Oh, boy. I’ve been wanting to write about these ads for awhile now, but I keep putting it off. But now that Valentine’s Day is drawing near, I think I should finally do it. These new ads of theirs, with the dirt who gets “dumped” by a broom, and then “picked up” by the Swiffer are so fun and clever, it’s great! (They are annoying after 100+ times, but I’m thinking of the idea, not the being beaten over the head by the same ads over and over again factor.) And to think, this new Swiffer campaign came about out of necessity, rather than as a brain wave (At least, I think it did!). Well, it’s a pretty good save, but if you look at the evolution of this product’s recent ad history, it’s not hard to see how smart, creative people could come up with it.
Okay, here’s how it started (I think we all remember it well enough): Swiffer had an ad campaign where housewives would get a Swiffer, and then they’d dump their old broom, and the old broom would send flowers and chocolates, etc., and try to win the lady of the house back, but it wouldn’t work, and she’d just roll her eyes, because the Swiffer works so much better. A good idea, right? Well, it is; but apparently, people felt sorry for the rejected brooms, especially with them trying so hard to win the women back, and with how crestfallen they appeared. This is an inanimate broom (or mop) we’re talking about here, but whatever: these ads did their job of storytelling too well, apparently, and they made people identify with the rejected, sad brooms and mops. (I guess everyone has been dumped before, so it’s not hard to see why in retrospect.)
Okay, so they tried a new tack and did the same idea, but with the brooms being put away in a closet, wherein they find another discarded household utility or appliance and get it on or whatever. These didn’t seem to assuage people’s guilt enough, however, so the Swiffer ad guys came up with this idea of the dirt being “attracted to” and “picked up by” the Swiffer, and they love it. This made the dirt happy, the Swiffer look effective, and they completely left out the sad, rejected brooms and mops, etc. It’s an elegant solution to a problem nobody could have foreseen: people feeling sorry for a rejected broom. It’s hilarious, really, the whole arc of this campaign, when you think about it.
Now, I don’t know if the same guys or even if the same agency did all the different ads/campaigns for Swiffer that I’ve discussed here. I hope they didn’t lose the account over the lonely brooms. But whoever solved the PR issue with the current campaign did so with such fun and brilliance that they deserve a cheer. This new campaign basically takes the problem and turns it on its head: now it’s the Swiffer who is the hero, and not the “homewrecker”: which is appropriate, since a Swiffer is the opposite of a home wrecker in real life, since it cleans up a home really well. Plus, it makes the dirt look happy to be removed from your home, and the broom is the villain for “dumping” the dirt. Brilliant: really brilliant. I am tired of these ads now, but that does nothing to lessen the elegance of their design.
Here are some examples of the rejected broom ads:
Here’s an example of an attempt to assuage our guilt about the rejected old cleaning implements:
And here’s the more recent ads with the solution to the lonely mops conundrum:
