|
Shrapnel from another "Mommy Drive-By"
45 comments
Aggressive + Competent = Bitch?
36 comments
I Didn't Change My Name When I Got Married
36 comments
When Am I Supposed to Work In a Work Out?
33 comments
The real secret to success? Multitasking
23 comments |
       |
When I first saw the ad, in a post over at Get in the Car!, I thought it was a cool, retro snapshot. And then I took a closer look.
(You can, too. Just click on it.)
There’s something Rob and Laura Petrie about the whole thing, but the pots on the stove look kind of like the modern-day, hard-anodized cookware I love. The husband’s got that “casual Friday” thing going on, and the wife looks like maybe she just got home from work, in spite of the apron. The backsplash is kind of 1970s, but there’s no avocado- or goldenrod-enameled appliances in sight.
And yet… the ad pretty much flies in the face of everything a generation of women fought for. The journal entry clinches it: “Tuesday. Today I found the perfect paper towel! Viva is so soft! I used it to wipe sauce of Tom’s chin, but I couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. Is Viva really paper?”
Please pass the soma! As if we working moms weren’t stressed out enough, now there’s this resurgence of 1950s ideals to contend with.
I surfed on over to the Viva Towels website, to see if maybe it was some sort of a joke or a spoof. But it seems to be an actual ad campaign. In fact, I stumbled into The Viva Diva Cafe. “Enjoy great conversations, share ideas and meet other VIVA® Divas like you, who enjoy decorating, entertaining and doing special things for friends and family!” reads the intro.
The better a Diva you are, the more “status icons” you can earn. Yes, they call them “status icons.” Your status is denominated by jewels — from a small yellow chip to a six-sided ruby to the crown jewel itself, a large, animated purple sparkler.
I’m sure Viva is just trying to compete with Julie Edelman, the “Accidental Housewife,” whose “S.O.S. (Saving Our Santity)” tips appear on Club Mom and in radio spots for Clorox. And I’m sure that there are women out there for whom being able to lovingly spoonfeed and then wipe up after their goofily grinning husband is the hight of personal fulfillment. Call me a rebel, but I’m just not one of them.
The “Accidental Housewife” radio ad campaign irritates me, too, but not as much as the Viva print one. Aside from the fact that I just don’t understand how anyone can become a housewife by accident, at least Edelman admits that today’s housewife is a different woman than a generation ago. “She’s busy, and doesn’t have time to worry about perfection, but she still wants to maintain a healthy home along with her sanity,” Edelman says on the Clorox site.
Viva doesn’t seem to have gotten that message. “Host an ice cream social so everyone can get to know each other a little better,” one Diva suggests on the “Spread the Joy” section of the Viva site. “It might seem shallow, but improving your appearance by losing weight is one way to make youself more available socially,” another offers.
My husband thinks Viva is doing it on purpose, tounge-in-cheek — ruffling feathers and being un-PC. “How else are they going to get people to talk about paper towels?” he points out.
He may be right. But still, I can’t help but find the ads offensive.
What do you think?
This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under The Juggle, Working? Living?.
Tags: balance, juggle, society, working mom
February 4th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I HOPE your husband’s right about those ads being deliberately ironic and un-PC - but I suspect he’s not. The scary part is that there must be some people buying into this cluelessness, or the campaign would have (should have) died before it went this far.
I’m not so much offended as befuddled and dismayed, though. Two steps forward and about forty steps back…
February 4th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Florinda, that’s a much better way to put it — dismayed. It’s like someone at that ad agency or company read that 1950s home economics textbook guide to being a Good Wife, pulled “After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction” out of the guide for inspiration, and then designed an ad campaign around it!
For those readers who haven’t seen the Good Wife Guide, a copy is here: http://www.joe-ks.com/archives/Good_Wife_Guide.htm
February 4th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Your husband has a point about talking about paper towels. I know I don’t talk about them with anyone but perhaps, because of your post and drawing my attention to this ad, I will.
There has to be, just has to be, a cross section of American women who DO relate to this ad. It’s certainly not an ad befitting Massachusetts but there are some Southern states where this could be taken right to heart, or the grocery store. I’m interested in knowing if any of the women who read your blog know any of these women.
I can’t bring myself to look in the Diva Cafe, though. It seems so like a diva don’t.
February 4th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
this is insane - but it is so out there. every cleaning product and food thing seems to be aimed at the ‘house wife’ regardless if that includes a job or not… even all the superbowl ads for walmart (i think? good ad - i can’t even remember how it was for!) had ALL WOMEN putting on aprons and the voice over (a man of course) saying something like ‘be the hero at the big game and put on the big feast’. grrrr makes me angry. but there has to be a market and i thas to be working because marketing/advertising is very senstive to trends… so i donno still grrrrrrrr!
February 5th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
It is very popular to use 50’s ad style to catch the baby boomer nostalgia. It is an interesting time because with the business I do I am taken back to the 70’s when I was in high school conservationism and the environment was cool. I certainly don’t miss hash jeans and platform shoes but I don’t believe in throwing the baby out with the bath water either. I’ll skip the retro look but get back to the basics of our grandparent’s era-reduce, reuse, and recycle. For them it was economical for us it may save us and the planet. Beware of propaganda laden with emotion sells. Cheers, Anitao
February 5th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Mandy: I’m sure the women who relate to this ad exist — a few of them are Viva Divas, too, apparently. I’m just not one of them! Maybe it’s because I’ve always lived in the hectic Northeast. Or maybe it’s because I’m not a “surrendered wife” (not knocking them — I have friends who are very happy living that lifestyle. It’s just not for me). Or maybe it just wasn’t part of my upbringing. Whatever the reason, the ad campaign doesn’t sit right with me…
Kate: I saw those ads, too, and had the same reaction!
Anitoa: For some reason, I think this one passes nostalgia and goes right on into propaganda, for me at least. If they had done the exact same ad, but with the man stirring the sauce and holding the paper towel, they would have gotten the retro vibe and given it a modern twist, and we’d STILL be talking about their paper towels!
February 5th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Ooo, Lylah, great point about changing the role of the man and woman. This should so be in an advertising students line of study!
February 7th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Oooohh, how I wish I had TIME to be a Viva Diva… Not that I’d fit in even if I had the time. Ice cream socials are not up my alley….
February 7th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Maybe we should clue-in those Viva execs and tell them that we’ll be hosting a tequila shot social instead.
And if we’re a bit chubbier than we’d like, SO BE IT. We’ve birthed children for crying out loud!!!!
Tell them to sell crazy somewhere else…maybe they should start marketing to the tween set–they can stuff their bras with paper towels!
Ha!
February 7th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Mandy: I hear ya’!
Kristie: I’m more of a “bourbon social” gal myself. But honestly, I’m in the same boat as you — I barely have time to be presentable, let alone Divalicious!
Heather: Tequila shot social? I’m in! (So is Mandy). Really, though, i wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some sort of Seventeen Magazine marketing campaign in the works… “Stuff your bras! And use Viva to remove your makeup! The boys’ll thank you for it!” *shudder*
February 24th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I think I’ll stick to my generic paper towels — and I’ll revel in the fact that my husband cleaned the kitchen tonight better than I usually do it. Oh, and the cleaning service coming this week. No “Diva” about it; I hate to clean.