Dive Brief:
- Procter & Gamble's Dawn dish soap and Swiffer cleaning products launched a campaign that urges consumers to share household chores more equally. The "Come Clean to Close the Chore Gap" effort includes a 30-second sport that will air during "The Super Bowl Today," CBS's pregame show on Sunday, per an announcement.
- P&G set up a website, closethechoregap.com, that asks people to join its "P&G Good Everyday" rewards program and agree to receive emails from its brands. The company will donate a cleaning product to families in need for every person who registers on the website, which provides tips on how to share household chores.
- Dawn and Swiffer enlisted dozens of people to highlight the division of household work and promote equality at home, including actress Tia Mowry-Hardrict and her husband Cory Hardrict. The campaign is part of P&G's broader effort to promote equality and inclusion and its 2,021 Acts of Good in 2021 program, per the announcement.
Dive Insight:
P&G's campaign to promote equal sharing of chores aims to raise awareness of an issue that affects people's emotional well being and personal relationships. By showcasing the issue of uneven distribution of household chores, P&G also seeks to position brands like Dawn and Swiffer as helpful allies in cleaning tasks, especially for families that are cooped up together at home during the pandemic.
P&G also is urging people to sign up on its website for its rewards program, a key step in gathering first-party data about consumers to help improve the targeting of its marketing efforts. First-party data is becoming more valuable as tech companies like Google and Apple plan to give consumers more tools to protect their online privacy.
The "Come Clean to Close the Chore Gap" campaign is grounded in research by P&G that shows most of the work is handled by one person in 65% of U.S. households. With people spending more time at home during the pandemic, the workload has increased, especially for women. Almost two-thirds (63%) of women said they're mostly responsible for chores, spending an average of more than 100 hours a year than men do on tasks like cleaning.
Equality in chores has improved during the pandemic, when families are spending more time together, per P&G's research. Findings include that 34% of Americans who live with their spouse want to help out more after becoming more aware of the chores their significant other does. Kids are also part of the picture, with 47% of parents saying that they are engaging their kids more in household chores while everyone is at home.
Sharing household chores also strengthens people's relationship with family members and has a positive effect on families with children, P&G's research suggests. With that in mind, the campaign is in line with P&G's other purpose-driven efforts, especially those that promote equality and inclusion. In December, the company kicked off its plan for 2,021 acts of good in 2021 with a wave of contributions of products, personal protective equipment (PPE) and financial support as part of COVID-19 relief efforts.
The campaign's spot that will run during the Super Bowl pregame show is P&G's only announced plans for the big game. Skincare brand Olay will not return to the Super Bowl, instead focusing its efforts around the International Day of Women and Girls in STEM on Feb. 11. Other major advertisers have opted out of the Super Bowl, leaving the field open for digitally focused newcomers that have benefited from the pandemic.
"We know many families watch the Super Bowl together and it’s our hope that this message will spark a dialogue between them. Our research shows when we talk openly about the Chore Gap we are more likely to work together to close it," Martin Hettich, senior vice president of P&G Home Care North America, said in the release.
