I knew immediately that I wanted to do this assignment on an ad for cleaning supplies, because they always drive me totally nuts—sometimes even more so than ads that “just” focus on body image. I think this one, for Swiffer Wet Jet, is a pretty great example of the kinds of ads that get to me:



I think that, in general, ads for cleaning supplies which are targeted only towards women are doubly offensive: there’s the presumption that the women in the household are the cleaners, as well as the assumption that men couldn’t possibly be the ones cleaning a house (often, the men are actually the mess-makers).

This ad, firstly, solidifies a specific gender role for women: staying at home and looking after the house—including the cleaning (you can tell it’s the daytime when she opens the front door, but I don’t even think you would need that image in order to interpret that it’s the day because it’s clearly invoking an image of a stay-at-home-mom without specifying it).

The ad also is portraying a very specific type of woman: she’s attractive and thin, and upper middle class—someone’s making enough money to afford that nice house, but she still does her own cleaning! (Also, note that she’s wearing big pearl earrings while Swiffer-ing. I always put on my nice jewelry to clean the house.)

Lastly, a common theme among cleaning ads are the fact they show the woman actually getting pleasure out of the cleaning process. Sometimes it’s just a woman having fun cleaning, but another way to code it is by showing romantic or sexual pleasure while cleaning. This ad actually makes that explicit by having the woman be in a “relationship” or a love triangle with her new Swiffer Wet Jet and her old mop. Not only do they have shots of her Swiffer-ing with a dreamy look and a smile, the Swiffer is also, literally, her romantic partner.

I think all these images and devices—having the woman be attractive and financially secure, showing her deriving pleasure from cleaning—serve to make this really restricting gender role of de facto housekeeper something desirable and glamorous, even when I think plenty of women probably don’t care much for cleaning. It’s a way of making a gender role which is actually quite unappealing (unpaid labor?) seem special or fun, and hails women who see the commercial to want to desire to be that happy and satisfied while performing a role they’re not that crazy about.