FINISH Love your dishwasher.

Making what you do so well matter more.

Dishwashing detergent is probably one of the most functional and commoditized categories in marketing. But when we partnered with Reckitt Benckiser, we saw that challenge as an opportunity to flip the script. Here was our point: if you want people to pay a premium price based on product superiority, then you have to start behaving like a category leader — by making what you do so well actually matter more. Not that dishwashing is suddenly going to sit next to your new iPhone (or maybe it should!). But isn’t it kind of a blessing that someone can only see life through the lens of dirty dishes?

Dishes, dishes, dishes!

Our brand repositioning campaign looked at life from Finish’s dirty-dish-obsessed perspective. Where most people see life, Finish sees the dirty dishes and glasses left behind—and cleans every one of them, every time. The campaign also gave the brand a platform to speak more clearly about product features and innovations. With this work, we helped Finish establish a distinct point of view and a recognizable voice that set it apart from the competition. Finish sales had been in long-term decline, but in 2015, that trend was reversed. For the first time in years, the brand returned to growth. It also became the only brand in its category to grow global market share, achieving the highest share gain of any RB brand that year.

It takes on anything.

Finish’s trademarked Powerball (yes, that little red pearl in the middle of the tablet) was designed to take on any dirt and grime life could throw at it. But until then, it had always been explained through a bunch of dull, interchangeable demos no one could really relate to. “You see life, we see dishes” became our mantra—capturing the spirit of a proudly geeky brand, run by lab rats obsessed with developing high-performance products and seeing the world through the lens of dirty plates and pans left behind by human beings.

But who cleans the cleaner?

You just see plates going into your dishwasher. Finish sees the sticky, greasy residues that get left behind—slowly building up inside your machine’s pipes over time. If you’ve never thought about the fact that your loyal dishwasher needs cleaning too, this campaign was designed to open your eyes. It stays true to the brand’s unique, dish-obsessed perspective and playful visual style—but delivers the message in a disgustingly beautiful way.