Tide Flashcards
Industry Context
1950s: women were the target audience for domestic products + technology
Stereotypical representations in advertising
- domestic perfection
- caring for the family + serving the ‘man of the house’ (breadwinner)
- links to modern needs for speed and better standard of living
1950s: print ads were common
- consumer culture in early stages of development
- new brands entering market= more info needed about them
- modern audience are used to advertising , marketing and branding
Dress Codes
Stereotypical housewife clothing +hairstyle with waves
- short hair- 1940-50s style; wartime where women were working in factories
- influenced by contemporary film stars (Veronica Lake)
Headband and scarf
-worn for practicality
- connotations to work
-binary opposition (Levi-Strauss): full face of make up; male gaze?
Stuart Hall- Representation
‘Shared conceptual roadmap’
-women as domesticated housewives
Comic strip maybe relatable/ familiar to audiences
-representation of their own life
David Gauntlett- Identity
Women in advert act as role models
-domestic perfection
-audience may want to transform their identity into this
Z line + rule of thirds
Structured so audiences can quickly analyse the advert
- most important info at top (assuming audience reads from left to right
Primary Colours
Connotes positive associations with the product- bright colours
-sense of brand identity (product colours)
Red white and blue
-patriotic
-the ‘American dream’
-coincides with intertextual art style similar to war time “we can do it’- Rosie the Riveter poster
Headings and Subheadings and slogans
Sans-serif font
-more informal mode of address
-rounded
Comic strip using informal lexis
- ‘sudsing whizz’
- humorous elements; informalisation
Serif font
Connotes more factual info about the product
-more ‘technical’ details about the product’
Sharper, clean edges
-more serous + formal
In an numeric list (1,2,3)
Roland Barthes- Semiotics
Enigma code
- ‘what women want’
- ambiguous- never actually explains what it is that they want
- creates suspense + tension
- emphasised with exclamation marks
Semantic code
- hearts + woman’s gesture codes connote he love for tide ans domestic chores
- ‘what women want’
- domestic perfection
- hyperbole- ‘world’s cleanest’
- tripling- ‘ no other’ ; Tide has no competitors
Symbolic code
- Tide taking over leading products
- brand leader in the 50’s
- guaranteed by Good Housekeeping
Target Audience
Post WW2
- women redomesticated
- home products targeted at women
Lower middle class women
- economy boom: more money + availability of goods
- need for innovative domestic technologies + products
- eg. Washing machines and powder
- brands forming USPs
Audience demographic
Advert includes women
- young women
- likely newly married + had young families
- male and children’s washing on washing line
Today marriage is a consideration later on in life
- women may prioritise their career now
Good Houskeeping magazine endorsement
Opinion leader for target audience
Builds trust
- ensuring Tide is a good product
Lexical Fields
‘Trust’, ‘truly safe’, ‘miracle’, ‘nothing alike’
-reassuring lexis
-Tide provides solutions to domestic chores
Stuart Hall- Reception
Indirect mode of address
- connotations of women’s relationship with Tide is the main importance
- evident in main image- hugging the product
-dominant positioning- ‘you women’
Direct mode of address
- imperatives- ‘remember’
- personal pronouns- ‘you’/ ‘your’ (Fairclough’s synthetic personalisation??)
George Gerbner- Cultivation
Audiences influenced by media texts
Tide is the brand leader
- no other product washes to its standard
- makes it desirable
Repetition of key messages causes audiences to align them with their own ideologies
