Holay Chulas y Chulos! Welcome to another edition of The Flying Chancla Report. This week my flying chancla brings you laundry, types of moms and Frank Underwood chanclazo style.
- Everyone seems to be losing their moco over this Indian ad for Procter & Gamble’s laundry detergent Ariel. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg posted the ad on her Facebook page with the following statement…
This is one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen – showing how stereotypes hurt all of us and are passed from generation to generation. When little girls and boys play house they model their parents’ behavior; this doesn’t just impact their childhood games, it shapes their long-term dreams. In this #SharetheLoad campaign, Ariel India, P&G, and BBDO Worldwide show how fathers and husbands can take small steps (like doing laundry) to create more equal homes. They won a #GlassLion at the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for earlier work on this campaign. The real win is the way they are changing stereotypes and showing that a more equal world would be a better world for all of us.
Now, my chancla and I like the ad, we do, but we did not lose our moco over it and I’m the kind of person that cries at just about anything. I’m not sure why this ad doesn’t hit me in the FEELS like it’s hitting everyone else. Part of me thinks it’s too contrived and neatly packaged as in “oh, look after years of not noticing how little I do to contribute to the maintenance of the home, my eyes have been opened and I may not know how to do much, but I can at least do laundry after someone supervises my first load, of course.”
My cynicism may be due to my personal circumstances because in my case, I am indeed overwhelmed by the amount of work and laundry that I am in charge of, but also because in my case it’s not as obvious as what this commercial depicts. My husband doesn’t expect me to cater to him, he does do housework, he cooks WAY more than I do, but somehow I still end up doing so much more of the dirty work and yes, the laundry is my gig entirely.
Perhaps I’m far too jaded for my own good, but I imagine that once the cameras stop rolling the man forgets all about the laundry in the washing machine and it sits there until it gets that NASTY pungent wet-clothes-that-were-forgotten-in-the-washer odor that we who are always in charge of laundry are WAY too familiar with and then the load has to be done all over again by the lady of the house with vinegar because that’s the only thing that will get that stench out. The clothes will be put in the dryer and hung to dry and guess who will end up folding them?
At this point, I personally would be like DAMMIT, I should have just done the whole thing myself. Still, I get that it’s a sweet commercial and that the target audience lives in India where the situation for women is a tad different than it is for a San Franciscan who married a man who considers himself a feminist even if he doesn’t do enough housework.
Watch the commercial and tell me and my chancla what you think…
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A friend posted this Buzzfeed video of The Different Types of Moms You Meet and it is most def chuckle-worthy! I do feel unrepresented in the video, though. My type isn’t in the video because I’m the mom who had every intention of showing up and even wrote it down in her cute planner, but #LifeHappens.
ALSO READ: 15 Tweets That Perfectly Describe #MomLife
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March is right around the corner, which means that my chancla and I will soon be binge-watching season 4 of “House of Cards.” The scheduled release is on March 4th. Do you watch?
That’s it for this week’s The Flying Chancla Report. I love you mucho and remember, spread love, not chanclazos!
When I had everyone at home, everyone did their own laundry as soon as they were old enough. Even my husband. I had two boys and two girls. They did their own laundry and ironing. Before the kids were old enough both my husband and I did the laundry. My husband ironed his own shirts for work. The boys still do their own even though married and the girls husband’s do the laundry. Wait..my daughters in law have never thanked me…oh maybe because its pretty normal! But anywho… My sisters and their husbands all do the laundry and my dad did laundry. I’ve never had patience with people who are stuck and overloaded with all the jobs. Learn to delegate! Teach the kids! Stop doing everything. Take responsibility for it. Off my soapbox!
Off your laundry soapbox! I understand that there are places in the world where women are expected to cater to their men and do everything for them, but this ad just didn’t speak to me the way it seems to be speaking so many.
Not to me either.
Claudya, that commercial might look sweet and all, but I thought it was a little bollocks (pardon my language). The narration implies that daughters ape their moms and sons ape their dads. Which in itself is pure crap. Talk about stereotyping! The father watches his daughter literally whizzing around the house doing everything, feels bad, and goes home and helps his wife. I ask, what about his son-in-law chilling on the sofa with his laptop, sipping his tea and watching tv? Will he wait until he’s 60 or 70 for that eureka moment when he has the same realization as the old man? But no. He wont. Because he has a son, you see. Haha. Unless he has a daughter afterwards. I am not thrilled with the ad.
By the way as always, fact is stranger than friction. This is NOT how our households function. In fact, in many communities it is very well known that men share the load equally. 🙂
Phew! I might mention in passing that in my household, there’s no gender discrimination when it comes to housework. 🙂
I was hoping to get your insight on this, Vidya. Yeah, to me the whole thing came off as contrived. As I said, I cry at just about anything, but that ad did not make me cry because something about it felt insincere to me. I could write tons on it. I’m surprised that the ad is being seen as so inspiring by so many, but I guess we all see things from our own perspective.
That is true. Also, some people just don’t know any better, or prefer to go with the flow, regardless of whether it makes sense or not. As the ad progressed, it steadily raised my blood pressure. I waited for something to touch my heart. Well, I was disappointed. I am surprised they didn’t spur everyone into action. What’s the point of media if it cannot offer a wise takeaway message? 🙂 Thank you!
Me too. I kept waiting for the big moment when I would go “OK, I can get behind this,” but it never came. I also don’t buy that the daughter being as successful as she is and as “in charge” as she seems to be would not expect more from her husband and not mindfully raise her children to be able to take care of themselves without depending on someone else or expecting someone else to do it. I told you, I could go on and on about it.
Me too! I kept getting more and more pissed off as the woman returned from work and got right down to picking up after others/making tea for her husband/ attended to her kid/ got cooking /washing – what crap. Nobody does this and if they do, they must be the biggest idiots ever. Also, she was in her own world AND on the phone almost the whole time. I wished they showed her coming home, cuddling her kid and chatting with her folks as they all shared their day’s stuff. Perhaps the husband who was home could have made her a cuppa, and then they could have made dinner together or just gone out to eat – or something. I am not sure what they tried to portray. And I think most people found it “powerful” and “endearing” because it was fashionable. I am so mad!