CleanTec Industry News

International. Clorox announced a new brand platform, Clean Feels Good, which includes groundbreaking research comparing emotional responses during common activities such as cleaning.

According to an online survey by Clorox, one in five Americans (21%) said they consistently cleanse to improve their mood. But can cleanliness feel as good as other popular ways to pamper yourself, such as playing with puppies or enjoying a latte?

To find out, Clorox partnered with Emotiv, a global neurotechnology specialist, to evaluate the feeling of cleanliness compared to other feel-good activities. 37% of participants felt better cleaning the toilet than petting puppies. Participants also enjoyed wiping coffee grounds off the kitchen counter, doing their nails or sipping their favorite latte or chai tea.

"It may not come as a surprise that we at Clorox believe that cleanliness feels good. But finding out through neurotechnology that, for some, cleaning felt as good as petting puppies — that was unexpected!" said Tad Kittredge, vice president of marketing and innovation at The Clorox Company.

Measuring the feeling of cleanliness
Emotiv used electroencephalography (EEG) technology to measure brain activity that reflects positive emotions, enthusiasm, and closeness motivation, also known as good feelings. The experiment was conducted with 30 participants as they performed various cleansing and wellness activities.

"Using EEG, we were able to observe a participant's brain activity as they performed different activities, from cleaning coffee grounds on the kitchen counter to relaxing in a massage chair. From there, we measured the differences in activation between the two brain hemispheres, which gives us an idea of how much a person enjoyed an activity," said Dr. Nik Williams, Principal Research Scientist at Emotiv.

The results of the experiment revealed that cleanliness feels good; really good, in fact.
Flushing the toilet is often considered one of the most undesirable household chores. According to an online survey by Clorox, 43% of respondents said they didn't feel good about cleaning it. However, the measured neural signatures showed that, for 43% of participants, cleaning the toilet felt better than listening to their favorite song.

Surprisingly, petting a puppy only felt 5% better than cleaning the toilet, which shows that in the United States people don't take as much care of the toilet bowl as previously thought. Some might think there's nothing better than the first sip of coffee, but Clorox's experiment proved that you don't need an expensive latte to feel good: cleaning dirt from the sink felt just as good as enjoying our favorite beverage.

Not only do we enjoy a sparkling space, but cleaning the kitchen countertop has a positive effect on brain activity: our neurological results show that it feels 6% better than getting a massage.

Even short, simple cleaning tasks had an emotional impact. Cleaning the kitchen countertop and scrubbing the sink produced a similar positive response to enjoyable, more time-consuming activities, such as watching a funny video or getting a manicure.

Of the cleaning activities analyzed, cleaning stains and spills from surfaces was considered one of the most well-being. Specifically, according to an online survey by Clorox, 88% of respondents said they felt good after cleaning surfaces.

Naturally, individual results may vary. Clorox launched new TV ads that showed real reactions from real people. For Madison, cleaning the toilet was better than getting a massage, while for Travis, cleaning the countertop was better than playing a video game. But cleaning lost out to drinking a Boba tea, which means cleaning has more work.