Cleaning products company Method has apologized for its controversial “Shiny Suds” video, which depicted fratboy-like chemical bubbles harassing a bathing woman, and has pulled the video from all “controlled sources.” We’ve still got it, though, plus a statement from Method.
The video was part of a campaign the natural cleaning products company launched to support the Household Products Labeling Acts, which would require full disclosure of harmful chemicals in cleaning products. Method hired Droga5, an agency known for its successful use of digital and viral video campaigns. It went viral, all right, but probably not in the way the company hoped.
We’ve been getting emails all week from disgusted consumers, who were put off by the image of a woman cowering naked in the shower, victimized by her use of chemical-based products. As Hortense put it when she posted the video last weekend,
“I’m really tired of the “advocacy” that relies upon humiliating women to push a point (see also: PETA). Why couldn’t the dirty bubbles get drunk on their own chemicals and trash the bathroom? Why couldn’t they leave graffiti all over the shower walls? Why couldn’t they “move in” and start stinking up the place? Why does a woman have to get in the shower and get naked in front of a bunch of pervy bubbles, who essentially tell her she deserves it for putting them there in the first place (sound familiar?) so that Method soap can scare us all into switching over from Scrubbing Bubbles? The woman is seriously humiliated by the bubbles, who compliment her on her “core” and scream “Loofah! Loofah!” over and over again as they watch her wash up. It’s supposed to be funny. So why does it make me feel so gross?”
I blogged about the commercial here, and as you can see from the appended comments, there was a lot of negative reaction to it. It’s no longer available via YouTube but Jezebel has a working copy of the ad here.