Published in On Our Selection News August 21, 2013

Why do cleaning product ads only ever feature women?

I don’t watch a lot of TV these days (I prefer to spend my time looking at funny pictures of dogs on the internet instead, which is much more constructive…) but when I do deign to turn to pick up the remote, I can’t help becoming enraged.

This is generally the premise of most cleaning product ads you’ll see: there’s a woman and she’s either looking lovingly into a shiny toilet bowl; or cuddling her dishwasher; or looking determined with a bottle of bathroom bleach; or looking at the clean clothes she’s just pulled out of the washing machine/ dryer as if it was part of an amazing magical trick, much like a rabbit being pulled from a hat.

It’s getting a bit ridiculous. I’m not saying that these products and their effects aren’t amazing, but I am saying that it’s not only those human beings with uteri who use these products.

That’s right hotshot television advertising people, who probably aren’t reading this article! You guys are doing it wrong! Why are you people still portraying the view that only women clean things, when it is in fact not true?!

As a kid, I used to watch the CLR ad in pure amazement – I looked at how that magical grey bottle would clean things in seconds and was completely blown away! But this isn’t because of my ability to bear fruit from my womb, it’s because I am one of those people who like things to be clean. And these people come in all shapes and sizes, with varied private parts.

Cleaning is not a gender-determined role. I know lots of guys that are avid cleaners (unfortunately, these guys do not happen to be my roommates), and lots of girls that detest cleaning.

I recently went camping and had to two male friends fretting about how untidy the campsite was – yes, even with all that testosterone pulsating through their bodies and stubble on their chins! I also have female friend whose room constantly looks like she’s only just moved in because of all the filth on the floor. The thing is that some people are clean, and some people don’t care for that sort of thing.

I think we’re all aware that it’s not just mothers who do cleaning. Men DO chuck in some powder and press the “on” button on a washing machine, men DO clean the shower, men DO turn on the dishwasher, DO vacuum the floors. In fact, there’s probably a man doing one or more of those things in the exact moment that you’re reading this.

Instead of having boring, fifties-esque ads with mothers prancing about cleaning surfaces, we could have funny, exciting ads about cleaning products with different groups of people cleaning. Who wouldn’t love to hear a male voice singing in of those delightful Ajax Spray and Wipe commercials? Or see a group of young, sharehouse dwelling uni students attacking a mess as their post-party recovery?

We are missing out on fantastic cleaning product ads because the world of television advertising is deluded, and that really leaves streaks on my glass.