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Advertising: Tide - Coggle Diagram
Advertising: Tide
Representation
Women having short hair was more practical as long hair was hazardous for women working with machinery on farms or in factories during the war
Advertisements followed stereotypical representations of domestic perfection and ideologies of occupation, linking to role of 'housewife' to modern needs for speed, convenience, and a better standard of living
The dress code of the main female character includes 1950s hairstyle (curls, rolls, waves) made famous by celebs
The headband links to the practicalities that women's dress codes developed during this time
Having her hair held back connotes she is focused on her work though this may cause binary opposition to the full face of makeup she is wearing
Hall's representation theory:
The images of domesticity creates shared conceptual road maps, giving meaning to the advert
Despite the comic strip visual the scenario represented is similar to the audience as a representation of their own lives
Gauntlett's identity theory:
Women represented in the ad act as role models of domestic perfection
These representations may influence how the audience construct their own identity
Bell hooks considered that race and class, and gender, determine the extent to which individuals are exploited, discriminated against or oppressed.
Lighter skinned women are considered more desirable and fit better into the western ideal of beauty, and the advert could be seen to reinforce this by only representing “modern”, white women.
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The costume and gesture of the central image of the empowered women represents the arm gesture of Rosie the Riveter - empower women even if it still represents that they are in charge of the domestics to the 1960s audience. But for a modern audience it romanticises domestic labour
Linking in further with the war and how women were allowed to be apart of the war effort.
Industry
Procter and Gamble launched Tide in 1946
They are one of the biggest world companies and leading producers
Tide was produced for heavy-duty machine cleaning and became a leading brand in America - a position it still has
The post-WW2 consumer boom led to:
Rapid development of new tech for the home designed to make domestic chores easier (vacuum cleaners, fridge freezers, washing machines all became desirable products for 1950s consumerism)
DMB&B used marketing such as print and radio to quickly build audience familiarity with the brand
Both media forms used the housewife character ideology that its customers 'loved' and 'adored' Tide
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Print adverts in the 1950s used more copy than today because there were many 'new' brands entering markets so customers needed more info about them than a modern audience
Tide's advertisers are DMB&B (D'Arcy Masius Benton and Bowles) who handled P&G's accounts in the 1950s
They emphasised consumer confidence in the P&G company name
Media language
Composition uses Z-line and a rough rule of thirds
Bright, primary colours connote the positive associations
Headings, subheadings, and slogans are written in sans-serif font - informal mode of address
Technical info are written in serif font connoting factual and serious info
Comic-strip imagery and informal lexis ('sudsing whizz') appeals to the audience
Hermeneutic code - Suspense is created through the enigma of 'what woman want' emphasised by an exclamation mark
Semantic code is applied to the hearts above the woman's head creating gesture codes of love and relationships - also unprofessional and child drawn like - infantilising women
Hyperbole and superlatives like 'Miracles!' and 'World's cleanest wash!' as well as the tripling are used to establish Tide's superiority
Symbolic code was successful, as Tide became the brand leader by the mid-1950s
Headings and slogans are also seen to be in an informal font; this helps the audience to feel familiarity and disallows the poster to intimidate the audience
Large sum of copy at the side of the poster written in a formal font and is made out like it is factual - helps the selling point of the product as it is seemingly safe and does everything it states it does - provides reassurance to those who are buying the product
Towards the bottom of the poster is the certificate of Good Housekeeping Act which act as an opinion leader, reassuring the audience of the trust-worthiness of the brand and of its superiority.
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Audience
Target audience: Lower-middle class women who were appealed to because of their supposed need for innovative domestic technologies and products as men were targeted for the post-war boom in America's car industry
Tide have become an opinion leader shown by the endorsement from 'Good Housekeeping magazine' which reinforced the assertion that Tide is a market-leading product
Through the adverts use of women they might personally identify (Use and Gratifications) with as they are likely to be newly weds with young children connoted by the clothes on the washing line
Stuart Hall's reception theory:
Preferred reading of the advert's reassurance ('trust' 'truly safe' 'miracle' 'nothing like') is that despite being a new product, Tide can provide solutions to the audiences domestic chores needs
Oppositional reading of a modern feminist would reject the dominant hegemonic representation of the woman as happy and argue it is regressive
Gerbner's cultivation theory:
1950s advertising developed significantly
The Tide advert aims to cultivate ideas of being a brand leader 'nothing else washes to the same standard as Tide'; desirable product for female audience, and its 'miracle suds' are an innovation for the domestic washing market
The repetition of key messages cause audiences to align their ideologies with them