Kleenex Hand Towels AKA Disposable Integrity
AKA Fuck you, Kleenex.
I can’t believe I missed this ad before now, but today the husband showed me a TV commercial for disposable Kleenex Hand Towels. This is probably the most wasteful product I’ve seen marketed since the Dixie ads suggesting paper plates for everyday family meals. A quick Google showed I wasn’t the first blogger to take issue with Kleenex’s disgusting ad campaign.
My favorite quote is from Green For Good, who said:
“In the hand drying facts on their Web site, Kleenex tries to scare us into believing that ‘regular washing of cloth hand towels does not ensure cleanliness.’”
Wow, we should really start wearing disposable clothes if that’s true.
Kleenex Hand Towels are not even made from recycled paper, and they are guaranteed to, as The Stranger puts it, “make your bathroom at home 127 percent more like the one at a gas station!” The paper hand towel dispenser is designed to rest on your bathroom towel rack but still manages to look like you just wedged it in there.
Now for the worst part: These are selling. According to an article on Media Post quoting Kleenex’s senior brand manager,
“During its first seven minutes of being on-air, we sold approximately 3,000 cases of Kleenex Hand Towels.”
That stat refers to QVC, where shoppers have to take the time to call in their orders. I don’t even want to think about how many lazy consumers are picking these up amidst their normal grocery shopping. I know that a lot of mothers are, unfortunately, huge germaphobes, but I can’t imagine anyone actually believing they’d get sick from a hand towel that their own family uses to dry their freshly-washed hands.
To make their case that towels are unsanitary, the Kleenex commercial shows a dog putting his mouth on the bathroom hand towel. Really? First off, it’s fairly common knowledge that the germs in a dog’s mouth will not make you sick. In fact, it’s been proven that growing up in a home with dogs strengthens a baby’s immune system (NY Times). Secondly, train your dog not to hang out in your bathroom or mouth things that aren’t his. Otherwise your robe and bath towels aren’t going to be safe from Pup’s (harmless) slobber either. (I can see it now: Kleenex Disposable Bathrobes and Bath Towels!)
If you are really THAT concerned about your family sharing germs, here is a fun and still eco-friendly tip: Buy a variety of cloth hand towel colors and assign each family member their own hue. Kids will be thrilled at having their own designated towel and you won’t have to empty the bathroom garbage every day. (Seriously, if everyone uses one disposable towel after every hand wash, that is a lot of trash emptying.)
BTW, some more searching turned up some blogger reviews and giveaways of this product. I would just like to say right here how disgusted I am by that, especially coming from mom bloggers. I will accept a lot of things to review but I at least have some fucking integrity. As a blogger you have a fair amount of influence but as a mother you are the ultimate role model. Not only are you giving this company free advertising (Most bloggers are compensated only with free product to review), you are also teaching your children to be wasteful and irrationally afraid of germs, many of which are actually good for our bodies.
I filed this post under Product Reviews. In this case, I don’t think it is necessary to actually use the product to form a full opinion.
© 2012
I 100% agree. I was horrified when I first saw this commercial. This is the exact opposite of the direct we should be headed.
I just saw this commercial and I was in shock! I am completely appalled as well. We are already unnecessarily germaphobic in the US, and I can’t believe Kleenex is feeding into the non-sense with such an environmentally unfriendly product.
Bravo!
Douglas Adams would be ashamed of us.
Disposable towels will not save your life in space
I agree 100% with what you’ve said. Not to mention that the whole segment in the commercial where the dog takes the hand towel off the rack and someone else is wiping their face with it two seconds later would never happen in most households. A dog who ripped the towel off the rack would not normally be able to put it back up there again. So someone will take it away from the dog and put it in the hamper or find it on the floor somewhere and…put it in the hamper! And a fresh towel would be put out for clean hands and faces. This commerical makes me so angry I want to write a letter to kleenex!
I agree…But I am using this product in my guess bathroom.
It is just for my visitors.