Tide Print Advert Context

Question 1

Product context

Answer 1

• designed specifically for heavy-duty, machine cleaning, procter and gamble launched Tire in 1946 and it quickly became the brand leader in America, a position it maintains today
• the D’Arcys masusys benton and Bowles advertising agency handled P&Gs accounts throughout the 1950s. It campaigns for Tide referrer explicityly to P&G because their market research showed that consumers had high levels of confidence in the company
• uniquely, DMB&B 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.
• this “housewife” character was used through multiple tide advertising campaigns

Question 2

Political and social context

Answer 2

• consider the inter test of WW11 adverts for the women’s land army and Howard millers ‘rosie the riveter - we can do it!’ Advert for the war production co-ordinating committee
• the representations in these adverts challenge stereotypical views of women being confined to the domestic sphere, something society needed at the time as traditional male roles were vacated as men left to fight
• in the 1959s, while men were being targeted for the post-war book in America’s car industry, women were the primary market for the technologies and products being developed for the home
• in advertising for these types of texts, stereotypical representations of domestic representations of domestic perfection, caring for the family and servitude to the man of the house became linked to a more modern need for speed, convenience and a better standard of living than the women experienced in there war era

Question 3

Historical context

Answer 3

• the post-ww11 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

Question 4

Cultural context

Answer 4

• print adverts from the 1950s conventional used more copy than were used to seeing today
• consumer culture was in its early stages of development and, with so many new brands and products entering markets, potential comsumers typically needed more information about them than a modern audience, more used to advertising, marketing and branding, might need
• conventions or print-based advertising are still recognisable in this text