Yes, Procter and Gamble, makers of Tide laundry detergent, thinks lying is cute, and that Americans will run out and buy a product advertised as useful for assisting lies.
And who knows? Maybe they’re right. We certainly wouldn’t expect a corporation or an ad agency to see anything wrong with lying, since it is business as usual for them. They probably don’t even realize such messages are corrupting.
The new TV ad for Tide and its new “Acti-Lift” secret ingredient (It’s called “Closet Raid”; you can see it here…) shows the heart-warming saga of a teenage girl who trustingly asks her mom whether she borrowed a favorite green blouse. We see flashbacks of Mom dancing and partying in her daughter’s missing blouse, and then she answers her daughter by saying that the blouse “isn’t my style.”
Then the ad shows Mom secretly retrieving the blouse, which she had soiled during her nocturnal exploits, and using new Tide (with Acti-Lift!) to remove the stain. Later, her daughter is seen wearing the now-clean blouse, as the mother innocently asks where she found it. As if she didn’t know.
Nice.
A mother uses her daughter’s property without permission, lies about it, and lies again.
I wonder if there are effective ways to sell soap that don’t involve endorsing lying to one’s child, or that won’t give children the impression that it’s completely normal and acceptable to behave this way. Commercials like this one are meant to depict normal, everyday Americans, and Proctor and Gamble not only seems to be saying that normal American parents lie to their kids for selfish reasons, but also that there’s nothing wrong with that.
I use Tide, or used to. No more. You can do what you want, but as for me, to hell with Acti-Lift. From now on, I’m a Wisk man.
It’s got “Stain-Spectrum Technology!”
(To read my more recent reflections on the controversy over this commercial and its significance, go here.)
(To read a more thorough critique of this commercial by someone who finds it incompetent and unethical, go here.)
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UPDATE (12/28/10): For the record, I don’t see anything unethical about the latest Tide commercial, in which a father expresses his disapproval of his daughter’s super-short white mini-skirt by secretly wiping his hands on it, presumably to render it unwearable, and Mom washes the skirt with Tide, thus foiling Puritanical Dad’s scheme. The father’s conduct is sneaky and wrong, but at least it is motivated by concern for his daughter. How you feel about the rest of the drama depends on what you think is appropriate dress for young women, and how old you think the daughter is supposed to be. If she’s 22, I’d say the father is completely out of line. If she’s 15, however, the mother is insane.
The theme in these Tide ads seems to be that parents are incapable of acting more maturely and responsibly than their children. That may be a comforting myth for kids, but it sure is a strange attitude for the makers of a product that is mostly bought by grown-ups, who resumably don’t snatch their kid’s things and lie about it, and are forthright enough to question the propriety of an age-inappropriate skirt directly rather than secretly soiling it.
Ethics Alarms 
When I saw that today, I was thinking, “I wonder what Jack will say about this.”
What about the commercial with the soldiers in a line and they pass the little stick cleaner to get a stain out of a uniform while the drill sergeant berates them (somehow without cursing)?
I try not to discuss commercials too much, because that’s what all commercials are hoping for; to buy part of your memory.
Nothing unethical about timely repairs: I like the military commercial!
Jack,
The scenario depicted in the commercial was clearly fictitious (save for the “real” product), nor was anyone meant to get the impression that Tide was somehow endorsing the theft of clothes. Moreover, anyone even remotely familiar with advertising would realize this is an obvious exaggeration of the product’s cleaning effects since normal people tend to take advertising with a grain of salt.
Is the Hamburglar unethical? His actions are depicted in the commercial as “wrong,” sure, but only trivially so. One could argue that McDonalds is sending the message to our youth that stealing food is no big deal and, if caught, one’s only punishment with be a harsh talking to by Ronald. (doesn’t the Trix slogan endorse ageism?) Your arguments might win more traction if this was a PSA and was immediately followed by a “The more you know” message flashed across the screen — but it wasn’t. Commercials depict all different kinds of “unethical” behavior without necessarily endorsing said behavior, as its simply a clever way of illustrating some selling point of their product.
If the product itself were somehow unethical (as was the case with the “hearing aid” the promoted spying), I could see your point. But this is merely using an unethical scenario to advertise an otherwise legitimate product. Frankly, I don’t see it …
-Neil
Couldn’t disagree more. Neil. The Hamburglar was indeed unethical, but he usually was punished—the commercials made it clear he was a villain, though a comic one. (I don’t know what the heck “Grimace” was…) The mom in the commercial is the Tide-user…she’s the protagonist. I watch a lot of TV—there aren’t that many commercials that celebrate vengeance, dishonesty, violence or other unethical values, but those that do get my attention. (By the way, after I posted this I discovered that a lot of people, on line and off, are bothered by the ad’s message and tone.) “It’s just advertising” is a copout. Advertising is popular culture, and influences real culture. The ad normalizes and trivializes lying among family members.
Jack,
The commercial also trivializes the right of women to wear clothes that don’t fully cover their bodies; which is likely upsetting to any number of people (and no, I’m not just talking about Muslims). So what? Just because others saw it and found it just as offensive means nothing as you’d be hard-pressed to find anything on TV which isn’t offensive to someone.
The mother was the protagonist in a purely fictional world, the same as Don Corleone, Batman, or Dexter. And no, the Hamburglar wasn’t unethical because he wasn’t real! If people are gleaning their ethical values from Tide commercials there are worse ethical dunces afoot than those creating the advertisements.
People (at least MOST people) can tell fact from fiction and aren’t likely to assume something is okay simply because they saw it in on TV. It happens, yes, but the culprits of such things were morally (and mentally) handicapped long before TV, music, and film started “planting” ideas in their heads. The ethical flaw lies with those who mistakenly buy into the fantasy, not those who created it ..
-Neil
Surely aren’t suggesting that fictional characters can’t be unethical by promoting unethical conduct? Of course they can be: when the unethical conduct is represented as normal, virtuous, acceptable. If the daughter found out about the mother’s deceit and punched her in the face (big laughs!), would you say that wasn’t an irresponsible commercial, suggesting that that was a justifiable response?
This isn’t someone objecting to male Muppets sleeping in the same bed—I think fictional characters should get a lot of slack. This is different. Bottom line: the mother’s conduct was unequivocally wrongful, yet the commercial evidences no indication that it recognizes that. That’s a problem.
I see this commercial a-lot. What gets me is the fact that mom and daughter look just like each other. How do they match people this well? Another close match is the boy and dad where the kid wins the soap box derby race
I have used Tide products exclusively since I became the laundry mistress in chief. I find it difficult to believe an Ad agency could sell this commercial with such an obvious faux pas which has nothing to do with the merits of the product. I personally would like the ad to be discontinued.
I agree completely. You have to wonder: did no one see the problem with this?
We could not agree more that Proctor and Gamble the makers of Tide are a very poor excuse for American Commercialism. For the most part it is the way American business’s like to work. What ever it takes to make a dollar. What does the bible say Choose who you will serve. If you are lying in a little you are lying in a lot. Ted and Judy
As the mother of a teenage girl, I found the ad delightful… a liberating reversal of the typical mother-daughter relationship. My daughter frequently “borrows” my T-shirts. It’s a rite of passage for us all. We did the same to our moms. Clearly, guys don’t get it.
But you see, the mother-daughter relationship is not supposed to be reversed. The mother is the role model, and is obligated to teach her daughter not to take the property of others without asking, and not to lie about it—twice.
That’s what makes the ad funny. It’s momentary escapism: a whimsical thought that would be on par with a dad daydreaming about taking his kid’s hot rod for a spin. I’m surprised anyone would seriously think that the ad endorses this kind of behavior. It irony, pure and simple.
What makes you think the mother is dreaming? That is clearly a flashback, and she has indeed used her daughters blouse. Why doesn’t she just admit it, rather than using Tide to cover it up? Dreaming about being irresponsible and dishonest is something completely different. Why is bad behavior by a mom funny? Sorry: I don’t get the joke.
I am totally disgusted with this commercial. I am shocked that Tide is promoting lying to our children. I will boycott all Tide products starting today.
You should scale back your fake outrage over a stupid commercial. Don’t watch TV if trivial things offend you. Maybe the green shirt is supposed to represent money, and the mother is stealing money from her daughter and lying about it! Losers…
Commercials are communications from companies that want consumers to trust them: you’re naive to think that the corporate ethics conveyed are “trivial” or that TV ads don’t contribute to attitudes about conduct like lying. I’m hardly “outraged” but I think when commercials portray bad conduct as trivial, to use your word, they should be called on it. Pointing out that a commercial is advocating bad conduct doesn’t offend me—you’re the one who sounds offended, though at what, I can’t imagine. Offended that someone criticizes a Tide commercial? Touchy…
for your information, my full name is William Proctor Gamble. If you want to write an essay critiquing something, respond to the underlying themes of a novel. Don’t waste eloquent criticism on a commercial…
Well, your humor, if that’s what it is, is too subtle for me. I have no idea what you’re trying to say, if anything.
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I whole heartedly agree with you jack .
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Tide is about lying…
Use someone else ‘s property, keep it a secret until the other person becomes aware of the missing item then omit telling them the truth ( lying 2ce) because all you need to clean this up is a little Tide…
No excuses for liars. How low tide has stooped.
I agree… I find the commercial with the green shirt quite disturbing. I see now that they have removed the dialog with the mother lying to her daughter….
FYI Tide… too late. The commercial should be removed all together…..
Have they? Or did you just see the short version of the commercial? Removing the lying would be a big improvement.
I was amazed the first time I saw it, unbelieving that they didn’t pull it the second time I saw it, and now am moved to boycotting Tide. If that’s not what they wanted – that IS what they got. Along with a little Social Networking buzz just to get my frustrations out.
This is the kind of thing that the Internet does very well. Tide, Direct TV…and next up, those slimy Twix commercials.
Tide promotes lying to children? People LIGHTEN UP. Tide promotes no such thing and, technically, the mother didn’t tell her daughter than she DIDN’T borrow the blouse, she told her “It’s not my style.” Cheese and rice people, get a life.
“Technically,” Jody, that response is deceit , a particularly effective form of lying, but a form of lying nonetheless. When one uses the literal truth to deceive someone, that is still a lie—for example, doing this can get a lawyer suspended. If you do it under oath, it may qualify as perjury. The daughter took “that’s not my style” to mean “I wouldn’t borrow your shirt.’ and that’s exactly how the mother wanted her to take it. This is a breach of trust, and your comment is smoking gun proof that the commercial does teach people to lie—you, for example, came away with the idea that such a deceptive, dishonest response, intended to deceive, isn’t “technically” a lie. It is. And it is lousy way to show parents treating their children.
Well well the lying and deception is not just in the commercial but the author of this article, he felt it necessary to alter the lines of the daughter when asking her Mother if she “had seen my green shirt” to his altered version “asking if she had borrowed” to fit his agenda in writing this slam unto a company that I am sure they have purchased products made by and will again.
Pick something to make a contribution such as knocking at schools that encourage parents to keep their sick children in attendance that in a real viral breakout would very much have a rapid negative impact on controlling the outbreak
Dale, Dale, Dale. Humiliating yourself in the service of an indefensible commercial. I stipulate: I carelessly misstated the exact words the daughter says, because 1) there is no written transcript that I can locate, so I relied on memory—my mistake 2) I included a link to the actual commercial, which has the exact lines, so my small inaccuracy is hardly “a lie,” since it neither is intended to deceive anyone nor bolsters my argument—you just don’t know what a lie is 3) “have you seen my shirt” obviously, in this context, is taken by the mother to suggest “did you borrow it”, otherwise her answer makes no sense (She only sees what is in her style?). So on top of everything else, the error is also irrelevant—what we call “de minimus.”
There are 900+ ethics essays here, Dale, all but one on the Tide commercial you love. If you want an essay on this particular irresponsible conduct by schools (there are many others posted here), start your own ethics blog. Do learn what a lie is first, though.
Jack, keep up the good work in coming back at these moral zombies. Most of the entries in this thread are clear evidence of what’s wrong in America these days – a lack of ethics. Contrary to popular belief, commercials are both reflection of society’s thinking and an encourager of moral values, for better or worse. Obviously, viewers do not see a commercial like this and consciously think “if she does it, it must be OK to lie to my daughter;” the influence is much subtler as we go on about our daily lives and interact with others. I think someone at Tide’s parent company should have been embarassed to run this commercial and should have pulled it, not just edited it so that the mother no longer verbally responds to her daughter; the message is still the same.
While this is just a commercial about laundry detergent, I found it to be more annoying than anything else. It makes you wonder if the mother is truthful to the daughter about other things as well. Was the look on her face one of shame or relief that she didn’t get caught bar hopping all night with rowdy friends? My guess is we are suppose to assume that she is a single woman…who should be able to enjoy a active social life….but is she? We don’t know. Maybe daughter is going to tattle on mom is the truth comes out. Woops….there goes moms’ status in the community…and won’t everyone gossip about it when the info gets out. OMG. Heaven forbid. LOL.
I am cheered that Tide has changed the commercial, with the mother sitting mute and guilty. I still find it annoying, but this shows that collectively, all the objections had an effect: the culture has spoken, and Tide got the message.