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By Amy Houston, Senior Reporter

April 4, 2023 | 3 min read

The ad is to highlight the household cleaning brand’s plastic-free packaging.

According to Smol, households in the UK get through over 110m of plastic laundry containers per year, which ends up in landfill or incinerated. To combat this, the cleaning band is hoping to entice consumers to buy its sustainable products instead.

In its largest marketing campaign to date, Smol is shocking viewers with a grisly ad that sees a washing machine vomit various bits of plastic.

“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 70m plastic laundry packs going to landfill every year,” said Hillary Strong, chief marketing officer at Smol.

“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.”

The twisted hopes to entertain audiences while drawing their attention to a worldwide issue. It’s the work of the creative agency Mother London and was directed by Freddie Powell through Drool.

Creative Oli Rimoldi had this to say about the ad campaign: “Deploying a playful metaphor to dramatize 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.”

Interested in creative campaigns? Check out our Ad of the Day and the Best Ads of the Week sections.

Creative Creative Works Mother London

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