Swiffer’s Rosie The Riveter Ad Campaign Quietly Cleaned Up
Swiffer’s “Rosie the Riveter” ad campaign raised several eyebrows this week, and, after several days of criticism from Twitter users, feminist bloggers, and others, the mop makers have quietly pulled the plug on the ad.
It’s been three days since the story went viral, but, just the day after the web noticed Swiffer’s Rosie the Riveter ad, the company started the clean-up process.
Swiffer had used an image of a tough-looking woman with her sleeves rolled up and a bandanna around her head for its Steam Boost mop ad campaign, which a couple of Twitter users interpreted to be a remix of the WWII propaganda poster and feminist icon, Rosie the Riveter.
From there, it was picked up by a variety of political and feminist blogs, where the general consensus was that the campaign was “particularly offensive.”
Swiffer did issue a quiet mea culpa with the following statement:
“It was not our intention to offend any group with the image, and we are working to make changes to where it is used as quickly as possible.”
They made good on that promise too. If you jog over to Steam Boost’s official website, it simply redirects to Swiffer’s homepage. The company is also doing some damage control on Twitter:
Our core value is to make cleaning easier, no matter who’s behind the handle. We apologize and are working hard to remove the image.
— Swiffer (@Swiffer) June 4, 2013
Heather Beschizza, the Twitter user who originally spotted the Rosie ad, told Yahoo that she still saw the image in a Sunday morning insert, so there are still probably a few floating around out there.
What do you think of Swiffer’s Rosie the Riveter ad? Did the company make the right call by pulling it?
