Publicis London and AEG Launch new Campaign Shot Through a Dishwasher-Fresh Lasagne Dish

May. 13, 2026

Publicis London and German appliance brand AEG have launched “You Can’t Go Back”, an integrated campaign shot entirely through a freshly washed glass lasagne dish.

Spotlighting the N.E.W Favorit dishwasher’s superior cleaning power through both its craft and creative, the work is AEG’s first large‑scale dishwasher campaign in a decade and rolls out throughout Europe across the summer.

At its centre is a 30-second hero film directed by James Hawes, whose recent work includes Slow Horses, Black Mirror and Doctor Who. The spot opens to an art gallery and shows a man noticing a fingerprint on the glass protecting a sculpture. When he crosses the barriers to wipe it away, alarms sound and security rushes in.

The moment cuts to the line “You can’t go back to almost clean”, as he holds a sparklingly clean dish up to the camera, hinting at the surprising activation behind the film.

To show, rather than just tell people how clean this dishwasher gets your dishes, the film was shot through a lasagna dish that only moments before had been used to cook a lasagna, was then washed in an AEG N.E.W. Favorit dishwasher, then rigged to the front of the camera. In a world first, every frame of the campaign (including the stills), were shot through the same used, then washed lasagna dish. A show of confidence and proof of cleaning prowess technique that has been coined the “Lasagna Lens”.

The film’s eerie, restrained atmosphere, rarely seen in appliance advertising, reflects the campaign’s central idea: once you experience a higher standard, you can never return to what came before.

Supporting the hero film is a suite of social assets, spotlighting the craft behind the idea. 45, 15 and 6-second spots show the practical and creative challenge of shooting through a real glass lasagne dish.

The campaign launches in May across Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with further European markets rolling out throughout 2026.

You Can’t Go Back runs across TV and social. Production was handled by Publicis Production, with media planning and buying handled by Zenith International.

Noël Bunting, Chief Creative Officer at Publicis London, said: 

“I love taking a well-known stress test (caked-on-lasagne) and kicking it up a notch to showcase the cleaning capabilities of the AEG Iris dishwasher. Shooting a film through the lasagne lens was a simple idea, but it makes the proof unmistakable and requires another layer of craft, which not many brands would go for.”

 

Tom Astin, AEG Brand Director, said: 

“The N.E.W. Favorit range sets the gold standard for cleaning performance and addresses a key consumer pain point – that dishes don’t always come out spotless after a wash. We wanted to demonstrate the capacity of AEG innovation and amplify that with the confidence, style and aesthetics that befits our brand.  We are driven to ‘Challenge the Expected’. Shooting the film through a lasagne dish certainly delivers, but it’s the honest expression of the performance that matters most. It shows, very clearly, that once you experience this level of clean, your expectations change.”