To shine a light on the benefit of fingerprint resistance, we leveraged one of the most finger-smeared surfaces in the world: the smart phone.

As part of the Maytag Man campaign – in which the Maytag Man plays the role of appliances themselves – we created a mobile video featuring the Man as a dishwasher. From under a kitchen counter, he speaks directly to the viewer about the scourge of finger filth, and the video suddenly cuts to a black screen, revealing all the real-life finger smears on the user’s phone surface.

This technique switches the viewer’s focus from the images IN the screen to the filth ON the screen. Dialogue continues over the black screen to remind people just how unsightly finger smears can be. We cut back to the video, where the Maytag Man assures viewers that smears like the ones on their phones won’t appear on their appliances.

Fingerprints are annoying to consumers. Knowing this, Maytag launched a campaign to highlight the benefits of Maytag’s new Fingerprint Resistant Stainless Steel appliances, targeting consumers on the device most susceptible to smudges: their phones.

Maytag ran custom full screen Facebook video ads, targeting mobile and tablet ads devices only. By running the ads on mobile and tablet only, Maytag was able to reveal filth in everyday devices and communicate to the consumer how they can help. The Maytag man then echos, “That’s why Maytag has Finger Print Resistant Stainless Steel, so a filthy scene like this never appears in your kitchen.”

The two-week Facebook activation successfully drove over 4.55 MM impressions, 1.38MM 3-second video views, and increased overall consumer awareness of Maytag's new appliance line.

The video was watched by over 1.4 Million viewers and inspired over 1,000 Facebook shares and reactions.