The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2020
Plenty's 'Xmess' sells paper towels by owning the mess of real Christmases
Plenty's 2020 Christmas ad shows a man surviving puking kids, weeing dogs and a floored turkey — love hurts, but it is his mess, and Plenty handles it.
Plenty (Essity)
What it had to solve
Plenty, Essity's household-towel brand, had spent decades in spotless-kitchen advertising. Its new agency AMV BBDO needed a first campaign that stood out in the crowded Christmas ad season.
How it works
Every Christmas, festive advertising showed spotless kitchens and perfect families. Plenty, Essity's household-towel brand, and its new agency AMV BBDO decided to show the Christmas everyone actually has — and to do it without flinching.
'Xmess' follows a man home for the holidays who has to endure puking kids, a weeing dog, a floored turkey and relatives who do not lock the toilet door. Set to Nazareth's 'Love Hurts', the film argues that it is not the most wonderful time of year; it is a test of love, and we would not have it any other way.
The campaign launched on 15 November 2020 for six weeks across TV, VOD, social, press, point of sale and digital out-of-home in the UK, Ireland and France, with a #Xmess social push inviting people to share their own chaotic moments. The brand's new line — 'Love is stronger than spilled gravy and baby vomit. And so is Plenty.' — turned every mess in the film into a product demo.
The work set Plenty on a new honesty-based platform that continued into 2021 and earned the campaign a place in the D&AD Awards archive.
Why it lands
- Every rival showed perfect Christmases, so honesty was the only festive territory left for a challenger to own.
- Each disaster in the film is a job for Plenty, which makes the product demo the emotional beat rather than a feature claim.
- Setting the film to 'Love Hurts' makes the point twice: the mess is love, and love is messy.
- The #Xmess social layer turned the ad into an invitation, so audiences supplied their own real Christmas messes.
What it did
Plenty's line became 'Love is stronger than spilled gravy and baby vomit. And so is Plenty.' The campaign ran for six weeks in three markets, set a new honesty-based brand platform that continued into 2021, and earned a place in the D&AD archive.
What you can take
A brand in a comfort-zone category wins by telling the truth the leaders avoid: owning the mess makes the product the punchline instead of the claim.
Since then
Plenty continued the honesty platform with new work in 2021, and 'Xmess' remains in the D&AD archive as the campaign that moved a household-towel brand from spotless fantasy to radical truth. Trade coverage framed it as a course change not just for Plenty but for how the category talked about mess.
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