The Pimpin' Power of Pine Sol

The lovely Diane Amos is back (she IS Pine-Sol for me & many Americans) hawking product. One of the earlier Pine-Sol commercials paired her with a rather slavish looking mopping young buck. Now she's paired with what looks like a well-to-do guy. He drives a fancy car and he wears a suit, he could be fronting, but I'll roll with it. He never rips his shirt off like the made the black guy do, but I'll reserve judgment there too.

I think I have it all figured out now. The Pine - Sol lady runs a high priced S&M brothel! She flipped her day work job into a lil night and day service, nah mean. These men now pay her to come over from their high-paying, high-pressure jobs to trade it all for an $2000 dollar an hour Sadistic Sweeping and Masochistic Mopping sessions! The hallways will later echo whiney squeals of, "make me mop mommy..."  Of course the can't show the whole dirty deed here. But I totally get it now. There's deep stuff going on here... or so it would seem.

But seriously, this still sorta reeks of uneasy handling of a throw-back type of brand mascot in the hands of a few folks who don't understand the African American ethotic situation in 2010. They have a firm grasp on how this type of character would have worked in the 1950's "Mad Men" era. But seem to be a little wobbly handling a modern day African American woman brand rep. The African American values, disposition & character is over simplified. For example: the answer to the backlash of the "black man mopping" commercial is to show a white man mopping...? There, all better now? No, not at all right. Keep moving her ahead please.  A new mopper with an English accent does not cure all sins.

There is the heart of a good campaign here, it just needs a little more involved hands. What do you think?

P.S. Can we hire an African American hair/wig stylist?

 FilthyGrandeur said...

in all seriousness, i'm getting a little tired of these commercials where sex and cleaning are linked--think of the new Swiffer campaign. sorry, i am not in a relationship with my cleaning supplies. i will not lay in bed with pine sol. most commercials featuring women will often equate use of the product with sex. i'm sure we can recall more than one racy burger commercial. it's downright pornographic. although, on the same token, it's nice seeing a fat woman in a sexualized role, however brief. but then sexualization of a black woman is problematic too...damn, my head is spinning. moving on. 

i think the contrast in the white mopper vs. black mopper is very telling: white one has agency; he arrives, delivers the pine sol. he gets to speak. he begins mopping with shirt sleeves rolled up. even his tie is still on. the black mopper is already in her home. he's essentially a prop. he gets no speaking lines. his shirt is off, giving us full view of his body (black masculine hypersexualization anyone?) for our consumption. this is not equality in advertising.

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