Another brand to avoid (sigh)

[AbsintheFriends]

I'm making a big effort to cut down on plastic and use more eco friendly products at home. Bought some Method washing up liquid and really liked the scent (peach) so thought I'd look at their website to see if I could buy a big refill pouch or something.

methodproducts.co.uk

Think I'll look elsewhere.

I know it's ridiculous but I'm really irked by this. Perhaps it's because I've been following the 'is it acceptable to hire a cleaner' debate here and on twitter, and am more acutely aware that cleaning is the shitwork that falls overwhelmingly to women, but here is a company that sells cleaning products bigging up men aping women in the most exaggerated, sexualised way, when the last facet of womanhood that drag queens seek to embrace is the toilet-cleaning, floor-scrubbing part. (And who the fuck is bothered about looking sexy and 'fabulous' while doing those things?) Apparently they want to 'challenge toxic cleaning stereotypes'. I would suggest that showing men, of different ages and ethnicities, from a variety of walks of life, actually - well, cleaning, might be a more effective way of doing this, rather than jumping on the entirely unrelated rainbow glitter 'inclusive' bandwagon.

I'm not articulating it very well, but just thought I'd leave it here. Maybe I'm overreacting and it's time to step away from the internet for a bit (and go and clean the bath.)

Adding a 20 litre vat of Bio-D handwash to my apocalypse bunker shopping list

A bit of digging reveals that Method and Ecover are part of the same American parent group (SC Johnson), and Ethical Consumer magazine was urging a boycott on animal cruelty grounds back in 2018. www.ethicalconsumer.org/home-garden/ecover-and-method-boycott

The Bio-D stuff on the other hand looks much better, and is British made too. biodegradable.biz/about-us/our-values/

I take empty bottles to either my local health food shop or, if I'm getting a few things re-filled, my nearest plastic-free shop, and fill up on ecoleaf laundry detergent, fabric conditioner and washing up liquid. The ecover laundry detergent is scentless and I don't get on with it. I don't want my clothes to reek of perfume, but I like a washed smell so ecoleaf works for me. They also do dishwasher tablets packaged with no plastic.

To be fair, I am spoilt for such amenities (3 re-fill shops in striking distance at the last count), but they tend to be tucked away a little so worth searching on-line to see if there's one near you. Using Ecosia as your search engine of course, so you get a tree planted for every 45 searches.

I wouldn't have been that bothered if it weren't for the insulting explanation. Like you say, challenge stereotypes by having pictures of a cross section of men doing the cleaning!

Worst cleaning company ad I saw featured silhouettes of women dressed in tight, short dresses and stilettos. You had to call a man to make the booking for a cleaner. It wasn't a cover for sex workers either.

Not heard of this brand.

Damn I liked Method but will purchase no more.
And agree they probably don’t really clean very well anyway.

Wow no more method here then - back to bicarb & soap

Think I might switch

God that’s awful. One day this will look like the Robertson’s Golly. Were there any women of the target market age on the advertising design team that came up with that, do you think?

Humph I've reached the age where I have more disposable income and am finding my spending opportunities severely curtailed. I had thought Method rather expensive but assumed that was because they were small ethical company and had just started to buy them.

I think method started out as small/ethical and then was bought by BigWhoever.

Which is neither here nor there.

Was thinking of trying Koh, people rave about that. Time to find out.

Yeah, me too NotAGirl. I thought my peach washing up liquid was pricey, but a bit of a silly treat and justifiable on eco-credentials. I'm glad I discovered what this brand is really about.

I've been having a search on twitter and the reaction to the campaign seems to have been underwhelming to say the least. The Pink News coverage of the announcement got 31 likes, 4 retweets and 0 comments, and Method's PR announcement about the partnership got 16 likes, 5 retweets and 1 comment - which was calling them out on the animal cruelty.

(One of the drag acts is black and called Frieda Slaves. There's something particularly distasteful about that in the context of playing the part of an overtly sexual woman and selling cleaning products.)

Thanks for the info. Bio-D seems to be stocked in our local Oxfam shop so I’ll try some.

Ffs

We must have run out of stuff we can actually buy now...

Stunned! I can't imagine how this is ok .

I use a refill company in my village. They use sesi products which are fab, eco friendly and vegan. Might be worth checking to see if you have a local refill stockist. Also better for the environment!