Found this as I was looking through the coupons from the Sunday paper. How is this not really, really insulting and offensive?? Try as I might, I can't figure out how the message of this ad could be interpreted positively, especially by working moms. Great job, P&G.Followed by a series of comments from her like-minded friends, and a comment by her:
Apparently! "In case you've forgotten, moms, Mr. Clean is here to remind you what your 'real' job is. And that bathtub had better be SPARKLING by Sunday."
Normally, I'd just hit the "Remove" button on the post and chalk it up to my former colleague spending too much time in a Bohemian place and state of mind. It's sad that her reading comprehension skills have suffered. The ad doesn't say what the moms' "real" job is. It says "get back to the job that really matters." It's an innocuous ad unless you're prepared to take offense. Remember, the Left is always telling us how NUANCED their thinking is!
In this case, P&G isn't insinuating that a working mom's real job is cleaning the house. It shows the mom cleaning with her young daughter. She's being a mom. That's the "job" that "really matters."
I suppose after the ad with the little boy with hot pink toenail polish, the liberals think they deserve a "freebie". I can see where the knee-jerk reaction would be to take offense, and perhaps P&G should've paid for a few more words to clarify that moms can be something besides moms, but being moms is the the job that matters.
UPDATE: I decided to leave a polite comment:
####, I have a slightly different take on this ad: It's showing the mom spending time with the daughter. I don't think it's insinuating that's what the mom's real job is. Moms can be something besides moms, but the ad is stating that b...eing the mom is the job that "really matters." It's a cleaning product, so they're gonna show mom and daughter cleaning. It's analogous to showing a father and son working on a car in a Father's Day ad for Valvoline. Granted, the wording's vague.
If nothing else, I was able to get people in the thread thinking that there are different ways to see the ad. One FB friend:
That's just what moms want to do, spend their time with their kids cleaning. Hell no! If they wanted to show parents spending quality time with their kids it should be reading together, playing ball, on a family vacation, etc etc. To me, this ad screams "a woman's most important job is to keep their house clean to to teach their daughters how to clean as well"Mind you, I can't do anything about their reading comprehension. Once again, there is a world of difference between "most important job" and "job that really matters." The first statement implies moms are supposed to do housekeeping first and foremost. What the ad is talking about is that being a mom is the job that really matters-- to the kids. And being a mom is not about cooking, cleaning, or anything else. It's about bonding with your children.
Fortunately, the author of the thread understands what I'm getting at:
###: I agree, that's probably what they're going for. However, the implications are just bad. There are LOTS of other things the mom and daughter could be doing to spend quality time together -- cleaning the bathroom (and the implication th...at that's what moms should do on Mother's Day) is probably not one of them. I disagree that this is analogous to the dad working on the car with the son -- a better analogy could be gardening or scrapbooking. Cleaning is work, not a hobby.
And after she reads the rest of my comment:
Also, I understand that they're selling a cleaning product and not gardening products or board games or other 'family fun' products. As such, a much better message would have been something like "hey kids, let mom take a load off and clean the bathroom yourselves." Not, "hey Mom, clean the bathroom on Mother's Day to show your kids how much you love them."Huh? Where is she getting that? And by the way, showing the kids cleaning the bathroom while the mom takes a load off is going to get you into trouble with people who have no sense of humor about child labor.
To be fair, one of the other FB friends on the thread whom I estimated to have an I.Q. in the Cro-Magnon range actually produced this bit of logic:
I disagree with that, #####. I would find working on the car and gardening equal to cleaning the house. It's work, not a hobby, —something I don't want to do if I don't have to. The context of that woman cleaning is in the eye of the beholder. Just as an ad of a man working on car would be the same.Looking at the thread, I see the distribution: Males see nothing sinister about the ad, women find it offensive.
Glad I'm single. I can picture myself going 10 rounds with Tawny over this.
No comments:
Post a Comment