P&G personal care brand Native is making the holidays just a bit more awkward, thanks to a new campaign that has people sniffing each other.
The work by agency Muhtayzik Hoffer (M/H) is a promotion of Native’s six naughty and nice scents for the holidays, which include spiked eggnog, fresh mistletoe, candy cane and yule log.
In the hero spot, “Traffic Stop,” a police officer approaches a car and asks the driver if she has been drinking. She responds that she smells like Native’s spiked eggnog body wash. The officer proceeds to sniff the woman, and she in turn smells him back, noticing that he is wearing the fresh mistletoe deodorant. Things get even more awkward as the driver’s husband looks on with both confusion and concern.
In “The Job,” a group of tough-looking guys in clown outfits are gathered in a warehouse hideout, pointing to a hand-drawn map. As heist music plays, one of the men is distracted by a smell. “It’s my candy cane deodorant from Native. I find the peppermint very calming,” says one of the men. The spot cuts to an apartment door, where the men burst in to reveal a child’s birthday party.
“This holiday season we wanted to lean into humor to celebrate our quirky and highly crave-able scents,” said Vineet Kumar, Native CEO in a statement. “For Native, Naughty or Nice is about recognizing that sometimes you can be both and embracing it.”
Other elements of the campaign include CTV, a comprehensive digital and social strategy across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, and media partnerships with Tinder and The Cut—further enforcing the naughty and nice juxtaposition.
“We wanted to give audiences something unexpected this holiday season,” said Joel Kaplan, executive creative director and partner, M/H in a statement. “Native’s brand personality is playful, so we leaned all the way in and the result is something that bucks tradition and embraces the naughty and nice in all of us.”