Tide - Print Advert Flashcards
Product Context
Designed specifically for heavy-duty,
machine cleaning, Procter & Gamble
launched Tide in 1946 and it quickly became
the brand leader in America, a position it
maintains today.
Uniquely, DMB&B used P 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.
Historical Context
The post-WWII consumer boom of the 1950s
included the rapid development of new technologies
for the home, designed to make domestic chores
easier. Vacuum cleaners, fridge-freezers, microwave
ovens and washing machines all become desirable
products for the 1950s consumer. Products linked to
these new technologies also developed during this
time, for example, washing powder. Cultural context:
Print adverts from the 1950s conventionally
used more copy than we’re used to seeing today.
Consumer culture was in its early stages of
development and, with so many ‘new’ brands
and products entering markets, potential
customers typically needed more information
about them than a modern audience, more used
to advertising, marketing and branding, might
need. Conventions of print-based advertising
are still recognisable in this text however, as
detailed below.
Codes and Conventions
Z-line and a rough rule of thirds can be
applied to its composition.
Bright, primary colours connote the
positive associations the producers want the
audience to make with the product.
Headings, subheadings and slogans are
written in sans-serif font, connoting an
informal mode of address.
Media Language
This is reinforced with 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
are written in a serif font, connoting the
more ‘serious’ or ‘factual’ information that
the ‘1, 2, 3’ bullet point list includes.
Semiotics - Roland Barthes
Suspense is created through the enigma of
“what women want” (Barthes’
Hermeneutic Code) and emphasised by the
tensionbuilding use of multiple exclamation
marks (Barthes’ Proairetic Code).
Barthes’ Semantic Code could be applied
to the use of hearts above the main image.
The hearts and the woman’s gesture codes
have connotations of love and
relationships. It’s connoted that this is
“what women want” (in addition to clean
laundry!).
Hyperbole and superlatives (“Miracle”,
“World’s cleanest wash!”, “World’s whitest
wash!”) as well as tripling (“No other…”)
are used to oppose the connoted superior
cleaning power of Tide to its competitors.
This Symbolic Code (Barthes) was clearly
successful as Procter and Gamble’s
competitor products were rapidly overtaken,
making Tide the brand leader by the mid-1950’s.
Structuralism – Claude Lévi-Strauss
The latter point above links to Lévi-Strauss’
theory, whereby texts are constructed through
the use of binary oppositions, and meaning is made by audiences understanding these
conflicts.
In this text, “Tide gets clothes cleaner than any
other washday product you can buy!” and
“There’s nothing like Procter and Gamble’s
Tide”, reinforces the conceptual binary
opposition between Tide and its commercial
rivals.
It’s also “unlike soap,” gets laundry “whiter…
than any soap or washing product known” and is
“truly safe” – all of which connotes that other,
inferior products do not offer what Tide does.
Representation
The dress code of the advert’s main female
character include a stereotypical 1950s hairstyle
incorporating waves, curls and rolls made
fashionable by contemporary film stars such as Veronica Lake, Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth.
The fashion for women having shorter hair had a
practical catalyst as long hair was hazardous for
women working with machinery on farms or in
factories during the war.
The headband or scarf worn by the woman also
links to the practicalities of dress code for
women developed during this time. For this
advert, having her hair held back connotes she’s
focused on her work, though this is perhaps
binary opposed to the full make-up that she’s
wearing.
Stuart Hall- Theory of Representation
The images of domesticity (including the two women
hanging out the laundry) form part of the
“shared conceptual road map” that give meaning
to the “world” of the advert. Despite its comic
strip visual construction, the scenario
represented is familiar to the audience as a
representation of their own lives
David Gauntlett - Theory of Identity
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.
Liesbet Van Zoonen - Feminist Theory
While their role socially and politically may have
changed in the proceeding war years, the advert
perhaps contradicts Van Zoonen’s theory that
the media contribute to social change by
representing women in non-traditional roles and
using non-sexist language.
bell hooks - Feminist Theort
bell hooks’ feminist theory argues that lighter
skinned women are considered more desirable
and fit better into the western ideology of
beauty, and the advert could be seen to reinforce
this by only representing “modern”, white
women. This could also be linked to Gilroy’s
ethnicity and post-colonial theories that media
texts reinforce colonial power. Contextually, this
power has perhaps been challenged at this
moment in American history by the events of
WWII.
Stuart Hall - Reception Theory
The indirect mode of address made by the
woman in the main image connotes that her
relationship with the product is of prime
importance (Tide has what she wants). This,
according to Hall, is the dominant or hegemonic
encoding of the advert’s primary message that
should be received by “you women.”
The direct mode of address of the images in the
top right and bottom lefthand corner link to the
imperative “Remember!” and the use of
personal pronouns (“your wash”, “you can
buy”).
