you see the woman’s face from the clog’s point of view as she peers down the drain. “We had never thought about doing that. We’d seen this as a more voyeuristic, third-person perspective, and we thought this almost first-person perspective of the clog looking up at her was a cool idea,” Smith related. “That’s one of the shots in this spot that I like the best. I think it gives the clog a lot of personality.”
That said, Diller almost didn’t get that shot. He and DP Richard Henkels lensed “Ahem” as well as two other spots on location at a Los Angeles house in just one day, with “Ahem” being shot last. The shoot went right down to the wire. The crew had until 10 p.m. to wrap, and it looked as though they might not be able to shoot the crucial clog looking up at the woman scene.
But Diller kept rolling even as the crew was breaking down because it was a must have in both his and Smith’s minds.
Henkels shot “Ahem” on Super 16. “I like the look,” Diller said. “One of our references was Rosemary’s Baby. We had more obscure shots and longer lens shots from the hallway [into the bathroom]. Once we were inside, we kept it on a longer lens. That’s one of the reasons why we used a smaller camera and a snorkel lens, so we could get into those smaller, tighter areas and not make everything look wide.”
Spoon-fed
It was a decidedly low-tech production. “The clog spitting up was flicked from a spoon onto the woman,” Smith shared. “We were nervous about that, but it ended up working well.”
Days and days of experimentation went into preparing the clog material that was spewed at the poor lady. “That’s where the job becomes a little absurd–you’re looking at the ideal texture for a clog,” Diller said laughing.
For safety reasons, the clog had to be edible and non-toxic. Ultimately, it was made out of a combination of coconut hair, banana mush, chocolate and ground coffee beans and almonds. “I didn’t go for the dare to eat it,” Diller said.
You can’t help but feel the woman’s pain when this nasty stuff winds up on her blouse. Smith credited Chambers and Lehto for upping the ante with their decision to have the woman wearing a silk blouse. “They were like, ‘There would be nothing worse than getting this on a silk blouse when you’re getting ready for an evening out.’ You can just wash it out if it is cotton,” Smith said, “but you can’t when it’s silk.'”
