(The video above does not have subtitles. For subtitles in English, check it out here).
We’re willing to bet no one has ever teared up watching an ad for laundry detergent — until now.
A new commercial for Procter and Gamble-owned (PG) Ariel laundry detergent is tugging heartstrings around the world. The ad, produced by BBDO Worldwide, delivers a powerful portrait of gender inequality at home, where modern mothers not only shoulder busy work lives but household duties as well.
A grandfather sits at a kitchen table with his grandson while watching his daughter deftly juggle everyday tasks — starting dinner, throwing in a load of laundry, scrubbing a stain on her son’s shirt — all while chatting with her office on the phone and tapping away at a laptop. In the background, her husband watches TV.
Meanwhile, the grandfather’s voice is heard over the images. He’s remembering how his daughter used to play house and regrets never telling her “it’s not your job alone but your husband’s, too.”
“Sorry on behalf of every dad who set a bad example,” he says. “All these years I’ve been wrong. It’s time to set things right.”
At the end of the ad, the grandfather returns home and insists on helping his wife with the laundry. And it’s only at that moment, when the tagline “Dads #Sharetheload” appears on the screen that you realize you just watched a commercial for laundry detergent and not a short film on the state of global gender inequality.
It’s quite a departure from the kinds of detergent ads we’re used to seeing — a glossy-haired mom happily scrubbing stains out of soiled soccer jerseys and hugging piles of freshly laundered linens to her chest. It’s actually the second ad released by the agency as part of its #Sharetheload campaign, an initiative meant to encourage more men to help out at home. The agency took home top honors at last year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Fans of the commercial flooded Twitter with supportive messages.
I help my wife by doing most of the laundry cause she holds down a full time job, cleans and cooks. #ShareTheLoad https://t.co/Y40VwjFyQi
— SINDER (@gogetsinder) February 25, 2016
A beautiful ad with a beautiful message. If we want to change the world, lead by example for our kids #ShareTheLoad https://t.co/cmJO35IeuW
— Shreeya Sinha (@ShreeyaSinha) February 25, 2016
#ShareTheLoad this is our truth. Even with men leaning in, the weight we carry is real and heavy. https://t.co/idwdJx9GD6
— Jessica L. Simpson (@jlsimpson) February 25, 2016
The ad already has some famous fans. Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg, an outspoken advocate for gender equality, shared the video on her profile with a personal endorsement.
“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,” she wrote. “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.”
One of the most talked-about moments in Sandberg’s best-selling 2013 book “Lean In” was her assertion that a woman’s choice in partner is the most important decision she can make in her career. Even as a record number of women enter the workforce, they still shoulder the majority of household work, she argued. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data mothers spent more than 2 hours per day on household tasks in 2013, compared to fathers, who spent about an hour and 22 minutes. Underneath the umbrella of household tasks, women spent four times as much time doing laundry as men and twice as long preparing meals.
#Sharetheload, indeed.
Mandi Woodruff is a reporter for Yahoo Finance and host of Brown Ambition, a weekly podcast about life, love and money.
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