HaEun Koo's Culture Jam Assignment

Link to the original advertisement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDzMxlw2Fgo

Below is the captured image of chosen advertisement.

The above picture is the screenshot picture of the 30 seconds-long-advertisement of Mr. Clean in 2017. The advertisement has failed to deliver the proper social message. In this advertisement, the image of Mr. Clean has become a sex symbol; Mr. Clean dances erotically and his muscles were emphasized. The most controversial part of the advertisement is the captured scene where the statement “YOU GOTTA LOVE A MAN WHO CLEANS” appears. There are two reasons why this statement is controversial and harmful. First of all, the statement is indirectly insisting that a man who cleans the house is not common and cleaning is mainly the woman’s duty. Therefore, a wife should be thankful and adore a husband who ‘helps’ the chores as the men do not usually clean. The second arguable part is that the advertisement suggests giving a reward the men who clean the house. In the advertisement, when the husband asks, “Clean enough?”, a wife goes straight to him provocatively and they fall on the couch, kissing. This scene is also very absurd in a sense that it proposes the idea that reward for helping a wife to clean the house should be a sexual activity. This is not only considering a woman as an object of sexual activity, but also substantiating that cleaning is not a men’s job. In conclusion, I believe that this Mr. Clean’s 2017 advertisement is a harmful advertisement that delivers gender stereotypes; the problems of this advertisement which I am planning to change in the project are that it encourages an idea of cleaning is a women’s job and indicates men who clean should be praised with sex.

I have always believed that the 21^st century’s advertisement is leading the gender discrimination and even the sexism. The advertisements cleverly reflect the image of woman as a pure, provocative, and home-based-worker and brainwash the audience. The original advertisement of my choice reflects the idea that chore is the requirement for women, but men should be praised for helping women; moreover, it is also illustrating that those men who help are rare and the reward should include sexual activity. Even though it was hard for me to change the video advertisement to a mere picture, I have made three big changes. First of all, I wanted to emphasize the fact that the housework is not bound to women or female, but the duty of everyone who consists the family. Regardless of age and gender, all of the family members should participate and believe that the chore is their own duty for the sake of harmony. In addition, by highlighting the statement, ‘YOU GOTTA CLEAN FOR A HARMONIOUS FAMILY’, I emphasized the fact that the reward for doing the housework should be the family’s unity, rather than a woman’s sexual appeal. The last change that I have made is very trivial but essential part of my Jamming assignment. The colour stereotype that pink is the female’s colour and blue is the male’s colour, is very pervasive and powerful, yet should be removed. By using a blue colour as a background, I wanted to highlight that housework is also the men’s job.