California Grandma Randee Reidy is used to lovingly being called "Meemaw" by her grandkids, so she wasn't particularly happy to see it used to describe an unpleasant scent in an ad for detergent.
Reidy told CBS-13 in Sacramento, California that she was flipping through The Sacramento Bee when she saw the ad for the Procter & Gamble laundry detergent, Gain. The ad features a sachet of potpourri labelled "Smells Like Mee-Maw," next to a bottle of the detergent, labelled "Smells Like Yee-Haw!"
Reidy told The Huffington Post that, upon first glance, she thought the bag of potpourri was actually a bag of garbage. "It doesn't really matter whether it's a bag of garbage, laundry or potpourri," Reidy said. "It indicates that grandmothers smell and the smell needs to be fixed somehow by using Gain laundry detergent. That's why it's offensive to me."
Reidy said she immediately took action by reaching out to Procter & Gamble to ask them to retract the ad and "stop insulting the elderly." Reidy says she is yet to hear whether Procter & Gamble will retract the ad but was told that the company does test their ads with a diverse consumer group prior to publishing.
"It perpetuates a stereotype that grandmothers smell bad," she said.
Procter & Gamble released the following statement to The Huffington Post: "The ad is offensive and does not represent the views of P&G or the Gain brand. This was developed by a local agency and only ran in the Bay-area Sacramento region, and we are working with the agency to stop any future running of this ad."
What do you think of the ad? Offensive -- or no?
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