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Apr 13, 2004

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Cleaning Up Cleanly

I remember when I was very young, I begged and begged my mother to purchase the Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleanser. I thought that if the bubbles had eyes and mouths and talked on television, then surely they would do so in real life. Finally my mother bought the bubbles and I made her promise to tell me when she used it. A few days later, she called me into the bathroom so I could watch her clean it. She did not understand why I was so fascinated by the bubbles – it never occurred to her that I actually thought the bubbles would be alive like the television commercial. When the bubbles were sprayed out onto the tub, I got my face as close as I could, but there was nothing there. “Where are they?” I asked. “What do you mean honey?” My mother wondered. “Where are the bubbles?” “They are right there, see them working on the dirt?” “Where are their little eyes and mouths? Where are the real bubbles?” I began to cry. My mother had to explain to me that commercials were pretend and bubbles weren’t alive, they were only chemicals and I wasn’t allowed to touch them because they would burn me. I was devastated. I had been lied to. I never wanted to see another commercial again. In the long run that probably did me more good that harm, but the message still rings true today – most of the cleaning solutions we buy, we buy because we’ve been duped into thinking we need it via advertising. It isn’t real, it doesn’t work like it says it does and it can burn us.

By: April Kelley

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