Crapshow: Scott Brand Turns Toilet Clog Into Horror Flick

A young woman named Claire shimmies out the window of a stately home, drops to the ground and breaks into a sprint, trying to get as far away from her crime as possible.

She’s committed no act of violence, though, unless you count the toilet she just clogged. In front of the prospective in-laws. At the first-ever dinner party with them at the beginning of a weekend getaway.

The cringe-worthy scenario comes from Scott bathroom tissue, which has created a 3-minute ad in the guise of a stereotypical horror film, complete with creepy music cues and tension-building camera shots.

The campaign, called “The Clogging,” paints Claire’s bathroom mishap as the ultimate nightmare. With agency partner VaynerMedia and director Chioke Nassor, the Scott brand tapped into social conversations around “the growing cultural trend of clogging anxiety” and pulled from classic fright-night tropes for the mini-movie.

“We know clogging your own toilet is frustrating in itself, not to mention the added anxiety when it happens in public,” according to Ken Champa, U.S. senior marketing director of household care and Scott Bath at parent company Kimberly-Clark.

Claire, and any consumer, could avoid that unfortunate situation by using a product called Scott 1000, “trusted in flushability and value,” per Champa. 

‘Clog-free tech’

The product touts its “clog-free technology,” which may have been a selling point for the characters Claire and her significant other as they brought Scott 1000 on their trip.

In a major faux pas for the couple, but a foreshadowing scene setter for the scary flick, they accidentally left the TP in the car. Adding to the tragic circumstances: the sprawling familial home seems to have only one potty, and Grandma can only hold it for so long.

A panicked Claire, who had jiggled the toilet handle, stuffed in a bath towel and otherwise tried unsuccessfully to fix the problem, couldn’t open the door and face the relatives. She instead escaped from the waterlogged bathroom, shouting, “It was only pee!”

Movies and TV shows have been playing scenes of a stopped-up, overflowing toilet for gross-out laughs since time immemorial (see Jury Duty for a recent, gag-inducing example). But marketers in the personal hygiene category don’t usually go there. 

Companies like Kruger Products, a CPG giant in Canada, have taken a gritty route in marketing their tissues, paper towels, napkins and TP with a campaign called “Unapologetically Human.” The work, from Toronto-based Broken Heart Love Affair, is considered groundbreaking for grocery store staples, with many brands still shying away from an unvarnished version of reality.

Scott plans to distribute “The Clogging” on YouTube and social platforms.