Undressing the Ad: "Girls Don't Poop" for Poo~Pourri

A couple of years ago I started working at a local entertainment store (you know how it is: college girl, minimum wage retail job). At the register is where most places like ours take advantage of line waits to shill our more "fun and funky" products. One such product is the bizarre Poo~Pourri.

The first year we carried Poo~Pourri, we were framing it as a gag gift. Then people started coming back to replenish their supply. They unabashedly loved it--the most popular use seems to be shared office bathrooms. I guess this stuff isn't just for White Elephant exchanges.

Other than my indirect involvement in a small, Eastern Panhandle Poo~Pourri cult, I didn't pay too much attention to this stuff. Until, on one of my YouTube binges, I was assaulted with a two minute ad for the toilet spray, starring a peppy, yet sophisticated, young woman in blue organza, delivering the whole pitch from a toilet.

I watched the whole thing.

That sassy character on the john is Bethany Woodruff, a theater major at BYU in Utah. There's a blooper reel if you can't get enough about her talking about bowel movements (I know I can't).

Now, for the pedantry:

In her book "Undressing the Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising," Katherine Frith puts forth a three-pronged approach to looking at advertising--yes, even two-minute-long YouTube advertisements for poo spritz. This technique is predicated on three assumptions:

1. There is a surface layer to the ad--the overall impression of what's going on in the advertisment. This is normally presented in simple, objective language, as though a five year old were describing it.
2. There is an intended message the advertiser is trying to communicate, beyond the surface layer--sometimes they're kind enough to outright tell us what they're trying to do, but sometimes it gets tricky (like with perfume ads. what the hell?)
3. There is a cultural and ideological message in the ad--this layer is dependent on context and the audience's background. Theoretically, an ad transplanted direct from Japan has a chance of completely missing the mark with American audiences. (why does the dog have a doll head? wait, why is it dancing? wait, that was about chips??)

I'm game--and this is a blog entry for advertising class--so let's give it a shot with "Girls Don't Poop."

The surface layer is simple, as it should be--a pretty, young, white woman (with an English accent) in a nice dress is sitting on a toilet in various settings: a public bathroom, the office, her boyfriend's living room, a dairy farm, a fancy party, and a flowering meadow. She sure has a lot of interesting euphemisms for pooping.

And what is the intended message? Again, they've made it plenty clear for us. Ladies! Use Poo~Pourri when you go to the bathroom and everyone will believe you're a classy lady whose shit don't stink. Or, if you want to go with the premade motto: Their business is to make it smell like our business never even happened.

Now, for the fun part: the cultural message. As we all know by now, I'm an English major by trade, and overanalyzing the crap (ha) out of something is my reason for living.

The cultural message behind this is one of complete irony, and is in fact the title of the commercial--girls don't poop. Not the good girls, anyway. Despite all the groundbreaking literature written on the topic, Western sentiment holds that women don't have bodily functions. By placing a character we Americans would typically align with sophistication and high class--a groomed woman with a British accent--Poo~Pourri marketers have provided a stark contrast between reality and perception, which I'd argue is 90% of the joke ("Birthing a creamy behemoth" wouldn't be nearly as funny coming out of Larry the Cable Guy's dribbling mouth).

The humor behind the commercial is double-edged. On the one hand, we have a company playing into stereotypes. Not only is the joke based on the myth that pretty white women don't do dirty things like defecate, but the product itself upholds that illusion.

On the other hand, Woodruff stands in as the supposed symbol of purity and says some of the most colorful, disgusting euphemisms I've ever had the pleasure to hear. While Poo~Pourri does suggest that it has the power to make a bodily function completely invisible, it seems to do so with a heavy eyeroll and a quiet snicker. Really? You still think the only things that come out of women are unicorn kisses and rainbows? 

For what it's worth, Poo~Pourri also has a line of men's scents (I hear the Master Crapsman set makes a great gift for Dad). Will we get to see a dapper gent on a toilet sometime?