Clorox rethinks what feels good in new brand platform
By Robin Santos, Associate Director, Brand Engagement – Cleaning
Can clean feel as good as other popular ways to treat yourself, like playing with puppies or indulging in a latte?
Our new brand platform, Clean Feels Good, reimagines what brings small moments of satisfaction into our daily lives, comparing the emotional responses during common feel-good activities to the sensation you get from a Clorox clean.
The campaign was built on research findings from global neurotech leader Emotiv. At Clorox, we know the act of cleaning can spark joy, but we wanted to put it to the test to find out just how good clean feels.
In an experiment of 30 participants, we looked at how the feeling of clean compared to other feel-good activities. Using electroencephalography technology, we measured brain activity reflecting positive emotions, enthusiasm and approach motivation, aka good feelings, as participants engaged in various cleaning and feel-good activities. Here’s what the experiment uncovered:
- While cleaning the toilet can often be considered an undesirable household chore, 37% of participants felt better cleaning the toilet than they did petting puppies.*
- Not only do people enjoy the aftermath of a sparkling space, but the act of wiping the kitchen counter has a positive effect on brain activity, with our neurological results showing it felt 6% better than getting a massage.*
- Even short, simple cleaning tasks had an emotional impact. Wiping the kitchen counter and scrubbing a sink produced a positive response similar to more time-consuming enjoyable activities like watching a funny video or getting a manicure.*
Ahead of sharing our research findings, we launched a 360-degree campaign including new advertising. We started by sharing teaser videos to spark the conversation on how good cleaning feels and asking some of Clorox’s biggest fans to share how cleaning makes them feel. For example, one TV spot video released in February, in partnership with NBCUniversal, showcased “The Real Housewives” star Lisa Barlow determining what feels better, cleaning or glam? We also tapped influencers including social media’s Queen of Cleaning Vanesa Amaro, Uly & Ernesto and Terrence Bradshaw to spark online conversation about what cleaning feels as good as — or potentially even better than!
Naturally, individual results may vary. So, do you agree with the results and find joy in a Clorox clean? Learn more at Clorox.com/CleanFeelsGood.
Research Methodology:
* Emotiv 2025 Study: Clorox partnered with Emotiv to conduct a neuroscience study from Jan. 12–14, 2025, to explore how different activities affected brain signatures. Using electroencephalography, the study compared brain activity in response to three cleaning activities and seven feel-good activities. Bayes Factors indicate the strength of evidence for differences between groups with <0.33 indicating evidence for equivalence.
- 11 participants felt better cleaning the toilet than they did petting a puppy.
- The Bayes Factor between three cleaning and seven feel-good activities was 0.26, indicating equivalence.
- Cleaning a sink felt equivalent to all seven feel-good activities.
- Wiping a counter had a 6.1% higher feel-good response compared to getting a massage and felt equivalent to the other six feel-good activities. Wiping a counter was a consistently enjoyed activity with the least variation among participants, indicating most participants had a similar positive response.
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