Method Leaf-Blows a Birthday Cake and Makes Other Unholy Messes in These Fun Ads

The brand's new "Fear No Mess" campaign, which might be less pithily articulated as "Make as Big a Mess as You Possibly Can," features immaculately dressed heroes finding inventive ways to trash beautifully designed rooms in a series of TV ads. 

The general theme of each :15 and :30 is food fights taken to extremes. "Birthday" features a grandma taking a leaf blower to a cake: 

Meanwhile, in "Fruit Fan," a blonde model type tosses fruit through a giant fan.

And in "Meatball Golf," a powerful woman whacks meatballs with a golf club.

A simpler but similarly fun set of Facebook and digital OOH executions feature mess-generating images on a loop. In one, a snow cone drips rainbow sugar water on a woman's hand:

In another, an impossibly shaggy dog hypnotically shakes off muck.

And in a third, a never-ending ramp of dirty dishes slides diagonally across the screen.

Agencies Muh-tay-zik Hof-fer and Essence created the campaign, which launched last week in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. The brand's marketing team is framing it as celebration of the joy of getting dirty, with a deliberately fashionable presentation meant to position Method as a lifestyle brand, a contrast to more staid marketing from environmentally friendly competitors.

It certainly is endearing in its playfulness (even if actress Maya Rudolph wasn't, to be fair, entirely stiff in her recent role pitching Seventh Generation). And the unusually polished look works unexpectedly well, largely because it makes such a stark contrast to the splattering comestibles. 

The concept, though, is not entirely new. U.K. laundry detergent Persil has a standing claim on the same basic idea of celebrating filth with its long-running "Dirt Is Good" campaign (even if the executions sometimes miss the mark a bit).

But substituting bravado for originality makes the ad seem even more like fashion marketing, so it's probably a win in the end.

CREDITS

Client: Method Products

"Fear No Mess" Campaign

Agency // Muh-tay-zik | Hof-fer

Executive Creative Director: John Matejczyk

Director Of Strategy: Matt Hofherr

Associate Director Of Strategy: Rachel Gold

Head Of Production: Michelle Spear Nicholson

Producer: Molly Hayes

Creative Director: Joel Kaplan

Creative Director: Tony Zimney

Copywriter: Christopher Penman

Copywriter: Zack Johnson

Art Director: Brittany Tooker

Art Director: Vanessa Hellmann

Designer: Charlotte Cooper

Account Manager: Ashley Gullickson

Director Of Media: Eric Perko

Digital Media Agency // Essence Digital

Production // The Directors Bureau / Canada

Directors: CANADA

Dp: Axel

Executive Producer: Oscar Romagosa

Head Of Production Canada: Alba Barneda

Line Producer: Julia Carrasco

Editorial // Canada

Editor: Marc Soria de la Torre

Producer Post: Blanca Ballesté

Colorist: Marc Morató

Post/Visual Effects: La Metropolitana

Audio // Idea Sonora

Sound Engineer: Pep Aguiló

Music Supervision: Good Ear Music Supervision

Music:

Meatball Golf Artist: The Joy-Tones – This Love (That I'm Giving You)

Fruit Fan Artist: Sugar Billy Garner – I Got Some

Birthday Artist: The Joy-Tones – This Love (That I'm Giving You)