Eco Home Care Brand Homethings' Tap-Tapity-Taps on Screen in First Ever TV Spot

Homethings - the most innovative challenger brand in sustainable home care - today reveals the creative for its first ever national TV advert. A finalist in the 2022 Sky Zero Footprint Fund, Homethings winning advert is imaginative, witty and boldly understated. The 30” spot brings to life the brand’s trademark slogan 'Just Add Tap' and further forwards the brand’s mission to make refillable products more mainstream. 

Created and produced by Founders Makers in conjunction with the team at Homethings, the ad opens with​​‘your pretty average guy’ dressed in a grey robe – a dreary contrast to his statement mustard yellow kitchen. In the background, the faint sound of tapping can be heard. In a short summary, 'The Tap Man' explains the bonkers reality that the average cleaning spray is mainly water, packaged and shipped around the world in single-use plastic. As the camera zooms out, we can see that 'The Tap Man' is the culprit of the infectious tap-tapity-tapping, sporting a pair of signature black tap-dancing shoes.  

In a brilliant, cheesy 80s flash, he introduces Homethings - a clever, powerful refillable alternative series of cleaning sprays that consumers can activate at home when they add tap water. Whipping off his robe, 'The Tap Man' comes into his own, delighting viewers with a top-notch tap-dancing effort that’s interjected with snappy visuals showing Homethings’ all-purpose spray being filled with tap water and the effervescent tablet dissolving till it’s ready to use. 

The ad culminates in a moment that’s reminiscent of a local panto performance, as the brand’s logo rolls down from a banner and confetti fills the air, ending on the Homethings’ tagline 'Just Add Tap'. 

Homethings produced the spot after securing a media investment from the 2022 Sky Zero Footprint Fund, which was established to support businesses that are driving practical solutions to the climate crisis. The Sky Zero Footprint Fund rewards five sustainable businesses annually with a share of £2 million worth of ad spend across Sky’s Media’s cross-platform portfolio.   

Tim Keaveney, co-founder of Homethings, commented, “We are fizzing with excitement to see this ad go live nationwide across Sky. Our mission at Homethings is to change the way the world cleans and raising awareness that most products are mainly water packed in plastic on a nationwide scale takes us one step closer to that mission. The ad is as bonkers as the problem we are trying to solve. We really wanted to highlight some of the fundamental issues within the home care industry, but rather than delivering it in a way that feels preachy, we wanted it to be relatable and to bring a sense of real joy for consumers in what is a really difficult time. The ad really delivers that and shows just how simple and impactful a swap like this can be.” 

Sarah Jones, director of planning at Sky Media, said, "Our Footprint Fund Judges were so impressed by the potential impact that Homethings will have on the environment. Their brilliantly playful ‘Just add Tap’ creative perfectly encapsulates their commitment to disrupt and revolutionise the home cleaning industry through refillable products. Homethings' message is ideally suited to tap into the homes of our audiences as the nation prepares for the annual spring cleaning frenzy.” 

Charlie Holman, strategy director at Founders Makers, added, “Understandably there is very little humour in 'environmental comms’. This means the same recycled images and scare tactics routinely get wheeled out by brands; glaciers melting, the animal kingdom dying and oceans full of plastic – we’ve seen it all before. So it was time to try something new that lived up to the Homethings reputation for being a disruptor in the cleaning category. For us ‘The Tap Man’ truly embodies what the brand's tone is all about. It’s memorable, but not preachy, and the perfect way of celebrating the simple solution that is Homethings. After all, you don't change behaviour if no one remembers you.” 

The Homethings ad will air for the first time on the 2nd April and can be watched on Linear and VOD platforms across Sky Media’s portfolio of channels and programming.