Marketers, listen up

OK, I'm mad. I'm more than mad. What started this all was this crazy sexist commercial. In it, a group of women (and only women) are shown around the "clorox testing facility", where a group of stain testers (men included in the "scientific" role) are testing the stain fighting powers of a clorox product. Now, of course, the women are horrified by the stains that are being caused on male mannequins - in the office and school only male mannequins are used, and on the soccer field its a boy. But of course the tester shows the women that all they need is clorox!

Holy mother of pete. Now, I very much respect the role of stay at home parent. My own mother was one. But let me tell you, its not only women who do laundry (and not only men who work in offices!) EVERYONE at some point in their lives do laundry - or they lose all their friends. The blatant sexism of this commercial made me scream at the tv - and write a letter to the makers. Their completely useless reply follows at the end.

Now to my main point. Marketers, LISTEN UP!! There are a lot of things that "define" me that I've chosen. I am a nerd, I am a designer, I am a foodie, I enjoy fashion, I like football, I fancy myself a renaissance person. None of these have to do with the fact that I was born female. That is not something I chose for myself; its simply a biological fact. Guess what else? There's lots of people who weren't born with ladybits that like the EXACT SAME THINGS. So, my final suggestion: STOP TARGETING MY GENDER FIRST. Target the fact that I might like your product regardless if I have breasts or not. If you spend more time telling me about your product and less on saying its something only someone who was born the same way I was would enjoy, I might actually buy your product.

Unlike Clorox. Guess who I'm not buying from anymore.

Dear Ms. Wassink,

Thank you for contacting us.

As you can imagine, advertising is an integral part of our company's operation, and we devote a great deal of time and research to it. The objective of any Clorox Company advertisement is to provide the consumer with accurate, useful information about a product in a manner that makes the message memorable. On those rare occasions when there is disagreement about an advertisement's content or impact, we appreciate the feedback we may receive from our loyal consumers. Such feedback is always kept in mind when reviewing future advertising.

Again, thank you for contacting us.

Sincerely,

Sherri Knight

Consumer Response Representative

Consumer Services

P.S. I'd like to add as a corollary, that the "real men" style of commercials can stop too. I would think men would also like to be respected as people and not just a gender... especially when "real men" are made out to be "real stupid".