This Dettol ad wildly overestimated people’s love for the office – 7 perfect takedowns

John Plunkett. Updated September 3rd, 2020

An advert on the London Underground about the joys of going back to the office went wildly viral today.

Despite what many people thought, it’s not a message from the government encouraging people to stop working from home and get back to their workplace, but an ad for Dettol.

(via @helloalegria)

And it’s fair to say it got a response – a big response – just not always the one they might have been hoping for.

Here are our favourite things people said about it.

Oh look! They’ve made a list of everything I hate about work and put it on a poster! pic.twitter.com/UQ7C4jQthN

— Michael Moran (@TheMichaelMoran) September 3, 2020

I think the poorest thing is, even this list of supposed perks of being in the office concludes with 'getting the hell out of the office as soon as you can'. https://t.co/QylIbh7IiB

— Mask Watson (@watsoncomedian) September 3, 2020

hearing an alarm. screaming into the abyss. throwing bread in tupperware & pretending it's a packed lunch. eating your bread by 10 and having to spend £8.76 in Pret. pledging your soul to the Pret. joining a cult in the Pret. getting the little Pret star tattooed on your neck https://t.co/5EvKJog1v1

— Lex Croucher (@lexcanroar) September 3, 2020

not having to make lunch? babes, we were paying 4.99 for two slices of bread under the guise of freshness.

— mi🌿 (@helloalegria) September 2, 2020

‘You know how cool the start of Trainspotting is? Yeah, do that but for work, it’ll be *checks notes* proper bants’ 🥴🥴

— Mark My 🇯🇲 (@markintime) September 3, 2020

Almost no-one's experienced the sensation of job security in decades. This halcyon place they're trying to evoke does not exist for most people. Try contractors eyeing each other with suspicion, sitting alone and staring at their phones in the toilet. https://t.co/BvxCXj3bcb

— Nathalie Olah (@nrolah) September 3, 2020

Choose working from home. Choose emailing in your pants. Choose being just as productive but gaining back your commute time. Choose coffee at £5 a bag not £5 a cup. Choose not having to hear “doing anything nice at the weekend”. Choose a better life.

— On/Off Tweeter (@OnOffTweeter) September 3, 2020

Turns out it’s one of a series of ads by Dettol, including this abomination.

https://twitter.com/SpillerOfTea/status/1301460526824927233?s=20

Then again, if all publicity’s good publicity, then Dettol just cleaned up. Maybe?

This is the Trainspotting poster for all the brave heros and heroines who went through the Waitrose grad scheme https://t.co/gMQMOetEG5

— Francisco Garcia (@Ffranciscodgf) September 3, 2020

honestly all these dettol ads have put me firmly on the side of the 0.1% of bacteria it doesn't kill https://t.co/WUigAsE3ZM

— man pointing one gun at you and another at himself (@stepheniscowboy) September 3, 2020

listen i'm sorry for writing the dettol ad but money's been tight post-covid

— Joel Golby (@joelgolby) September 3, 2020

For everyone retweeting this, you may be interested to know it’s an ad for Dettol, whose manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser said just four weeks ago it was “too early to say” when its own staff would go back to the office https://t.co/1bYlLAATab

— Tom Hourigan (@TomHourigan) September 3, 2020

Trainspotting 3 sounds fucking shit. pic.twitter.com/5fAgJ4feCd

— Fraser Campbell (@FraserC69) September 3, 2020

Source @helloalegria