• by Steve Ellwanger , August 25, 2022

If your house stinks, it could be hard to sell.

That insight from a consumer survey is the foundation of the “Torture Test” campaign for Glad ForceFlex Plus with Clorox garbage bags.

Staging the “test” is interior design specialist and real estate agent Amanza Smith from the television show “Selling Sunset,” as seen in this spot by FCB Chicago.

Prior to a house tour for people recruited for the commercial because they were potentially interested in purchasing a home, Smith helps hide Glad bags filled with smelly trash—including fish entrails—under bed covers, in closets and other spaces.

“This house should stink so badly,” Smith proclaims before the tour begins.

Only after the people complete the tour does Smith inform them “The house is filled with trash!”

As the garbage is revealed, the people on the tour exchange bewildered looks.

According to a YouGov survey of 500 U.S. adults who planned to purchase their next home in the next 12 months, 93% said the smell of a house is important.

“There’s telling people something and then there’s showing them,” senior director of marketing for Glad, Carrie Rathod, tells Marketing Daily. “We always want our campaigns to connect with people in ways that are relevant to their lives.”

The spot takes advantage of “the real estate market being so much in consumers’ zeitgeist right now. We knew that if we could show the impact of smell on a home in a very powerful way, it would tap into that consumer buzz about real estate.”

Glad chose Smith not only because of her design and real estate credentials, but also her “incredible” following.

“It’s one thing if Glad says it. When Amanza says it, it’s something else entirely,” adds Rathod.