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.
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-1950s.
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.
Social and political contexts:
Interesting intertexts to consider would be WWII
adverts for the ‘Women’s Land Army’ and J. Howard
Miller’s ‘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 1950s, while men were being targeted for the
post-war boom 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 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 the pre-war era.
dress code
- 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’s 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’s 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’s 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 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.
Social context:
Despite women having seen their roles in society
change during the War (where they were needed in
medical, military support and other roles outside
of the home) domestic products of the 1950s
continued to be aimed at female audiences.
The likely target audience of increasingly affluent
lower-middle class women were, at this point in the
1950s, being appealed to because of their supposed
need for innovative domestic technologies and
products. The increasing popularity during the
1950s of supermarkets stocking a wider range of
products led to an increased focus by corporations
on brands and their unique selling points.
Consider how industries target audiences, and
how audiences interpret and use the media:
- The likely audience demographic is constructed
through the advert’s use of women with whom
they might personally identify (Uses and
Gratifications Theory). These young women
are likely to be newly married and with young
families (clothing belonging to men and children
on the washing line creates these connotations). - 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. - The preferred reading (Stuart Hall) of the
advert’s reassuring lexical fields (“trust”, “truly
safe”, “miracle”, “nothing like”) is that, despite
being a “new” product, Tide provides solutions
to the audience’s domestic chores needs.
Reception theory – Stuart Hall
- 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”).
Cultivation theory – George Gerbner
- Advertising developed significantly during
the 1950s and this theory, developed by
Gerbner in the early 1970s, explains some
of the ways in which audiences may be
influenced by media texts such as adverts. - 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. Gerbner’s theory would argue that
the repetition of these key messages causes
audiences to increasingly align their own
ideologies with them (in this case positively,
creating a product that “goes into more American
homes than any other washday product”).
