There is an increasing belief in the use of surface modification techniques to reduce the adhesion of soil to surface so that only weak detergents or mechanical means is required for the soil removal. In this work, we have studied how the soil adhesion is affected by controlled and well-defined modification of thr surface. Various surfaces were prepared by radio frequency plasma treatment combined with surface derivatization techninques. Adsorption and displacement of trimyristin , a model soil, were investigated by ellipsometry. Two fundametally different and succesful approaches to realize a good soil-repellant surface werw found:(i) strongly polar surfaces of poly(ethylene oxide) that interact strongly with water or (ii) surfaces which contain cross-linked fluorocarbon moieties.