By Adam R Jacobson
In 1958, Mr. Clean made its debut as a household cleaning brand. Six months after its first radio and TV campaign, it became a top brand and entered the Canadian market.
Now, in a nod to its first creative effort, the Procter & Gamble Co. brand is bringing back its original Mr. Clean jingle in both Spanish and English in the form of a new spot.
Both :30 and :15-second versions are available to radio and TV, and as pre-roll in cinemas and digital video providers.
The English-language spot shows various household scenes in which Mr. Clean takes care of messes: A dad is wiping off a child’s illustration from a white living room wall; a male roommate cleans the countertop of his apartment with his buddy giving Mr. Clean a high five; a daughter playing in her doll house is seen with her mother singing Mr. Clean’s praises; a woman with numerous pets is shown mopping with Mr. Clean; a heavy metal band sings a refrain of the jingle; an African-American woman opens the shower curtain to find her husband scrubbing the bathroom tub with Mr. Clean; a man is bathing in a tub (likely not filled with the household cleaner), in a clean bathroom; a mom is seen with a baby dressed like Mr. Clean on a kitchen counter; a Latina entering an attic space where Mr. Clean is happily singing; a glimpse of the original 1959 commercial; and a neighborhood shot featuring all of the happy family members seen previously.
Both the :30 and :15 were created by Leo Burnett Canada and produced by Skin and Bones, Against All Odds, Eggplant Productions and The Big Picture.
The Spanish-language spot is identical, with a Spanish-language version of the jingle accompanied by in-language on-screen messaging.
Kevin Wenzel, who serves as P&G’s Associate Brand Director for North America, did not directly address his company’s decision to go with a translation when asked by Hispanic Market Overview.
He tells Hispanic Market Overview that the spot “is a celebration of the brand’s heritage designed to appeal to today’s ever-changing modern demographic.” He adds that his team discovered that there was “something magical” in the original 1958 jingle. “We then recognized that there was a uniquely ownable and relatable campaign in the jingle that could span not only generations, but demographics, so we explored modernizing it,” Wenzel says.
P&G’s decision to go with a translated spot for Mr. Clean’s “retro” campaign comes following the debut earlier this week of new creative for sister brand Old Spice featuring a relatively unknown Mexican actor and model that P&G hopes will resonate with Hispanic millennials. That spot was shot in English.
A representative of Citizen Relations, which handles public relations for Mr. Clean, notes that Publicis’ Leo Burnett and its Hispanic market specialty shop Lapiz maintain the Hispanic advertising assignments for the Mr. Clean brand.
Yet as of August 2014, Lapiz chiefly worked on P&G brands Always, Gain, Clearblue and Vidal Sassoon.
In 2010 Lapiz won two Golden Lions in Cannes for its Spanish-language radio spots produced for P&G’s Bounty brand — “Battle.”
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