Mr. Clean Ad

What makes an ad terrible? Is it offensive? Does it contain a stereotype against a certain group of people within the ad? Is it just so obviously an ad that will not go over well that one must scratch their head in wonder at how this was ever released for public consumption? There are several ads that fit some of these characteristics, but the one that I find that fits all of them is the 2011 Mr. Clean Mothers Day ad.

Is this ad offensive? Yes, yes it is. It uses the stereotype that a woman’s job, her real job, is within in the home cooking, cleaning and raising a family. These were values that, while still offensive, would have been socially accepted in the 1940’s, not 2011. Anyone who looks at this ad sees that message and not whatever message is trying to be portrayed. It is not difficult to see how this would not go over well with the vast majority of the public and it is a wonder how a brand as large and universally known as Mr. Clean can make such an egregious error.

It is an overtly sexist ad, ones who’s sexist message doesn’t need to be pulled from undertones within the ad or explained to someone who does not understand how it is sexist because any sane and normal person would have no problem seeing that within this ad. It is clearly one that makes the highlight reel of worst ads of all time. And not only is it offensive to women, but men as well. This ad is basically only a women can clean as it is not a mans job to do so, a popular thought in history up until the middle of the 1900’s. What message does that convey to stay at home dads that clean and conduct the domestic duties while their signifiant other goes and earns money? If I fell into that category, well, I would feel emasculated and ashamed of doing an activity that is perfectly normal for an individual of either gender to engage in.

Another thing that is not as obvious is that the image portrays a women and a young child, assumed to be her daughter. This is part of the reason it is a bad ad because it instills the sense that young girls must be trained to be good care takers, another popular mode of thought in the aforementioned time period. This again is not something that should be conveyed to young girls, actually some may even say it is counter productive with the recent push for women to enter the STEM fields.

All in all this is an ad that would have gone over just fine in 1938, but in 2011 when it was published, its producers should have known that there would be obvious backlash to such a sexist ad.