Union Editorial Cuts Clorox "Machines" for Douglas Avery & DDB San Francisco

A new TV spot for Clorox looks at laundry washing through the ages. "Machines," cut by Union Editorial's Nicholas Wayman-Harris for director Douglas Avery and agency DDB San Francisco, employs clever use of a quick-cut editorial style to portray an overview of laundry through the ages.

“Machines” opens in an early 20th Century kitchen, as a woman laboriously washes clothes in an antique hand-press machine. The action stays on this same space but fast-forwards ahead to present day. A depression-era kitchen changes into a sunny 1950s housewife paradise, shifts to the ‘women’s lib’ 1970s as a man unloads the wash, then finally ends in modern times, all accompanied by a piano score and v/o: “Laundry is not new…and although a lot has changed—the machines, the detergents, the clothes themselves, one thing has not.” The spot closes with the tag, “Pure white since 1913.” as a vintage glass bottle of Clorox morphs into the current plastic packaging.

The sped-up visual effect was captured in-camera by Douglas at one frame per second. Nicholas then spliced together the key scenes, which encompassed the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, 1970s, 1980s and 2000s, while effects boutique Giant Steps smoothed the transitions in post.