Clementine (advertising character)
Clementine was a promotional figure for the Ariel detergent from Procter & Gamble . The character was played from 1968 to 1984 by the actress Johanna König . In the 1990s she returned for a few spots, but without her old work clothes.
figure
Clementine was played by Johanna König. It was a boyish plumber with a red and white checked shirt, white dungarees and a white peaked cap , on each of which the name "Clementine" was printed. The figure should represent a washing machine consultant. In 1968 the first commercial was shot showing Clementine in a laundromat, where another woman complains about her "pickiest" customer. Klementine then recommends Ariel for the main wash. A few more spots followed by 1986 that use a similar structure. This so-called slice-of-life style initially uses a soap opera-like plot that was only interrupted at the end of the commercial by a monologue by the character. The advertising slogans “Ariel washes not only clean, but also clean” and “Ariel in the main wash cycle” were shaped by Klementine . The before-and-after effect and the comparison with competing products (referred to as “conventional” detergents, since comparative advertising was not allowed in Germany), which is sometimes referred to as the “Ariel effect”, also became known. Here Klementine demonstrated the advertised effect of the product.
The last commercials followed in 1986, after which Klementine was discontinued as an advertising figure. Johanna König, meanwhile 65, concentrated in the meantime on her acting career and played in the series Praxis Bülowbogen . Numerous spectator protests followed, which caused a resurgence of the figure in the 1990s. From 1993 to 1996, a few more spots followed, but König was able to enforce to dispense with their trademark, the dungarees.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Johanna König liked her years as a clementine, during which time her acting career largely stagnated. She was also identified with this figure very often. After the re-run ended in the 1990s, she signed a lifelong contract with Procter & Gamble, which included two packets of Ariel per month.
reception
Clementine was one of the style-defining advertising icons of the 1970s and 1980s, alongside the HB male and Meister Proper . Mr. Kaiser von der Hamburg Mannheimer and Uncle Dittmeyer were equally popular . Dungarees and peaked cap were part of the exhibition in the House of History in Bonn for a while and are now part of the permanent exhibition in the German Advertising Museum in Frankfurt am Main .
Clementine's image of women is valued differently. On the one hand, Klementine was portrayed as an emancipated woman who worked cheekily and confidently in a classic male profession. Nevertheless, the advertising was based on the classic West German understanding of roles, in which the woman took care of the household while the man went to work. The other women in the commercials are portrayed much paler and braver than Clementine herself.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Urs Meyer: Poetics of Advertising . Erich Schmidt Verlag GmbH & Co KG, 2010, ISBN 978-3-503-09892-7 , p. 188 .
- ↑ Hermann Scherer: The convincing offer: How to win against the competition . Campus Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-593-42177-3 .
- ↑ WDR 4 : Stars, Heroes and Idols: Klementine ( Memento from June 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), September 5, 2003
- ↑ Advertisement: Mourning for "Clementine" - Johanna König has died. Der Tagesspiegel , March 4, 2009, accessed on November 5, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Holger Kreitling: Emancipated advertising icon. Clementine, the washing plumber, is dead. Die Welt , March 4, 2009, accessed on November 5, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Andreas Kötter: Clementine - not just clean, but pure! In: GoodTimes cult! No. 1/2018 , p. 30 .