Daldumyan 1

Ezabella Daldumyan
Professor Beadle
English 115
4 December 2016
Women and Advertising
Wherever we look, we see advertisements all around us, so its not a surprise that they
have such a strong influence in our daily lives. Most advertisements show men in a masculine
way and women in a feminine way. The specific advertisement chosen for this assignment is one
for a cleaning sponge; the Mr. Clean sponge. The advertisement shows a mother and her
daughter in the upper right and the mother is showing the daughter the sponge and they both look
happy; along with the words This Mothers Day, get back to the job that really matters. At first
glance, not many people notice anything wrong with advertisement, but that is the problem. In
this day and age, most people are over the stereotype that women are supposed to do the cooking
and cleaning and all the other housework. So it is surprising to see an ad like this around and
how no one says anything about how it captures women as the weaker sex. Those few people
that actually see that something is wrong are trying to make the rest of society see it too, but the
other people just dont see anything wrong with the ad. There are some people that think that is
not the case since times are changing and so are the methods of advertisements, but no matter
how hard we try, women are still seen as the weaker sex and portrayed in a stereotypical way in
ads.
In general, advertisements show men in a masculine way and women in a feminine way.
In this particular example, it is easy to see that the cleaning sponge is directed toward women
because of how there is a mother and daughter in the advertisement and how there are the words

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Mothers Day written on the upper left. Why is it that women are seen as the ones that are left
to do the cleaning, but not the men? The answer is because how people have characterized the
sexes years ago. In an article by Ruth Hubbard, she talks about how the characteristics for
women came from wealthy, educated men and they decided on these characteristics based on
what would benefit them and what seems nature (Hubbard 46). This explanation as to why
women are seen the way they do is a huge influencer in the advertising world. The ad is directed
to women and that is how it has been for decades. Even now where women are in the work force,
society still wants women to have those housewife characteristics and do what is natural for
them. The ad itself is indirectly telling women that being a housewife is their main job and any
other job they have is not important. Teaching the younger generations to not follow these
stereotypes and raising them with the new way of thinking is not that easiest thing to do. In the
article Becoming Members of Society; by Aaron Devor, it talks about how at a young age,
children learn the rules of membership in society, they come to see themselves in terms they
have learned from the people around them (Devor 35). Children; like the little girl in the
advertisement, see their mothers clean and cook; even if they work, and see their fathers not get
involved with any of these activities. We can teach/preach to the younger generations all we
want, but chances are that they will just follow the stereotypes that are laid out for them; like the
little girl in the ad, she will probably follow in her mothers footsteps.
Many people know that advertisements are powerful ways to sell a product and to get
people to believe in the idea of a product; especially when they are directed to children. For the
Mr. Clean advertisement, the mother is showing the daughter the sponge and they are bonding
over this cleaning tool. Mothers see this as a product advertisement, but children see this as a
way to spend time with their mom or how they are supposed to act like and that is how their

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future should look like. In the article Women, Men, and Society written by Claire Renzetti and
Daniel Curran, it talks about how advertisements for girls are focused on the stereotypes of
women and how that shapes that way girls grow up (Renzetti and Curran 82). Girls are raised in
a world where society pushes them to be motherly and nurturing, but they should also be
independent and not follow the stereotypes of what a women used to be. Referring to the
advertisement, the mother is showing the little girl what the sponge can do and you can see how
happy the girl is and how happy the mother is because her daughter is enjoy this bonding time.
As much we like to blame society and advertisements for messing up the younger generations,
only those who are educated enough know that the people that raise these children are also to
blame for how younger people are shaped. The parents play a huge role in how a child grows up
and what they act like. Most parents unintentionally push their children to follow the stereotypes
of how a boy and a girl should act. Mothers teach their daughters how to cook and clean; like the
advertisement shows, and fathers show their sons how to play sports and act manly. All these
factors contribute to the idea that stereotypes are used in advertisements and that women are still
seen as the weaker sex.
At a first glance, many people dont notice anything wrong with the Mr. Clean
advertisement, and that is exactly why this ad is a problem. The fact that no one sees that this ad
is showing the stereotypical women with her daughter looking at a cleaning sponge means that
something is wrong. As a society we are just so used to seeing these types of advertisements that
it is normal to us. In the article A Study on Gender Portrayals in Advertising through the Years:
A Review Report by Shyama Kumari and Shraddha Shivani it talks about the six different types
of ways women are portrayed in advertisements and how affective using women in
advertisements are. The housewife stereotype is currently at the number four position in the list

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of how women are portrayed in advertisements. The people who make these ads know what they
are doing and know that showing the women in a housewife type of atmosphere will sell more
products. These people dont care about the impact it has on the women and children that see this
advertisement, they just care about making money and doing their jobs.
Some people are going to say that no one thinks that way anymore and people are
changing their mentality about how a woman should portrayed in ads or that Im looking too far
into the advertisement and I shouldnt take it so seriously because it is just an ad. Maybe all these
things are true, but this isnt just about the ad, it is about how society looks at women and still
thinks that we are the weaker sex. There is an article; The Effect of Modern Female Sex Role
Portrayals on Advertising Effectiveness, by Jaffe Lynn and Paul Berger that says that women
prefer the egalitarian image (the woman that has a job and her and her husband share the
housework) compared to the superwomen image (the woman that has a job and her husband
helps a little with the housework (Lynn and Berger 1). What no one is questioning from this
study is that they only asked women and not the men on what they thought, so it was obvious
that the women would chose the one where the chores were divided evenly; the bias in this study
is clear when you actually read the article. The only people that seem to have changed their
mentality about women and advertisements is the women, and the men still stuck in the old way
of thinking. And yes times are changing, but there are people out there that still believe in this
stereotype and want that. Even though things are changing and people are breaking out of this
shell, this type of advertising strategy is still very effective in the modern world and the impacts
are still strong.
Advertisements are everywhere we look and there is no escaping them and their impact
on society. The advertisement chosen is a Mr. Clean ad where a mother and daughter are pictured

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looking at a cleaning sponge while they both look happy and are smiling. Youre probably
wondering why this ad is important or how it can impact society and thats the thing, no one sees
what is wrong with it and that is what makes it wrong. As a society we are so used to seeing
women being portrayed this way that we dont even consider it a second thought. These types of
advertisements can influence little girls into thinking that they should act like in a housewife
manner and that is the normal way of acting. Women for so many years were thought to be seen
as the weaker sex and they are only good at housework and raising children; this idea came from
men when they decided that women should do things that seemed natural for them and their
needs. Advertisements help shape children from a very young age and they show what their path
in life should look like and what they should aspire to in the future. Still to this day advertising
companies use stereotypes to sell their products and the most effective way to sell a product is to
show a woman in a housewife setting. Nothing has really changed, even though people like to
think it has. No one notices the impact of these ads; like this Mr. Clean one and the ones that do
notice cant really do anything in a society that doesnt like change.

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Work Cited
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society. Composing Gender, edited by Rachael Groner
and John F. OHara, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014, pp.35-45
Hubbard, Ruth. Rethinking Womens Biology. Composing Gender, edited by Rachael Groner
and John F. OHara, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014, pp.46-52
Jaffe, Lynn, and Paul Berger. "The Effect of Modern Female Sex Role Portrayals on Advertising
Effectiveness." Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 34, no.4 (1994): pp. 32.
Mr. Clean: Mothers Day Advertisement. https://www.google.com/search?q=mr+clean+mother
%27s+day+ad&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjD4bvtionQAhVC2GM
KHatUBSkQ_AUICSgC&biw=1366&bih=638#imgrc=_ 10/4/16
Renzetti, Claire and Curran, Daniel. From Women, Men, and Society. Composing Gender,
edited by Rachael Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014, pp.76-87
Kumari, Shyama, and Shraddha Shivani. "A Study on Gender Portrayals in Advertising Through
the Years: A Review Report." Journal of Research in Gender Studies, vol. 2, no.2 (2012):
pp. 54-63