Polished Man came to us wanting to evolve their TV campaign. Their earlier ads were shot against a clean white studio backdrop, and for 2026 they wanted something that felt a lot more real: the kind of conversation you could actually have in your lounge room or out on the balcony.
The people they wanted to reach were the moveable middle. These are blokes who are on board with the message behind Polished Man, but have stopped paying attention to it.
So we let the conversations do the work. On a single shoot day in Melbourne, we sat down eight pairs of real people (friends, teammates and partners) and had one paint the other's nails while they chatted about the pressure on men to act tough and keep everything bottled up.
What came back was honest, funny, and at times pretty raw. Painting a mate's nails turned out to be a great way to get people talking, and it became the thread that ties the whole campaign together.
From that one day we delivered the full campaign: 30- and 15-second TVCs, a radio spot, digital signage, social cutdowns in every aspect ratio, stills, and the long-form hero film you see above. It went to air on Seven, Nine and Ten in August.
The client's reaction? "We love it. It's so powerful."
