Daldumyan 1

Ezabella Daldumyan
Professor Beadle
English 115
29 October 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 I choose 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, you dont
notice anything wrong with it, 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. 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.
As mentioned before, advertisements show men in a masculine way and women in a
feminine way. In this particular example, you can 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 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 characterized
the sexes years ago. In an article by Ruth Hubbard, she talks about how the characteristics for

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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 easy. In the article
Becoming Members of Society; written 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.
Most people know that advertisements are powerful ways to not only sell a product, but
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
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

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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 I chose, 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, no one takes in account 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. Mother teach their daughter 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 women are still seen
as the weaker sex.
At a first glance, you dont notice anything wrong with the Mr. Clean advertisement, but
that is what is wrong with it. 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 of how women are
portrayed in advertisements. The people how make these ads are smart enough to know what
they are doing and know that showing the women in a housewife type of atmosphere will sell

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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.
I know some people are going to say that no one thinks that way anyone and people are
changing their mentality about how a woman should portrayed in ads. Or people might say 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
female and still thinks that we are still 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 asked women what they thought and they obviously chose the
one where the chores were divided evenly; there is a lot of bias in this study. 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. I chose a Mr. Clean ad where a mother and daughter are pictured looking at a
cleaning sponge and 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 certain way. Women for so many

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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
affective is showing a woman in a housewife setting. Nothing has really changed, even thought
people like to think it has. No one notices the impact of these ads; like the 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