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Granite Bay Grandma Upset Over How Procter And Gamble Depicted 'Mee Maw' Smell

GRANITE BAY (CBS13) — A Granite Bay woman is demanding Procter and Gamble clean up its act after she says a detergent ad was derogatory toward grandmothers.

Randee Reidy found the ad for Gain laundry detergent in The Sacramento Bee, and now she's demanding the company and newspaper apologize and pull the ad.

Reidy's grandsons have always called her Mee Maw, but when the company used it, she says it became an insult.

"It leaves a lasting clean scent so your clothes smell garden-fresh, not grandmotherly," she said reading the ad. "It's so disparaging. It's so ageist. And I just thought it was awful."

The 67-year-old is referring to the ad that she says disparages the smell of "Mee Maw."

"I think I was particularly offended maybe for me because my grandchildren call me Mee Maw, haha. But I was like, when did grandmothers start smelling bad?" she said.

She's bent on making sure the promotional use of the word won't gain any future customers for the company if she can help it.

"I've contacted my local congressman, my state senator, I sent a message to Hillary Clinton. I think she might be interested. And I don't know. I'll just keep on going with it, because it's just not right," she said.

She's started a grassroots campaign, sending a letter to the editor of The Sacramento Bee. She's started an email and phone train as well, which produced a response from Procter & Gamble that read in part, "Please know we thoroughly test our advertising with a broad group of consumers before airing it."

But she says that's not enough and she wants the company and the newspaper to pull the ad and clean up its act.

"The most important thing to me is the public apology because I found that ad really embarrassing," she said.

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