Hamilton, OH – December 6, 2011– The winner of Kaivac’s Dirty Mop Contest has just been announced.

  The winner is Alina Prodan from Chicago, IL who received 3,254 votes from Kaivac Facebook fans for her soiled mop.

  She will receive $500 for submitting what Kaivac Facebook fans consider the dirtiest mop entered into the contest. 

  The contest began in October 2011 and voting began in November.  Facebook fans were invited to submit pictures of their dirtiest mops used for cleaning-many of which are used on a daily basis. Fans were then asked to vote for the dirtiest mop.

  Twenty-six dirty mops were submitted, and what was termed “an astonishing” 15,557 votes were received.

  “We’ve never done anything like this before,” says Matt Morrison, communications manager for Kaivac, who put the contest together. “It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot as well.”

  The contest significantly also increased the number of people that “Like” the Kaivac Facebook site. “By the end of the contest, there was a seven-fold increase in the number of ‘Likes’ to the site.”

  But there was a serious side to the contest, according to Morrison, and that was just how soiled mops and buckets become as they are used.

  Recent studies indicate that soiled mops can quickly contaminate floor surfaces as the mop is used.

  “Most custodial workers already knew this was likely the case even before the studies came out,” says Katherine Pickett, who entered her dirty mop, Grimey Gretta, into the contest. “But seeing pictures of all the dirty mops certainly brought it home for me and I am sure many others.”