Toilet paper is here for all our messy human needs, says this oddly emotional paper products ad

Toilet paper might just be having a moment. When it came to panic buying during the pandemic, it was top of everybody's list as they realized they couldn't live without it. Now, a new ad from Canada seems to play on on our emotional feelings about this basic household product by emphasizing the role it plays in all our human needs. 

The film, created by new Canadian agency group Broken Heart Love Affair, is a multi-brand spot for Kruger Products, whose toilet paper and paper towel brands include Cashmere, Purex, SpongeTowels and Scotties. It depicts a series of messy moments in life when the products are required, from mopping up tears, blood and breakages to changing a baby's dirty diaper. Featuring weeping, laughter, several bodily fluids and wince-inducing images of pain (like a ballet dancer's bleeding feet), the montage is set to the track "Human" by British artist Rag n Bone Man. 

Directed by Mark Zibert, whose previous work has included a powerful 2016 spot for the SickKids Foundation, the production took place in Vancouver and features real families. "The brief was simple and strong with words like ‘raw’ and ‘unapologetic,’ making it easy to get behind the idea and leaving room for interpretation and collaboration," Zibert says. “Of course, there were all kinds of challenges and limitations that we had to work around within the Covid-19 safety framework but everyone rallied together to find solutions."

“This is a departure for our brands from the typical category approach,” Kruger Products CMO Susan Irving said in a statement. "We wanted to remind Canadians that, despite our differences, we are all human. We cry, we bleed, we use the bathroom. Our brands are there for all of that and we aren’t shying away from it."