Throughout history there have been many terrible ads that are morally wrong or offensive. Today I will be focusing on an ad from Mr. Clean that suggests that you should get your mom cleaning supplies for Mother’s Day.

I feel confident that most mothers would not like this as a gift; however, the add is much worse than just suggesting a bad gift. The ad shows old societal norms and hierarchy in a household which are untrue in an average U.S. household.

Firstly, society has evolved to where women do so much more than just clean the house and cook food. In many family’s women work just as much as a man and sometimes more. This makes it unacceptable that a cleaning company would suggest the mom to clean on Mother’s Day.

It is also interesting that the company is called Mr. Clean, and they are saying women should clean. This may be unintentional, but it can be seen as a man telling a woman to clean the house.

Secondly, the family hierarchy that is portrayed is even worse than just the first point. In the picture the child is pointing to a spot as if he is telling his mother how to clean. This basically shows the mom as the lowest ranked member of the family when she should be looked to with respect.

Form my personal experiences growing up my mother had just as much authority as my father. My father did work much more than my mother so she would me home with me significantly more. This led both of my parents to have more authority in their respective roles and my mother had more authority for things that happened in the house.

Thirdly, the ad is simply unrealistic and misleading. It shows the mother and son smiling as they are using the magic eraser as if cleaning with this product makes cleaning fun. I am confident that cleaning with any product is not enjoyable especially for a mother on Mother’s Day.

Overall, this add definitely missed the mark in my opinion between all of its mistakes and negative social suggestions. I am questioning if the marketing team thought it would be a funny Mother’s Day ad or if they were being serious. I think they need to take a serious look at how an average family operates and interacts.