Henkel Canada is relaunching its Sunlight detergent brand with a masterband campaign that gets back to its Canadian roots.

Launched on July 11 and running until December 11, the spot follows a Nigerian family in Toronto trying to establish roots in a new country, culminating in the father landing a new job. The message of the campaign is to try not to sweat the little things – like dishes and laundry – and instead focus on the things that matter. The message is that people have enough to worry about while they engage in their day-to-day activities, so they can at least rely on Sunlight for cleaning.

Setting the ad in Toronto to reestablish Sunlight’s ties to Canada was paramount. But the campaign also seeks to use Sunlight’s master brand to connect those that are familiar with one or more of its products, such as its recognizable yellow bottled dish soap, to the rest of its vast catalogue of cleaning products, says Heidi Chiu, director of marketing for Henkel Canada.

The campaign was based on the insight that customers respond less to numbers and more to their trust in the brand and an emotional connection to the ad. Instead of highlighting how many more dishes its product can clean than its competitors, the focus is on Sunlight’s reliability and the relatable narrative of an immigrant family finding its way in Canada.

“The Sunlight brand has been a part of the Canadian fabric,” says Chiu. “We started in Toronto so we’ve felt very close to Canada for the last 100 years and we wanted to recognize that with this campaign. We put it out there as a bit of a love story, I think back to Canada and Canadian families in particular, that we’re here to support them.”

The campaign, led by Juniper Park\TBWA, is meant to coincide with loosening COVID-19 restrictions and a return to normal routines. It will air on TV, OLV and social media. UM Canada handled the buy. Future campaigns are planned to focus on individual Sunlight products.