Talking to consumers it seemed like their expectations from their dishwasher were low and they were blaming themselves if results were poor despite the fact that the tablet is in charge of the cleaning. So to get the best results the overwhelming majority pre-rinse by hand.

We needed them to realize that pre-rinsing is ridiculous, that their tablet is no longer the best and that they should switch to Fairy!

To shake up the complacency of Finish users we aimed at raising awareness to the absurdity of rinsing dishes prior to putting them in an auto-dishwasher.

And to make a point we would take this absurdity to the extreme …

Introducing the PreWash2000!

We would launch a new to the world appliance – it looks like a dishwasher, costs like one but does only half of the cleaning, the part that consumers do by hand before placing dishes in dishwasher.

• National TV spots directed viewers to The Shopping Channel to hear more and pre-order.

• DigiOOH enhanced the big bang effect and enabled direct-response opt-in.

• A PreWash2000 infomercial and eComm web page were integrated into most popular content sites.

• Social media activated discussing the merits of a pre-wash appliance.

• PreWash2000 was displayed instore in the largest appliance chain enabling pre-order.

Once interest and awareness to the PW2000 peaked we launched the reveal stage.

To the thousands who pre-ordered the product via the shopping channel we delivered a giant cardboard appliance box full of Styrofoam and a tiny Fairy capsule...

Using the same media platforms that were used during our teaser stage we delivered our strategic message “instead of buying a second dishwasher just buy Fairy capsules for your first one”, fully exposing the absurd of rinsing dishes by hand prior to placing them in the dishwasher.

Suddenly everybody started talking about the "boring" topic of dishwashing and whether the Prewash2000 is really needed.

Our Shopping Channel video became a viral phenomena with more than 300,000 views in just 2 days making it the top trending topic of that weekend.

Our fake product made the real evening news, of both of the top commercial channels ("who is behind the PreWash2000") and in the days that followed all leading radio talk shows picked up the story.

Our instore hidden camera video in which buyers of dishwashers were offered to add to their purchase a PreWash2000 made fun of the pre-rinsing habit and also became a viral phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of views.

Post campaign surveys showed Fairy reducing the equity gap vs. Finish by 12% and best of all – sales of Fairy capsules grew by 8% and for the first time ever surpassed those of Finish.