Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissue is being promoted in a TV advert featuring a vegetarian peace-loving monk scandalised by the destruction of viruses. Mystic music plays as we see a monk walking through the forest. The monk appears to be a Franciscan, dressed in the brown robes and sandals of St Francis of Assisi. Or is he a Buddhist monk? He stoops to rescue an upturned baby tortoise. He returns a stranded goldfish to the water, and carefully transfers a spider from the floor of his home to a household plant. He then blows his nose with a Kleenex Anti-Viral tissue, realising to his horror that he’s killing viruses.
The voiceover: “Kleenex Anti-viral tissues trap and kills 99.9 percent of cold and flu viruses in the tissue. That’s right. Kills. Thank goodness for forgiveness. Thank goodness for Kleenex tissue.” Click on the image below to play the video.
Credits
The Monk commercial was developed at JWT London by creative director Ty Montague, art directors Billy Faraut and Amy Kessing, copywriters Dan Cohen and Nick Goodey, executive producers Jen Gulinet, Walt Connelly and Toby Barlow, music producer John Keanex and assistant producer Brian Gonson.
Filming was shot by director Bob Kerstetter via Lushadelic, with director of photography Mark Plummer. Editor and sound designer was Nelson Leonard at The Now Corporation with assistant editors Tripp McCarty and Renn Cheadle, and executive producer Nancy Finn. Post Production was done at Nice Shoes by online editor John Shea. Alan Friedman, John Keaney and Theresa Notartomaso at JWTwo worked on sound and music. Sound was mixed by Carl Mandelbaum at AudioEngine.
Not amusing. Just offensive.
If nothing else, Kleenex should be aware that this advertisement reflects upon their concern for the environment.
The next time Kleenex defends a lawsuit for dumping toxic chemicals, for instance, imagine the attitude of jurors who have watched the company ridicule those who care about the welfare of living creatures.
Kleenex’s Message: We’re killing things, ha, ha, ha.
Offensive and stupid.
Viruses are not alive in any ordinary sense of the word, so what does it mean to say you kill 99.9% of them?
If they aren’t “trapped” are they still “killed”?
And what is the 0.1%?
This is so tranparently bogus!
I guess I’m safe to start mopping up spills at the restaurant with used Kleenex.
Err, unless I have a bacterial infection–then there might be things in there that are alive in ordinary sense of the word. Yuck.
Hmmm. If I’m not mistaken, the monk in question appears to be a Buddhist monk. Which makes sense given the prohibition against killing a Buddhist monk would have taken. But the line about forgiveness at the end, in that context, makes no sense at all.
This image is not intended to be a Franciscan monk, but a Buddhist monk. Note the wooden beads around his wrist. Also, the title of the commercial at the link is “Kleenex upsets a guru’s karmic balance.” This commercial is a weird amalgamation of pop reference to Buddhist teachings of compassion and the idea of “forgiveness” (in the punchline) which is distinctly Christian. At best it is disrespectful of Buddhism in general. You would not see a US company use an image of, say, the Pope, or Jesus, to hawk kleenexes. Hope they don’t plan to show this commercial in a Buddhist country like Thailand or Sri Lanka.
You guys are idiots
This commercial is funny. Period. Who gives a flip about what type of monk and all that garbage? Tell you all what. Go home, grow a sense of humor in the middle of your living room, then slap yourself for being an over-analytical imbecile.
Obviously, Kleenex marketing has a reprobate mind. They can’t see or even know when they are offensive.
I just wondered……… that plant that he puts the spider on…….
doesn’t that look like a MARIJUANA plant to anyone other than just me ?????
OFFENSIVE and so NOT funny. No way my family will buy any Kleenex product.
Anyone know what the mystic music is at the beginning?
hi..i’m after the music aswell please
Definately a marijuana plant in this ad.
Sure looks like marijuana to me. Kleenex should fix this issue
Classy ad..
I like turtles, gold fish, and i’ve saved spiders and other flying insects.
It is about time we had some classy advertising in the advertising industy! You all scored highly with this one.
Who cares what you blow your knows in? My introduction to Dave Harpe’s music was at Sacramento Food Co-Op’s Owner Appreciation Day. 7th Day Generation products are on their shelf for nose blowers! What’s entirely mesmerizing is the music, “Call of Cydonia”! I have Dave Harpe’s 2002 CD, Dave Harpe’s Gentle Winds. Check out http://cdbaby.com/cd/daveharpe. Its the artistry & combination of audio & visual set the mood right away, so we forget all about the subliminal product. No kidding, I’ve been tracking for weeks, attempting to connect a Kleenex product to the add! Namaste’
Does anyone know the music they play on this commercial?
I just saw the ad for the first time today. 12/03/06… They obviously were not thinking clearly when they made this. It makes me not want to buy Kleenex especially with apparent tongue-in-cheek swipe at Buddhism, followed by the “it’s ok to kill things because we aren’t savages and we have forgiveness” line.
LOL ad/marketing = check your soul at the door.
I saw the ad as a put-down of overly-righteous folks and thought it was funny! Even overly-righteous dudes get colds!
What kind of tortoise is that? He’s so cute.
Sheesh, grow up.
This ad is hilarious. Better than seeing an insurance ad all over again like Norton finanace crap
It’s clearly not a marijuana plant.
Anyone who says it is has certainly never seen one.
It is, most likely, a Japanese maple.
it’s just a commercial.
it’s purpose is to spread the word about their product. which, as shown here, has definately worked.
get over it.
i dont c wat da big idea is cmon people
Is there any sense at all in telling us the bugs are killed in the hanky? So what?
Now if you could make a hanky that killed bugs *before* they got into our bodies, that would make perfect sense.
I can never make out whether its the ad agency which is terminally stupid or that they think we are – or both.
its just a ad, i see how its wrong, but its just trying to get the project sold, theres many ads like this, shouldnt take to heart, forgive and forget, move on, that is the key, wasting time posting and fighting over something as crazy as an ad, makes you all no better than this ad. the end.