Weekly Ad Uncoiling: Kiwi Kleen toilet cleaner
I’m, yes, a bit obsessed with bowel-related advertising. I blame three things for this: the scary, sailor-suited Lilliputian Ty-D-Bol man of my youth; the fact that I grew up occasionally having to crap in outhouses (I’m the son of Appalachian Trail hillbillies); and IBS. Now that your mind’s in the shitter, let’s focus our attention on one of the most feared places in all the world: the toilet seat. Because that’s the focus of these extremely strange ads by Grey Hong Kong for Kiwi Kleen (a Sara Lee product!) toilet cleaner. The tagline is “because you never know who else has been sitting there.” That’s true if you carry a bottle KK with you to bars and such. But you almost certainly would know who’s been shitting there in your own home. Like say, above, if a Mexican wrestler stopped by to use the facilities? I know I’d make a mental note of it.
Frankly, I was unable to pull an explanation out of my ass for the second ad in the campaign. It appears to present a man in a bunny outfit eating a large carrot, while the nightmarish, through-the-looking-glass scenario is another man in a pig outfit eating a large rat. Go ahead, smarty-farty Coilhouse readers, give me a read on this. And then, jump for the third execution which makes the most sense of the three. It features the above/below combo of a dapper man and an unshaven, nose-picking woman. (images via Coloribus)
October 30th, 2008 at 9:54 am
You know, I almost never, ever, ever get upset at offensive advertising (I’ve seen so much of it that I just laugh now), but something about these really rubs me the wrong wrong way.
It really pisses me off how the two “clean” people are white, slim and hairless, while the three “filthy” people are portly, hairy and in some cases ethnic-looking. FUCK YOU, Sara Lee! FUCK you. Seriously.
Countdown for this to land on Sociological Images: 5… 4… 3…
October 30th, 2008 at 10:30 am
In addition to what Nadya said, I also can’t help but notice the strategic placement of butts. Recalls a sort of Miranda July, “back and forth forever” affectionate bowel sharing. Except much more disturbing because it’s not spoken by an adorable toddler (Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoJo81lujk)
October 30th, 2008 at 10:37 am
The Mexican wrestler choice is quite racist. The bunny/pig thing…I just really can’t even begin to fathom where the Hell that visualization came from…
October 30th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
http://www.poopreport.com/
October 30th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
@ Copyranter. Yes, this is way off strategy. Unless of course this is a travel/pocket version.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Well, pigs are supposed to be really dirty animals, and I guess bunnies are supposed to be soft and clean, so therefore all people who dress like pigs are dirty, and all people who dress like bunnies are clean?
October 30th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
BUNNY!
October 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
if i saw these without the tagline i’d think the people on top were shitting out their inner selves
October 30th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Oh, man. Keep ’em coming, copyranter. This shit is bananas.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
This is what I see every time I close my eyes.
I want to stop but the brain goblins won’t let me.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
@elise
I think we’ve all had bunnies as pets sometime before in our lives. Those things are anything other than clean. I’ve never understood how something so cute and cuddly could produce so much mess.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:22 pm
@Tanya…I thought the same thing…cept I guess this would be like forced affectionate bowel sharing with one’s enemy. Yin Yang Buddha poo.
Maybe it was supposed to be tortoise vs. hare at first…then someone brought this up: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=turtle%20head
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Shouldn’t the skinny little white girl be puking into the toilet not sitting on it?
November 10th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
I agree with Nadya about the ethnic thing. We learn about this in my popular culture courses, our advertising hasn’t even changed that much since colonial england ruled in india and Pears soap claimed it was the “white man’s burden” to get the indian/chinese/non-white-minorities to clean themselves. This ad is in very poor taste, showing the white woman as pure and clean and the ethnic man as being dirty and “othered”.
August 12th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
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