Vim Prisoner in Shower

Unilever promoted Vim as a shower cleaning product in a gripping drama of an ad, set in what appears to be a prison. Vim Prisoner starts with a girl in school uniform visiting her mum, each on different sides of the glass in what appears to be a prison (Mum’s wearing an orange jumpsuit). They hold their hands up to the glass. “How long will you be in there?” “I have to go now”. The camera pans back and we see they’ve been talking through the shower screen in a bathroom. Mum’s cleaning the bath with a generic cleaning liquid. We’re told that Vim (Jif) will speed up cleaning jobs.

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)

Apparently sales for Vim sped up in Canada the week after the ad was shown there. It’s been shown in Australia for Lever Rexona’s local equivalent, Jif. It certainly has the attention of my family! The ad picks up on the feeling many women have – of being imprisoned by cleaning tasks.

Credits

Vim Prisoner was directed by The Perlorian Brothers, for advertising agency Zig Canada, produced at Reginald Pike, and edited by Michelle Czukar at Panic & Bob.

The Zig Canada team included creative directors Elspeth Lynn and Lorraine Tao, art director Stephen Leps, writer Aaron Stockman, and agency producer Janet Woods. Sound was designed by Ted Rosnick, with Rosnick MacKinnon Webster.

The ad is available in Quicktime at Zig and Panic & Bob.

Adforum featured the Vim Prisoner ad this last week. The ad won a Gold Lion award for household goods at the Cannes festival last year.