• by Aaron Baar , April 12, 2016

Cleaning. It can be environmentally friendly and fun. 

Seventh Generation, a maker of eco-friendly cleaning and personal care products, has launched a new integrated marketing campaign that injects a little levity into the category in the form of comedic actress Maya Rudolph. The campaign, the brand’s largest to date, focuses on redefining what “clean” means to consumers. 

“We’ve got this great brand, and a powerful message, and we wanted to raise our voice,” Joey Bergstein, Seventh Generation’s chief marketing officer, tells Marketing Daily. “It’s all about redefining clean for consumers. When we ask them about why they need dyes in [cleaning products], they start to think more about it.”

The campaign, created by agency 72andSunny in New York, is centered on several television spots featuring Rudolph humorously walking viewers through the products at home. In one spot, she directly addresses the camera, saying she’d never thought about the ingredients of household products until she considered the colors. Pointing at supposed competitors, she calls one “spray tan orange” and another “laser-beam blue.” “What do any of these cuckoo colors have to do with clean? Nothing,” she says as a Seventh Generation product rolls into view. As she pours one of the products out, she notes that it’s “clear as an angel’s giggle.” The spot concludes with a voiceover stating that the products are “100% clean, 0% toxic” and the tagline, “#comeclean.”

“Maya was at the top of our list. She’s been a long-time user and is a mother of four,” Bergstein says. “She’s unbelievably funny and has a way of telling stories in a humorous manner.” 

Other spots in the campaign depict Rudolph wondering how the “blue goo” of a laundry detergent makes clothes cleaner and extolling the virtues of Seventh Generation’s “real fragrances.” 

The campaign’s tagline, which will also be employed in social media, is intended to get people talking about the ingredients in their cleaning products, Bergstein says. The company also plans to take this issue to the state and national legislative levels, pushing for greater ingredient disclosure for cleaning products. 

“We want people to take a look inside the products that they’re buying,” Bergstein says. “And if the product doesn’t have an ingredient list, they should ask the company why.”

The television commercials will run on network and cable television, as well as in digital video, and will be supported by a digital banner and print advertising campaign.