The Wipemare: Berlin Tech Campaign Questions Western Hygiene Norms
Berlin-based hygiene startup Bidetlity has launched The Wipemare, a satirical campaign film that uses humor to challenge Western toilet paper habits. The short film, produced entirely with generative AI, presents a fictional world where people clean everyday messes by smearing dirt with dry paper instead of washing with water, drawing uncomfortable parallels to personal hygiene practices that often go unquestioned in Western societies.
Through exaggerated scenarios involving cars, dishes, floors and clothing, the campaign exposes the absurdity of relying solely on dry paper for intimate cleaning. Bidetlity describes the project as a natural extension of its earlier Clean Kiss campaign, which sparked widespread online debate about wiping versus washing practices across social media platforms and discussion forums.
Corinna Jänsch, Bidetlity’s head of brand, states: "More than 70 percent of the world already cleans with water. But in many Western cultures, intimate hygiene is still oddly stuck in the past, despite advancements in other areas of personal care. We wanted to take that logic out of the bathroom and expose how absurd it suddenly feels everywhere else." The campaign builds on this observation by applying bathroom logic to everyday situations, forcing viewers to confront the inconsistency in their own habits.
The initiative directly questions why water is the universally accepted cleaning method for dishes, clothes and most household tasks, yet intimate hygiene continues to rely heavily on dry paper in many Western countries, including the United States and much of Europe. This cultural inconsistency forms the central theme of The Wipemare’s narrative approach, inviting viewers to examine their own assumptions about cleanliness and hygiene in the modern era.
Generative AI played a pivotal role in creating the film’s distinctive visual world, allowing the production team to bring their surreal concept to life efficiently. Director and prompt artist Axel Schilling collaborated with Berlin production company LeBerg to produce realistic yet intentionally unsettling scenes that push the boundaries of visual storytelling. Marco Obermann, LeBerg’s managing creative director, explains: "In online discussions, people often explain the logic with a simple comparison. If a bird pooped on your shirt, would you smear it around with dry paper or wash it off with water?"
"Generative AI allowed us to push that thought experiment into a surreal version of everyday life until the absurdity became impossible to ignore," he adds. The technology enabled the production team to craft a world that appears completely familiar while gradually becoming increasingly uncomfortable for viewers, creating the cognitive dissonance that drives the campaign’s satirical message home.
The campaign launches across multiple digital platforms, including YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, targeting audiences where discussions about personal habits and wellness trends thrive. It features a hero film, a dedicated website and a series of shorter social videos designed for maximum shareability and engagement. Bidetlity aims to challenge cultural taboos around intimate hygiene at a time when broader conversations about wellness and sustainability have entered mainstream culture.
By using satire and exaggerated logic, The Wipemare encourages audiences to reconsider long-standing habits that have been treated as socially unquestionable for generations. The Berlin tech startup hopes the campaign will spark meaningful conversations about hygiene practices, cultural norms and the role of innovation in challenging established behaviors in Western societies.
