A Funny Thing About That Clorox Commercial . . .
In my defense, I had to rewind the Clorox commercial four or five times to be able to discern what the kids were whispering. There’s got to be some kind of Advertising 101 Manual that says having kids whisper, while covering their mouths, with music in the background, isn’t a great idea if you want anyone to be able to hear what you’ve paid them a bunch of money to say.
Tricia wrote Clorox, and though they managed to completely disregard the point of her letter (listening skills–or I guess that would be reading skills, evidently aren’t that important at Clorox). One thing the representative did convey, however (so she obviously thinks it’s important), is that the little boy says, "I play with my BOATS in the toilet." Not POOPS.
Here’s my new strategy: Clorox clearly doesn’t care about the pig issue, but they just might care that their audience thinks the boy says he plays with his poop. Maybe if we keep writing, and mention the poop, they’ll pull the commercial anyway because now it’s terrible for several reasons.
(This assumes you’ve seen the commercial and it sounds like the kid is saying poop. And I’d love to know if you have and you heard BOATS. I laughed out loud when I read Tricia’s e-mail. Clorox must be mortified.)
Once in a while I suggest that Animal Person readers take an action and I neglect to take that action myself. I completely forgot to write a letter to Clorox, but I’ll do it right now and let you know if I get a response that’s different from Tricia’s.
Hahah I totally thought he said, "I play with my poops in the toilet", but I only heard it one time. Since then, I've seen an edited version of the commercial. I am so amazed to learn that he actually says, "boats" because that's sure as hell not what I heard. Ugh.
Where's Tricia's letter…? It sounds funny.
I never actually saw Tricia's letter–only the response. I just received my own response which is a form letter exactly like hers, MINUS the clarification about poops.
Thank you for contacting us about Clorox Disinfecting Wipes – Fresh Scent. We always appreciate hearing from our consumers.
Here is is:
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.
My letter is signed by a different representative from Tricia's, so perhaps they are permitted to customize in addition to the form letter if they feel like it and my person didn't feel like it. Whatever the reason, I did my part!
I really really think it’s rstupid to have this boy making these weird sounds and some of us consumers can’t make headaches or tails of why she made those noise, or really what the noises was intented for. It’s the most disgusting commercial I have ever seen in my 69 years of living. Somebody please make it make sense!