Meghan Markle claims she got Procter & Gamble to change an ad for dishwashing liquid when she was 11
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- Meghan Markle may have encouraged Procter & Gamble to change the tagline to an advertisement for dishwashing liquid when she was 11.
- The tagline inspired jokes from her male classmates about how women "belong" in the kitchen.
- After Markle wrote letters to Hillary Clinton, lawyer Gloria Allred, journalist Linda Ellerbee, and Procter & Gamble, the tagline was changed.
Meghan Markle may have encouraged Procter & Gamble to change the tagline to an advertisement for dishwashing liquid when she was 11, according to a speech she gave for UN Women on International Women's Day in 2015.
In the speech, she described seeing a TV commercial in school for Procter & Gamble dishwashing soap, whose tagline claimed, "Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans." After two male classmates made a joke about how women "belong" in the kitchen, Markle became frustrated.
"I remember feeling shocked and angry and also just feeling so hurt. It just wasn't right and something needed to be done," she said in the speech.
She told her father about the incident, and he encouraged Markle to make her voice heard.
"He encouraged me to write letters, so I did, to the most powerful people I could think of," she said, which included Hillary Clinton, civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred, journalist Linda Ellerbee, and Procter & Gamble.
About a month later, Procter & Gamble made the tagline gender-neutral, changing "Women all over America" to, "People all over America."
You can watch Markle's full speech here.