Yes, this commercial is supposed to be humorous and ironic. But to me and I'm sure many others its humorous and ironic for a different reason.
First it seems the woman is in a marriage counselling session with her unseen spouse who is out of the shot. Here by itself, it shows a stereotypically emotional woman, who explains she is begging for her unseen "spouse" to make their "relationship" work.
Surprise!! It's actually her mop! I'm sure the producer of this commercials intent was to produce a light laugh and maybe a "I know how that feels" reaction by a women's audience. But I definitely find this ad extremely annoying.
They are sending the message that women are so attached to their everyday cleaning and household products that the relationship between women and household product is that of a marriage or relationship. Perfect example of how maybe our society has not come so far from the age of 1950's housewife as we had thought.
- Meryle Girl
Your so right! This commercial attempts to put women ‘in their place’ but reminding them that once they purchase this new broom they can be happy. Women are often portrayed as vulnerable, emotional and dependent on a man. This commercial really emphasises the importance of a man in a women’s life. I want to say that ‘old mop’ was made to look like a rugged man not caring about what his wife thinks and he doesn’t really feel bad (hence why he has nothing to say). Think about the reoccurring idea of chick flicks or romance novels, the men are never caring, until the women finds that one right man that will make all her dreams come true. This is the same for the commercial, she isn’t happy until she meets the perfect broom- the Swiffer sweeper. Now that she has ‘him’ she can happily clean the house and do all her womanly chores. Note that we didn’t see them happily doing the chores together. Counselling must not have taught her much if she is fine with doing the chores alone. This theme of women being the emotional man dependent person is seen all over the media and used to trick women to believe their only place is in the home.
ReplyDelete-Goldilocks
I absolutely agree with Goldilocks, everything you said is so true. It is honestly such a brutal commercial I couldn't help but laugh. I think I was laughing and shaking my head in shame at the same time. It is honestly embarrassing that she is sitting there pleaded to make "it" work like am emotional wreck, and really "it" is the mop, and not the relationship that needs to work. The best part is, that when she trades up for a "better" mop, her life is okay once again. In the commercial the mop resembles a phallic object, and is even made to act like the stereotypical traits of a man (as Goldilocks said) acting tough sitting there in silence acting like "he" doesn't care. There is no way this commercial was made by a woman, it was definitely a male chauvanist sitting there laughing.. Ughh so annoyed by this commercial. EMBARRASSING!
ReplyDeleteB-Bloggin
its crazy how in all of the swiffer commercials, it always shows a ruined relationship between the women and the cleaning product, and how the broom, mop or other cleaning item is always trying to win her back, and yet she has "moved on" to something better. It just shows how womens role in the kitchen or household, it seen as more important then her relationship with a spouse. Also i find it weird how they portray her as having such a close relationship with these products and make it almost realistic enough to think its with an actual person.. I agree with B-Bloggin, it truly is embarrassing..
ReplyDeletetm-blogger
...and that she's 'empowered' to leave the unhappy cleaning relationship, while remaining in the one that seems to require her to be responsible for all the cleaning...
ReplyDeleteThe Doctor