Everybody run from LG's washing machine!

Smoke billowing down a city’s streets, enveloping buildings, pushing through the canyons in between, chasing down everything in its path. No, it’s not a terrorist attack—it’s this new commercial from BBH London for LG’s steam washing machine! (The imagery really is remarkably familiar, though I suppose less so in the U.K.) Even without the Sept. 11 echoes, the spot’s weird. The steam (not smoke) whipping through the empty streets of San Francisco cleans up a Chinatown parade float, a teddy bear, a car tarp, a stone column and a brass sculpture of kids playing.