Tide

Question 1

Who handled P&G accounts?

Answer 1

• DMB & B advertising agency handled P&G accounts throughout the 1950s
• Uniquely, DMB&B used print and radio advertising campaigns concurrently in order to quickly build audience familiarity with the brand

Question 2

Historical context

Answer 2

• Post WW II consumer boom of the 1950s included the rapid development of new technologies for the home
• This included vacuum cleaners, microwaves etc

Question 3

Cultural context

Answer 3

• Print adverts from the 1950s conventionally used more copy than today
• Consumer culture was in its early stages of development
• With so many ‘new’ brands and products entering markets, potential customers typically needed more information about them

Question 4

How media language influences meaning: fonts

Answer 4

• Headings, subheadings and slogans are written in sans-serif font, connoting an informal mode of address
• More technical details written in serif font, connoting the more ‘serious’ or ‘factual’ information that the ‘1,2,3’ bullet point list includes

Question 5

How media language influences meaning

Answer 5

• Z line and a rough rule of thirds applied to its composition
• Bright, primary colours connote the positive associations
• Informal lexis (‘sudsing whizz’)

Question 6

Semiotics, Ronald Barthes

Answer 6

• Suspense is created through the enigma of ‘what women want’ (hermeneutic code) and emphasised by multiple exclamation marks (proairetic code)
• use of hearts and the woman’s gesture codes have connotations of love and relationships
• Hyperbole and superlatives, as well as tripling are used to oppose the connoted superior cleaning powder of Tide to its competitors

Question 7

Structuralism, Claude Levi-Strauss

Answer 7

• ‘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 product don’t offer what Tide does

Question 8

Social and political contexts

Answer 8

• Women were the primary market for the technologies and products being developed for the home
• Stereotypical representations for domestic perfection, caring for the family and servitude to the ‘man of the family’

Question 9

How representations are constructed

Answer 9

• Dress code includes a stereotypical 1950s hairstyle incorporating waves, curls and rolls made fashionable by stars like Veronica Lake and Betty Grable
• Headband/Scarf worn by the woman links to practicalities of dress code for women developed during this time
• Having her hair held back connotes she’s focused on her work, though this maybe binary opposed to the full make-up she’s wearing

Question 10

Theory of representation, Stuart Hall

Answer 10

• Images of domesticity form part of the ‘shared conceptual road map’
• The scenario represented is familiar to the audience as representation of their own lives

Question 11

Theory of identity, David Gauntlett

Answer 11

• Women represented in the advert act is role models for domestic perfection that the audience may want to construct their own sense of identity against

Question 12

Feminist theory, Lisebet Van Zoonen

Answer 12

• The advert contradicts the theory as women’s role socially and politically had changed in the proceeding war years

Question 13

Feminist theory, bell hooks

Answer 13

• Lighter skinned women are considered more desirable and fit into the western ideology of beauty
• The advert only represents ‘modern’ white women
• Linked to Gilroy’s ethnicity and post-colonial theories that media texts reinforce colonial power

Question 14

Social contexts

Answer 14

• Despite women having seen their roles in society change during the war, domestic products of the 1950s were still aimed towards female audiences
• Supposed need for innovative domestic technologies and products
• Increasing popularity of 1950s supermarkets stocking wider ranges of products led to increased focus of unique selling points

Question 15

Industries targeting audiences

Answer 15

• Likely audience demographic is constructed through the advert’s use of women
• These young women are likely to married and with young families (clothing on washing line)
• Endorsement from ‘Good Housekeeping Magazine’ makes them an opinion leader for the audience

Question 16

How audience interprets

Answer 16

• Preferred reading (Stuart Hall) of the adverts reassuring lexical fields (‘trust’, ‘truly safe’, ‘miracle’, ‘nothing like’)
• Tide provides solutions to the audience’s domestic chores needs

Question 17

Reception theory, Stuart Hall

Answer 17

• Indirect mode of address made by the woman in the main image connotes that her relationship with the product is of prime importance
• Dominate/hegemonic encoding of the advert’s primary message that should be received by ‘you women’
• The direct mode of address of the images in top right and bottom left link to the imperative ‘Remember!’ and the use of personal pronouns (‘your wash’, ‘you can buy’)

Question 18

Cultivation theory, George Gerbner

Answer 18

The Tide advert aims to cultivate the ideas that: - this is the brand leader; nothing else washes to the same standard as Tide
- it’s a desirable product for its female audience
-and its “miracle suds” are an innovation for the domestic washing market
The repetition of these key messages causes audiences to increasingly align their own ideologies with them

Question 19

Intertexts

Answer 19

• WWII adverts for the ‘Women’s land army’ for the War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, challenge stereotypical views of women being confined to the domestic sphere

Question 20

Who launched Tide and when?

Answer 20

• Procter & Gamble launched Tide in 1946 and it quickly became the brand leader in America

Question 21

What character did P&G and DMB&B use?

Answer 21

• Both media forms used the ‘housewife’ character and the ideology that its customers ‘loved’ and ‘adored’ Tide