Brides love Mr. Clean...

I was trying to find a household cleaning product that was marketed using men, or at least using both men and women equally. Overall, I found that task pretty difficult. The majority of the websites that I found used a motherly figure to sell the product, or an image of a part of a woman cleaning (ie a delicately manicured hand ). Then I came across Mr. Clean's website which features a section on Mr. Clean through the years. This image was featured in advertisements in 1957. I thought that it was quite interesting. It does not portray the stereotypical man (especially for the 1950s) as a person who partakes in household cleaning, but rather a man being comically placed into a 'woman's role' to make a point.

I find it mostly frustrating that all of the commercials that we see on TV that deal with cleaning in the home feature a woman, usually a mother, and a wife in a heterosexual relationship (when relationships are featured) doing the cleaning. As if the only concerns that she has is how to make her whites whiter and her brights brighter, or how to get rid of the most dust with the least amount of effort. I do remember a swiffer commercial from a while ago that showed a man doing the cleaning...however, the message that was being passed on was along the lines of 'so easy to use a man could do it'. I think that this type of message is equally as problematic. It is offensive to men. To sell cleaning products we don't need to make one gender look stupid.

Also, as we talked about in class...the new angle that swiffer is using to sell their products. Here is a little sample of what they are doing. They are making the women in the commercials look like they are having a love affair with their new cleaning tools. Really, swiffer? Sexualizing inanimate objects now?
***Looie***