I Now Pronounce You Wife and Mop

This week we discussed the underlying messages in soap commercials. Although a lot of the messages were generally about racism, some, like most of the present ones, are more centered on sexism. Swiffer has recently launched a campaign that involves the personification of mops and brooms. In these commercials, these housewives are dumping these brooms and mops for a more efficient Swiffer. And afterwards, these mops and brooms come back looking for them, trying to win them back with flowers and bands playing Player’s “Baby Come Back.” This action of trying to romance the housewives suggest that these cleaning tools, if they could have a sex, are male, which indirectly suggests that women need these tools, males, to get the cleaning done. Although we generally think cleaning is a women’s task, these commercials continue to enforce how women are weak and will always need the help of men to get the work done.