Mr. Sexist: Mr. Clean’s Mother’s Day Ad
Like a normal person who mostly only cares about things related to me, I don’t pay much attention to the ads that I see. I glance once, then ignore them and go on my way. Or if I have to pay attention, in the case of the pop up that covers your screen or the video you can’t skip, I’ll instinctively search for the close button as quickly as possible. But when I see a truly terrible ad, and by terrible I mean the type that makes you gape in disbelief, I stay in bewilderment for a few extra seconds before I close the ad.
Coming across this Mr. Clean Mother’s Day advertisement, I immediately wondered who would approve of this and if they were fired afterwards. Needless to say, it’s a terrible ad. Mr. Clean egregiously misinterpreted what people think of the role of women. Even though the ad was published in 2011, it was and still is unacceptable. The text is sexist: “This Mother’s Day, get back to the job that really matters.” Despite whatever Mr. Clean thinks in his bald head of his, it clearly implies that a mother’s only important job is cleaning the house. The text has missed its mark, offending its audience — women and men alike. It discredits the vast majority of women who have jobs that really matter, like being CEOs or engineers or any other way they contribute to society.
The timing of the ad is also off. Mother’s Day is normally a day of relaxation for women across the country, not a day of work. Most Mother’s would not imagine spending their Mother’s Day cleaning. Mr. Clean tries to be relatable to its audience, but instead misses the whole premise of the holiday. Mr. Clean’s marketing department should’ve kept Mother’s Day out of it and opted for an ad that all would enjoy.
Visually, it is bizarre to me that the mother and daughter duo look overjoyed because for the most part people don’t enjoy cleaning. They might enjoy the feeling of accomplishment after cleaning is over, but not during the process. In the image the mother happily scrubs a glass door while her daughter points in excitement. The ad tells girls that what they should enjoy is cleaning, not chasing your dreams in any other fashion. This is also offensive to Mr. Clean’s customer base; it doesn’t help sell any products. If the ad was framed around being able to clean so effortlessly that the duo could do other activities on their Mother’s Day, that would be better. Instead, it is enforcing an old standard that should be swept away.