Two new ads for very different causes have both been criticized for their harmful messages towards women. Swiffer's new Rosie the Riveter ads have been resoundingly criticized - and quickly pulled. And in Brazil, "happy prostitute" ads that are supposed to promote safe sex and reduce stigma have been yanked.

The "happy prostitute" ads and the Rosie the Riveter Swiffer ad are for different products, but critics argue that in both cases, they're regressive and may result in the opposite of what the ad purportedly does.

Critics are protesting that the Rosie the Riveter Swiffer ad appropriates 1940s labor images and notions of female power. They say it seems to ask women to get back in the kitchen.

The woman in the ad falls in love with her Swiffer; cleaning is suddenly all she cares about and all she wants to do. And she's reduced to someone who is only capable of cleaning and romance - not having a career, raising children, and independent thought.

Hint to advertisers: your target audience shouldn't also be the problem the product solves. 

Rosie the Riveter asked women to go out into the workplace to help their country, to be proactive and brave. Rosie the Riveter standing in the kitchen with a mop? Totally regressive.

Boing Boing's publisher Jason Weisberger said, "I love the clear tribute to an important historical image done in such a way as to piss on its legacy."

A poster on Feministing said,  "I can't wait to rush home from my full-time job to start my second shift of devalued, unpaid household labor with my Swiffer Bissel Steam Boost!"

The ads have been pulled. And down in Brazil, "happy prostitute" ads have been scrapped also. The ads were purportedly to create a more accepting attitude towards safe sex, promote testing for STDs and HIV, and to reduce stigma against sex workers.

The campaign's slogans were a big part of the backlash.

"I'm happy being a prostitute" and "I cannot be seen without a condom, my love," were two slogans used in the ad campaign, and both instantaneously received condemnation for giving prostitution a glamorous outlook.

The message, once thought about, makes sense - after all, prostitution is legal in Brazil and is expected to increase as the nation gears up for the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Many women are even learning English and Spanish in preparation.

Thus, encouraging women to get tested and do their job safely isn't a bad idea. But, as the Health Minister says, "The role of the ministry is to have specific content to encourage prevention among sex workers, who are a very vulnerable group."

Instead, critics worry that the ads promote prostitution and reckless behavior - rather than trying to reduce the stigma behind sex work as a chosen career and legitimize it, thus encouraging safety, testing, the requirement of condoms, and improving industry-wide standards, which would result in better working conditions and lower STD rates.

Instead, Brazil will go with an alternate slogan: "Not ashamed of using a condom."

In a nutshell, analysts see similarities between the Rosie the Riveter Swiffer ads and the Happy Prostitute ads. In both cases, the ads overtly seem to promote strong women by using iconic images like Rosie the Riveter and bold declarations, but they ultimately serve to reduce them to narrow, antiquated roles.