MANILA — The job of doing the laundry and washing one’s clothes is not usually seen as a fun job. Often done in the back rooms or outside a house, the battle against dirt and stains isn’t something most people look forward to doing. Thus, when an ad like Tide’s “Todo-puti na kagulat-gulat!” appeared on our screens, the entire image of doing the laundry was turned upside down.
Whereas ads in the 1970s and 1980s would show mild-mannered Filipinas gathering together near a lake to wash their clothes, the new ad from creative agency Leo Burnett goes in a completely different direction.
The gathered group of approximately 40 women come together in front of a Chinese pagoda, and each has the traditional “batya” (or laundry tray) and “palo-palo” or paddle for washing their clothes. Each woman whips the item of clothing in their hands both in the air and in the batya like a martial arts master. Their faces display the intensity of a Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan while taking their aggression out on their laundry.
Working a bit of word magic, the voiceover calls these women, “ang mga laban deras,” a play on the humble labandera. “Palaban sa laba. Palaban sa paulit-ulit na kusutan. Palaban sa dumi. Tagapagligtas ng sangkaputian,” the voice continues.
“Kaputian sa paulit-ulit na kusutan!” proudly exclaims one of these washing warriors when suddenly, a pack of Tide cuts across the screen. “Gulat kayo, no?” says the voiceover. “Sa bagong Tide, konting-kusot mo, todo-puti na!” he continues. Meanwhile, a splitscreen shows scrubbing out dirt with the leading brand isn’t as easy compared to scrubbing with Tide.
As the women raise their clean shirts on sticks like flags, the voice concludes with an emphatic, “Todo-puti? Sa Tide madali ‘yan!”
The idea for the ad seems simple enough: merge two preconceived notions and mix them in ways nobody ever has. In this case, the notion of the laundry women and the martial arts training that used to be shown in films from Hong Kong in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. By juxtaposing one on the other, the resulting images are jarring, funny, and definitely breaking old sterotypes.
Leo Burnett continues the hashtag of #TideTodoPuti that the brand has recently been using, and it has definitely helped the ad go viral on social media.
