The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2025–2026
Maxbo's Eli spot links a girl's cursing to Dad's failed DIY — Epica Film Grand Prix
Eli swears through her school day; the culprit is Dad failing at DIY. Maxbo answers: no shame in asking for help — Epica 2025 Film Grand Prix.
Maxbo · Morgenstern
What it had to solve
Maxbo is Norway's second-largest builders' merchant and could not win on price against the low-cost leader; the building sector was squeezed. Under CEO Trond Bentestuen it bet on knowledge and service instead, relaunching the heritage slogan 'Klart du kan' ('Of course you can').
How it works
In August 2025, Norwegian builders' merchant Maxbo relaunched its old slogan 'Klart du kan' ('Of course you can') with a film about Eli, a schoolgirl who swears fluently through art and woodwork class in invented, aggressive Norwegian idioms. Her teachers call in her parents for 'a talk about Eli'.
The reveal is the joke and the strategy at once: Eli learned the language from her father, who swears his way through failing DIY projects at home. The film closes with the line 'There is no shame in asking for help' and directs viewers to Maxbo, whose positioning is expert advice and service rather than the lowest price.
The Oslo agency Morgenstern wrote, cast and produced the piece in-house, deliberately avoiding AI and effects and hiring theatre actors for the adult roles; the girl playing Eli was cast from hundreds of applicants. It was made for a Maxbo whose CEO, Trond Bentestuen, had just shifted the budget back to brand marketing after years of price-led campaigns.
The bet paid off in craft awards: the film won TV2's Sølvfisken for August 2025, and on December 17, 2025 it shared the Film Grand Prix at the Epica Awards with Hornbach's 'No Project Without Drama'. Maxbo and Morgenstern described beating global heavyweights in the film category as proof that a mid-sized Norwegian chain could compete on a human idea.
Why it lands
- It dramatizes the real pain point — failed DIY and the shame of asking — instead of listing products and prices.
- Putting the cursing in a child's mouth makes Dad's failure land as comedy first, so the service message arrives as a payoff rather than a lecture.
- Reviving the heritage slogan 'Klart du kan' gave the new idea a frame Norwegian customers already associated with Maxbo.
- Casting and acting carried the film, proving a human idea could beat production spectacle.
What it did
Launched in August 2025, the film won TV2's Sølvfisken as the month's best Norwegian ad, and on December 17, 2025 it shared the Film Grand Prix at the Epica Awards with Hornbach — a Norwegian mid-size chain beating John Lewis and Yves Saint Laurent in the film category. Norway's ad regulator cleared it with a single complaint.
What you can take
When a brand can't win on price, sell the moment people feel stupid: making the shame of failed DIY the joke lets expertise arrive as help, not as an upsell.
Since then
The film kept collecting recognition after launch: the August Sølvfisken win in Norway, then the Epica 2025 Film Grand Prix announced on December 17, 2025, shared with Hornbach. Morgenstern's partners said the win set a bar for the ten-year-old agency to jump from, and Maxbo's marketing director called the international attention proof that a mid-sized Norwegian chain could become 'a world citizen' in advertising terms.
Sources
- Film Grand Prix: You'll swear this is one of the best ads you've seen
- Maxbo, Morgenstern og illsinte Eli vinner august-Sølvfisken
- Maxbo banner seg til verdenstoppen
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