He’s apparently wiping the slate clean.
After 68 years, Mr. Clean, the bald, strapping mascot of the household cleaning products bearing his name, announced his retirement in a social media post.
In the post, shared last week on the brand’s Instagram account, Mr. Clean is standing behind a lectern and wearing sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt, his signature all-white outfit seemingly a thing of the past. A chyron reading “Breaking News: Mr. Clean Announces Retirement” stretches across the video.
“After a career with zero stains on the record, he’s ready for new adventures,” a narrator says.
The character further confirmed the news in a screenshot of an iPhone Notes app shared on social media the next day.
“I’m saying goodbye to the world of cleaning in pursuit of new hobbies,” the note read. It was signed “Veritably,” formerly known as Mr. Clean. (Veritably is Mr. Clean’s first name, according to the company.)
Representatives for Procter & Gamble, the consumer products giant that owns the Mr. Clean brand along with products like Bounty paper towels and Tide detergent, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Clean was first devised in the mid-1950s, when Procter & Gamble commissioned a commercial artist, Richard Black, to create a marketing character for a new detergent-based household cleaner. The company envisioned a bald man with a nose ring, a nod to the genie-like powers of a product that cleaned “like magic.”
Mr. Black, who died in 2014, drafted two sketches of a strong, smiling genie: one with a nose ring, and one with an earring.
Procter & Gamble chose the second one, and Mr. Clean has been the face of the brand since its 1958 rollout, which included a radio and television ad campaign, and has been a staple on cleaning shelves in grocery stores and American homes.
Mr. Clean products grew to include Magic Eraser scrubbers, all-purpose cleaners in various scents, and tools like mops and plungers. In 2017, Mr. Clean caused a stir when a steamy Super Bowl commercial turned him into something of a sex symbol.
In the days since the announcement, Mr. Clean has teased some possible next chapters: disc jockey, snowboarder, runner, chef, rock climber.
“No one said retirement had to be boring …” Mr. Clean said in a post.
The brand’s plans for a successor are not clear, nor is it known whether Mr. Clean has children to inherit the role. A decade ago, the brand similarly said it was sending its character on an extended vacation and was in the market for a new Mr. — or Ms. or Mrs. — Clean.
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