TIDE Flashcards
Who launched TIDE? What year was this?
Procter and Gamble.
1946.
What company handled Procter and Gamble’s accounts?
DMB&B advertising agency.
What was unique about DMB&B’s advertising campaigns?
Used print and radio
advertising campaigns concurrently in
order to quickly build audience familiarity
with the brand.
Both media forms used the
“housewife” character and the ideology that
its customers “loved” and “adored” Tide.
What did the post-WWII consumer boom of the 1950s include?
The rapid development of new technologies
for the home, designed to make domestic chores
easier.
Vacuum cleaners and washing machines become desirable products for the 1950s consumer.
Print adverts from the 1950s conventionally
used more copy than we’re used to seeing today. Why was this?
Consumer culture was in its early stages of development.
With many “new” brands and products entering markets, potential customers
typically needed more information about them than a modern audience, more used to advertising and marketing, might need.
What is copy in marketing?
Written information that aims to inform, persuade or entertain an audience.
What two key composition features can be applied to the poster?
Z-line.
Rough rule of thirds.
What do the bright, primary colours connote?
The positive associations the producers want
the audience to make with the product.
What type of font is used in the headings, subheadings and slogans?
Sans-serif.
What does the sans-serif font connote?
An informal mode of address.
The informal mode of address can be seen in the choice of font. Where else can it be seen?
The comic strip style
image in the bottom right-hand corner with
two women “talking” about the product
using informal lexis (“sudsing whizz”).
The more “technical” details of the product is written in a serif font. What does this connote?
The more “serious” or “factual” information that
the “1, 2, 3” bullet point list includes.
How is suspense created in the poster? How this emphasised?
The enigma of “what women want”.
Emphasised by the tension-building use of multiple exclamation marks.
What in the poster could Bathes’ semantic code be applied to?
The use of hearts above the main image.
What does the posters use of hearts connote?
The hearts and the woman’s gesture codes
have connotations of love and relationships.
It’s connoted that this is “what women
want”.
What is the hyperbole, superlatives and tripling used for?
To oppose the connoted superior cleaning power of Tide to its competitors.
Which quotations in the poster reinforces the
conceptual binary opposition between
Tide and its commercial rivals?
“Tide gets clothes cleaner
than any other washday product you can
buy!”
“There’s nothing like Procter
and Gamble’s Tide.”
What is stereotypical
representations of domestic perfection and caring for the family
house linked to in 1950s advertising?
A modern need for
speed, convenience and a better standard of living
than the women experienced in the pre-war era.
What is the dress code of the advert’s main female character?
A stereotypical 1950s
hairstyle incorporating waves, curls and rolls.
This was made fashionable by contemporary film stars
such as Veronica Lake
The headband or scarf worn by the woman also
links to the practicalities of the dress code.
Having her hair held back connotes she’s
focused on her work.
Having her hair held back connotes that the women in the advert is focused on her work. What could this be binary opposed to?
The full make-up that she’s
wearing.
How does Stuart Hall’s theory of representation apply to the poster?
Despite its comic strip visual construction,
the scenario represented is familiar to the
audience as a representation of their own lives.
How can David Gauntlett’s theory of identity be applied to the poster?
Women represented in the advert act as role models of domestic perfection that the audience may want
to construct their own sense of identity against.
How can Bell hooks’ feminist theory be applied to the poster?
Argues that lighter
skinned women are considered more desirable
and fit better into the western ideology of beauty.
The advert could be seen to reinforce this by
only representing “modern”, white women.
Who was the likely target audience of the poster?
Increasingly affluent
lower-middle class women.
How does the poster target its audience?
The likely audience demographic is constructed through the advert’s use of women with whom they might personally identify.
The endorsement from Good Housekeeping
Magazine makes them an Opinion Leader for
the target audience, reinforcing the repeated
assertion that Tide is the market-leading product.
What’s the indirect mode of address in the poster? How can Stuart Hall’s reception theory be applied to this?
The indirect mode of address made by the
woman in the main image connotes that her relationship with the product is of prime
importance.
This, according to Hall, is the dominant or hegemonic encoding of the advert’s primary message
that should be received by “you women.”
What’s the direct mode of address in the poster?
The direct mode of address of the images in the top right and bottom left-hand corner link to the imperative “Remember!” and the use of personal
pronouns (“your wash”, “you can buy”).
