eXtreme laundry detergent???

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It exists.

They were all out of Mr. Tamex’s favorite laundry detergent (“all” with Double Bleaching Action) at the store today, so I had to look for alternatives. As I was scanning the shelves, I noticed that there was a coupon machine spitting out coupons for $2.00 off a new kind of laundry detergent called “Oxydol Extreme Clean”. Since two dollars off this stuff would make it one dollar cheaper than the “all” (had it existed), I thought that this must be my lucky day. Indeed, it was–I pulled the last bottle off the shelf. (Is there some sort of detergent shortage I don’t know about?)

I was not fully aware at first that I had, indeed, bought “eXtreme” laundry detergent. I thought that “extreme” was just another example of laundry detergent hyperbole. The slightly larger than necessary “X” in in the middle of the word “extreme” didn’t clue me in, either. Neither did the bright green color of the bottle, reminiscent of the outside of a Mountain Dew can. No, I did not realize what I had gotten myself into until I got this stuff home, put it in the cupboard, and happened to glance at the back of the bottle.

There is a mountain biker on the back. The words are in many different colors and fonts and typesizes. Sometimes, the typesizes cHANge iN THe middLe of thE WORDs. This stuff promises to “Help conquer your most EXTReME DiRT…not to mention your laundroPHOBIA.” Laundrophobia? (Thank goodness Mr. Tamex doesn’t have that affliction. He’s already got “dishophobia”–that’s how he got to be “Laundry Man”.) I’m not sure we have “extreme dirt” around here, either. Of course, we do have a four-year-old, so we may occasionally qualify.

There is the obligatory (http://www.the-extreme-clean.com) as well. They promise “advice, snarky [:confused:] editorials, [and] games” on the bottle, but all I see now is a bright green screen (matches the bottle) and a flash animation that causes an “X” to rotate in between the words “Extreme” and “Clean”. Maybe it doesn’t work on Netscape or something. I know that Netscape is not very “eXtreme”.

Oh, and there is also a helpful [HINT] on the label. “For embarassingly dirty stuff, fill cap to top line.” Apparently, you need a lot of this stuff to get THAT out. :wink:

I imagine that this stuff is targeting the college-age “moving into the dorms” crowd. Not sure it’s going to work out for them, though. College students are notoriously cheap, after all. Sure, this might be cheaper than “all” now, but wait till those coupons are gone–they’ll be back to some “ordinary” cheaper alternative (or whatever their mom uses). If I were creating a laundry detergent for college students, I’d tape free quarters to the inside of the lid.

Does my husband need any more special equipment for his foray into “eXtreme” laundry? Where do we buy “eXtreme” laundry baskets? Should I get him a videotape of skateboarders and bungee-jumpers to watch as he folds? I suppose I should at least get him some Mountain Dew or Gatorade or something :).

Just call me TameX, the DoPER with eXtremely clean clothes.

2

Looks like oxydol’s ad agency decided to shoot for the “Gen X” demographic.

When the PARTICLEWILL revolution comes, all ad agency marketing idiots will be the first ones to be rounded up and shot.

Oh, and the guy responsible for N’sync and Backstreet Boys.

Tho they may be one and the same.

3

That’s the strange thing, particlewill. My husband and I are part of the “Gen X” demographic as most people calculate it (both born in '75), and we both think this is incredibly stupid. In fact, if I were in college and living in the dorms right now, I don’t think I would want to be caught dead with this stuff, lest other people think that I think it’s cool or something. (It’s only OK now because I’m older, wiser, and no longer care as much what people think. Hey, this stuff was $1 cheaper than our usual brand with the coupon! Oh, and as I mentioned, my husband does most of our laundry :).) It’s like older people trying to use teenage slang–it just seems out of place somehow.

Also, I have no idea what “snarky” means. If this means I am old, I don’t care. I want my regular old laundry detergent that treated me like an adult and didn’t assume I had “laundrophobia”.

Oh, and Gen-Xers are cheap. If I were creating a laundry detergent for Gen-Xers, I’d tape quarters to the inside of the lid.

particlewill, I await your revolution. They’ve really blown it this time.

4

I should probably post a rant about this sometime, but the Gen X thing is really strangely understood. And REALLY well named. Generation X, is the forgotten unnamed generation. The book Generation X by Donald Copeland, is fairly mediocre reading, but it’s part of how the tern gained popularity. Gen X, in the novel, is the generation immediately after the Baby Boomers. The baby Boom started shortly after WWII. So can we say Baby Boom is 1947-1957 or there abouts? That makes Gen X 1958-1968. Except that they are so forgotten and unnoticed that the generation after them has coopted their name redefining the ‘X’ portion to mean ‘eXtreme’ rather than ‘undefined’. And now it seems it keeps getting reused by each successive generation. A truely lost generation.

5

My mother uses “snarky” all the time. It means the same thing as “crabby”, “cranky”, “ill-tempered” etc., at least when she uses it. I always thought of it as a word old people use.

6

I don’t know about Gen-X directed, WWF style laundry aides but I found some stuff in Mexico called Don Maximo that really kicks ass. It comes in cake form and I’ve used it to pre-rub stains. So far it’s done a better job than any other stain remover I’ve tried.