Villarriba and Villabajo

Villarriba and Villabajo are two fictional Spanish villages that serve as the setting for a series of advertising campaigns for Procter & Gamble's Fairy brand. Originally created in Spain in 1991 for Fairy dishwashing liquid, the campaign has been renewed over the years, expanded to other products of the brand and used in several international markets.

Development

Procter & Gamble introduced Fairy dishwashing liquid in Spain in 1982. In 1991, the advertising agency Grey Spain conceived for them an advertising campaign for the Spanish market focused on a television commercial in which two fictional towns, Villarriba and Villabajo, compete for the best paella at their popular fiestas. When it comes time to scrub the large paella pan, those from Villarriba, who use Fairy dishwashing liquid, finish quickly and leave early to celebrate, while those from Villabajo, who use another dishwashing liquid, cannot go to celebrate because they continue scrubbing the paella pan. The commercial ends with the slogan Fairy es el milagro antigrasa .[1] The success of the campaign allowed the brand to go from a discreet 6% to 40% market share in Spain,[2] surpassing Henkel's Mistol dishwashing liquid –the best-selling until then–, and managing to dominate the Spanish market.[3]

The commercial was soon dubbed into other languages and used in markets such as Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, and the United Kingdom, replacing the detergent bottle with the corresponding local one. In Germany itself, the campaign allowed Fairy to quickly become one of the country's three best-selling dishwashing liquids.[4]

The advertising campaign has been renewed –and exported– many times over the years showing different fiestas in Villarriba and Villabajo –where they have to scrub different large pans or grills or wash a large number of dirty dishes–, it was expanded to other products of the brand –such as dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent– and it has even had local versions abroad –such as Neukirch and Altkirch in Germany or Vila de Cima and Vila de Baixo in Portugal–.

The location of Villarriba and Villabajo has never been revealed and does not maintain continuity between the different commercials, since they show different architectures, landscapes and fiestas. Actual locations used for filming include the towns of Brunete and Torrelaguna.[5] To differentiate the fictional towns, the residents of Villarriba use Fairy's usual green color extensively at fiestas –in aprons, clothing, tablecloths, banners and decorations–, while those of Villabajo use blue. The name of the towns is a play on the Spanish word villa, meaning "town", the words arriba and abajo, meaning "up" and "down", and the words ¡arriba! and trabajo, meaning "come on!" and "work". For some time both towns were merged into Villaenmedio, from villa, meaning "town", and en medio, meaning "in the middle". In Villaenmedio they wear green and blue striped clothing at fiestas.

In 2016, Procter & Gamble –which is one of the largest advertisers in Spain– chose Villarriba and Villabajo as their best advertising campaign ever in the country given its popularity and excellent brand positioning results.[6]

Legacy