Via solarnu @ Flickr.
It never fails. The formula must be set in stone somewhere. Never appeal to men when selling anything that’s used to tidy a house! And I get it; I do. Men and women are not equal on the home-front. Women do more housework than men, and are still responsible for most domestic chores when they live with a man. It’s understandable why a company would market directly to those people who are most likely to use their product in the first place. But it doesn’t have to be so fucking insulting. They aggressively push the wife/mother = maid narrative, and the actresses in the commercials are always ecstatic when they get the opportunity to do laundry.
One Lysol commercial is particularly egregious. Mom arrives home to find dad and the kids turning the family kitchen into a salmonella lab. Unacceptable. Dad turns around and shrugs his stupid shoulders. Cut to mom wiping all kinds of nasty substances off various kitchen surfaces. Everyone has a good laugh. The end. Why couldn’t dad clean that mess up?! They could just as easily have shown him reaching for the Lysol after a fun afternoon of culinary experimentation.
Men cleaning house are presented as a fantasy. I would be loyal for life to any company that presented them as a reality in its advertising.
I think this post is a verbatim transcript of the rants I subject my roommate too whenever we are watching tv. I have always said that if there was an ad for any kind of household product that showed a man using like it was no big deal, I would never buy anything other than that product forever and ever.
I agree 100%! This is something that has always, always bugged me. There are plenty of ways to have a clever commercial to get people to clue in to your product. This unbelievably stupid trope is lazy, and frankly, a waste of a company’s money.
Oh, and another thing: The only time men do appear in these ads is as “experts” teaching silly little women the best way to do laundry or scrub floors. Cleaning tools and products are also personified as men (e.g. Swiffer commercials, Mr. Clean commercials). So to recap, experts who invent cleaning products are coded as male, utilitarian tools for cleaning are coded as male, and the person who does the actual drudge work of cleaning is coded as female. This is why the only cleaning products I use are baking soda, vinegar, and generic dish soap.
How about the one with the two boys criticizing mom for buying the wrong trash bags? Don’t get mad get GLAD my ass.
Have you seen that dryer ball laundry commercial where the women are like “OMG this product is GENIUS! Now my WHOLE LIFE is better!!!” It makes me insane with rage – like women’s lives are all so dull and meaningless magic fucking fabric softener is going to give them orgasmic pleasure. If you really don’t have time in your day to pull a fabric sheet out of a box you need a long conversation with your partner/husband about your current division of labor. Dude is NOT helping enough.
I had lunch yesterday with a colleague/friend who has an infant and a toddler. We were talking about household chores and she said, “In a few short years, I will never wash another dish or sweep another floor again.” Her kids will be doing a fair bit of the housework, and I think that’s awesome.
Anyone who criticizes my trash bag buying skills is liable to get suffocated with one of my subpar trash bags.
My favorite is the laundry commercial (oxyclean, maybe?) where all these women are gathered at some sort of learned institute of laundry and the male instructor is showing them how bleach damages black jeans and all the women are amazed and nodding, like “Oh my tiny little lady brain had no idea bleach ruined colored clothing. No wonder I wrecked 6 pairs of jeans last week! Thanks Super Smart Laundry Man!”
Yeah Becky — I would also like to see the “mom” point her sloppy kid towards the cleaning supplies. “The Swiffer will clean that up. Hop to.” My mom had me (not my brother, though) doing almost all the cleaning chores by the time I was in middle school.
But no. Kids in commercials are too busy laughing at mom when her trash bag breaks.
@SarahMC: Yeah, MamaSharper had me and my sister on laundry-doing, table-setting and dog-walking duty from very early on. I think it should be mandatory that kids pitch in—especially their boys, who often escape the housework by virtue of their gender, only to grow up into adult slobs who don’t know how to vacuum or run a washing machine.
When 5:45 rolled around in our house when I was growing up there would be a frenzy of cleaning shit up because if my mom got home from work and saw dirty plates or school bags thrown in the middle of the hall? Shit was hitting the fan. Big time. I remember wanting one of those non-scary types of moms that would clean stuff up for you. heh.
Being incredibly lazy and hating cleaning and housework I am all for teaching children to be your slaves (as Becky and Michelle will testify I also utilize unsuspecting friends in the same way by luring them with the prospect of dinner).
My siblings and I did the household chores from an early age – with no exception for my brother who was expected to pitch in just the same.
As for adverts, just add me to the list of people who would buy a cleaning product that showed a man using it as though it was no big deal. Certainly it was no big deal in my house – I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mum with dishcloth in hand. The rule in my house was my mum had cooked the meal so my dad damn well washed all the dishes and surfaces and laid and cleared the table.
Great post!
This is one of my pet peeves…women looking thrilled while cleaning shit up.
I’ve got two tween boys and one of the things I’ve emphasized from the time they were toddlers is that I am NOT here to clean their messes up. They know how to, and regularly do, take care of a lot of stuff already.
Aren’t men tired of being portrayed as stupid,bumbling children who need women to pick up after them and mother them?I know it provides them with a nice little huge free pass to escape responsibility but enough is enough!Everytime I see a manchild on TV commercials I just think,God,are men that dumb?Why don’t they protest this shit?
My mother-in-law told me that “this is what you have daughter-in-laws for!” when I last loaded the dishwasher for her. My response was, what? Because it’s so difficult to teach your sons to load the damn dishwasher? But then in discussing it with my husband later, he pointed out that he really had learned how to load a dishwasher from me. *sigh*
I, of course, learned from my dad, but then again, my grandmother had eight sons and no daughters, so those boys really know their way around some household chores!
Impatient: They don’t protest it because then they’d be expected to clean on the regular (without being asked) in real life, too.
Yes, the mothers ARE always ecstatic! I’d like to see a commercial where a dad sees a mess and cleans it up. Why don’t the moms in these commercials hand over the broom or mop to the person who made the mess? Instead, the dad or kid doesn’t clean it up, either walks away or looks to the mom for help. Better yet, why don’t the others just take the initiative?
In these commercials, the mom really is the maid. The others are doing fun or more interesting things. The mom only shows up to pack a lunch or wipe a spill. Oh, or drive a kid to soccer.
It reminds me of the mom from 90210. In every scene she was in, she was cooking dinner or folding laundry.
@impatient – My husband, who does 90% of the cleaning in the house, IS tired of all these ads that portray men as stupid, bumbling children who can’t clean. It sets him off on rants all the time. (As a side note, this is also true on almost all children’s shows – the men/fathers are all stupid or buffoonish in some way, causing trouble, that the mothers/women end up cleaning up. Even in good shows like Sid the Science Kid.) We watch ads like that, and I know that HE is the one who might get excited about a new product, while I couldn’t care less.
I also love that our two little boys have the example of a working mom and a stay-at-home dad who does most of the housework and cooking. (I do contribute to both, by the way, but since he’s home, he does the lion’s share.)
I am
Why worry about the Christian right when we have corporate America reinforcing all their favorite stereotypes for them?
Where did y’all find these men-who-clean? I live with a male apartment mate and, from looking at my parents, it’s just like marriage. I do all the house work, he does some token tasks like bringing in the mail and apparently believes that the toilet cleans itself. And there isn’t even the benefit of sex and companionship. I’m even paying more rent because my room is slightly larger!
I’ve considered killing him, but am too tired and don’t want to have to clean up after that.
In other words, commercials reflect my reality, except for the orgasmic joy part.
Ugh, cleaning commercials! That trash-bag commercial infuriates me the most, and makes me want to stuff those brats right into the disposal.
I do clean, as does my husband (he vacuums and does the heavier scrubbing). And it always seems like a colossal waste of time, even though I always enjoy the results.
I confess I have a bit of a thing for Murphy’s oil soap. Maybe it’s because I don’t remember any of their commercials.
As annoying as the kid’s lecturing mom about trash bags one is I do feel the need to point out that that’s the only commercial that comes to mind where the father is actually doing something. While mom struggles with garbage dad is in the background doing dishes.
I hate these ads, too.* Is it just me or has it gotten worse in the last few years?
When I was a kid, my mom was a control freak about the dishes and laundry, but my brother and I each had to clean one bathroom and half the kitchen floor, as well as other miscellaneous stuff.
*I have to admit I kind of miss the Brawny man. He can come clean my kitchen any day, preferably in the nude.
@impatient – I’ve asked my manpanion (who is mainly responsible for dishes, dusting, and taking out the trash) this question and his response is that no, he does not mind on a personal level, because he knows that ultimately it is aimed at his benefit. That is, although he disagrees with it politically, he doesn’t find it personally insulting.
I’ve become increasingly skeptical of cleaning products in any event. The fact that the vast majority of the product weight is water isn’t that problematic for me but it really bothers me that a significant portion of the other ingredients are dyes and thickeners and such as opposed to being actually useful for cleaning. Other chemists may relate to this feeling: I often find myself wishing that I could just bring home some solvents from the lab instead — damn if I’ve yet to find anything that doesn’t dissolve in tetrahydrofuran besides metals — but that wouldn’t be safe or legal.
If only things wouldn’t get so dirty in the first place…
elibard, the dad on Caillou is awesome and non-bumbling.
baraqiel, almost every grad student I knew used to steal solvents from the lab for cleaning.
I don’t remember what it was, but there is at least one carpet-cleaning commercial that involves the kids helping with the cleaning.
Count me among the kids who’s moms saw them as an escape from drudgery – we had a cleaning service, but I was doing my own laundry when I was ten. My husband (who does 70% of the cleaning around here – maybe more) and I constantly joke about how long it will be before our three-year-old boy can take over various tasks. On the bright side, I was the only person on my floor who really knew how to do laundry my freshman year.
My mother-in-law literally followed her children around the house picking up after them because she can’t bear a mess. For the first two months we lived together, my husband would say things like, “Wow, it’s really messy in here.” and “I wish the kitchen were cleaner.” and honestly didn’t seem to realize that if he wanted the house to be cleaner, he had to do something about it. Luckily, since his mess tolerance is way lower than mine, he learned pretty quickly. He even cleans toilets. Though never the area behind them.
I was at home for three months this summer-a once a year occurrence since I moved to Asia-and I know my parents were delighted because it meant the house was a lot cleaner.
My brother and I have always been expected to do chores – my brother has a bit of the younger sibling syndrome going on, where he insists he’s always done more than I have, which is laughable to say the least; when I first moved out to go to university, and would come home at weekends, he tried to make me “catch up” on all the chores I hadn’t done since, you know, I no longer lived there – and the rule is whoever cooks doesn’t wash up.
But yes, these commercials are awful. My mother hates any kind of housework with a fiery passion, but she also likes a clean house, and my dad tends to do outside work more than anything else, although to be fair, there’s a lot of outside work to be done. My brother on the other hand doesn’t understand the concept of tidiness, or dirt for that matter. He’s just a slob, and I can’t even blame it on our being socialized differently.
My mother was also big on the getting-kids-to-clean front. I actually can’t imagine getting my laundry done for me or not having to make my own bed. And from age 9 I was responsible for the bathrooms and vacuuming. I think a certain amount of that needs to happen, otherwise the kids will go off into the big wide world not knowing how to take care of themselves.
@nepenthe: I would just lay down the law and tell him you don’t want to be cleaning up after him anymore. Maybe with an Or Else, if you’ve got one. But then, I’m kind of a bitch like that. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s lack of hygiene. That’s always the first thing I check up on when I’m looking for a flat – will they agree to a cleaning rota and do we have similar standards.
God, my partner and I bitch about this all the time.
Also, what about all those commercials advertising a “new” cleaning product, wherein some dude comes to SPREAD THE WORD to all the ecstatically grateful ladies?
Another thing that annoys the crap out of me about these commercials is the fact that woman is ALWAYS, always, wearing a wedding ring. It might just be a thin gold band but she’s always wearing one. Because single women don’t clean. Or no woman would be portrayed with a man and children and GASP! not be MARRIED. My goodness we can’t have that.OH NO.
*rant over* Sorry but that really bugs me.Anyone else notice it?
@nepenthe: I used to live with three roommates and two cats. We had periodic arguments about cleaning – who was doing what, what was enough, etc. Until finally, after several years, we came to a new resolution. Every month, each of us paid a little extra ($20 at the time) into the kitty, on top of our rent. At the end of the month, we would either use that $80 to hire a maid for two hours to do the cleaning none of us had had time or inclination to do, or one person who wanted the money that month would do the cleaning and take the money. It was open to share the money if people agreed to split the cleaning tasks.
That actually worked really well because we then all attached a monetary value to the cleaning that none of us wanted to do. And it got done.
This Australian commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UihIWUzD_7Q&p=35D7F1AAFA97FC25&playnext=1&index=65 is really annoying and ends bizarrely, but at least the man is doing the cleaning!! Still doesn’t stop me from muting it when it comes on the telly…