launch of tide brand-
Tide officially became available in 1946 becoming an overnight sensation. The innovation allowed women who primarily did laundry in the house in order to help them to get a job outside the house. it also helped families to have more time to do outside leisure activities as the launch of tide help to free up time. Also it became the first heavy duty detergent with its launch in 1946. The launch of tide became for it to become easily recognisable due to its bright orange and blues used in the logo and on the box.
D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles advertising agency-
Are a advertising firm. That the tide ad used in the 1950s in order to produce their advertisements.They handled procter & gambles accounts throughout the 1950s. Its campaigns for tide referenced p&gs because their market research showed that consumers had high levels of confidence in the company. They used print and radio campaigns concurrently in order to quickly build audience familiarity with the brand. both forms used the ‘housewife’ character and ideology that its customers loved and enjoyed.
Use of copy in early advertising–
Copy was used to add long amounts of long body copy in order to promote the products to different parts of society to get them interested in the product they are trying to sell so that they can show of the beliefs for the product as well.
During the 1950s the use of copy started to be pushed to the bottom of the advertising that was used to promote different products. Copy also started to be used as an experimental representation of how the advertising was going to be layout.
This helped to add a better balance to the advertisement helping them to further layout the piece to promote to people around.
In early advertising copy was also used to promote the way that different roles in the household should act and behave for example it started promoting women to become proper house wives again after WWII.
Post WWII consumers boom-
Consumer culture was in its early stages of development where many ‘new’ brands and products started entering the market , potential customers typically needed more information about the product than a modern audience does as they were more used to advertising , marketing and branding than they might need.
though conventions of print based advertising are still recognisable in the tide text. The consumer boom created a large explosions of consumers into the market to buy and use the products that were being promoted to the general public.
Historical contexts-Women in Advertising
Interesting intertexts to consider are WWII adverts for the ‘woman’s land army’ as well as the ‘we can do it’ add for the wart products being developed for the home. Which were there to promote woman to get involved to help out with the war effort as men where sent of to do the traditional male role of defending the country whilst woman had to stay and help in the jobs that needed to be filled so they where used to promote women to work in order to help with the war effort.
1950s while men were targeted for the post war boom where men where promoted to join Americans car industry. whilst women were being primarily recruited and promoted the technologies ands products being developed for the home and for the use of the daily products that they use in the home to prepare it for there husbands.
Stereotypical representation-
The imagery and the use of copy in these adverts are a stereotypical representation of domestic perfection., caring for the family and servitude to the ‘man of the house ‘ became more in line to a motion for the need for speed.
convincing a better standard than women where offered in the pre-war era so that they could be more receptive to so the jobs in the house so that they could ‘prepare’ everything perfectly for when there husband comes home from work and is able to relax.
And not have to deal with the tasks of cooking and cleaning as the advertisements promoted that it was a woman’s job to stay home and do that in the 1950s as people believed that women shouldn’t work so it was promoted and advertised for women to prepare there house for their husband and care for his needs when he gets home.
why would women be used in a more prominent way in advertising at this time?
In the 1950s it was post war so they were trying to promote for women to go back to being housewives.
Such as through the use of the tide add to promote for women to become housewives and want to do the laundry for there husbands and family.
They would also be used to bee seen as a prominent figure to the rest of society about how woman should love the jobs they do around the house in order to help their husbands in any way that they could as the men were seen as the money makers who should come home and have everything done for them so that they wouldn’t have to stress which is why the ‘housewife’ ideology was so widely promoted.
Woman were a big facing figure in the tide add to show that woman loved to clean and do the laundry for their husbands and family as it was one off their main roles in the household.
The fact that the woman is hugging the bottle of tide clearly show how they are trying to promote how woman should love doing the laundry and keeping there husbands clothes clean for when he would next need them in order to clearly promote how great being a ‘housewife’ was and how every woman should love it and doing the laundry is one of the main parts that a woman should love to do as it would be one of her main duties in the house to keep her husband and family clean and pleased.
Dress Code-
The dress code of the adverts main female character includes 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 woman also links to the practicalities of dress code for women developed during this time.
For the tide advert having her hair back connotes she’s focused on her work, though this is perhaps binary opposed to the full make-up that she is wearing showing she is a domestic perfection.
Reception theory-
The images of domesticity (including the two women hanging out the laundry) form part of the ‘shared conceptual road map’ that gives 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.
-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 which she wants ).This according to Hall, is the dominant or hegemonic encoding of the adverts primary message that should be reclused by “you women”.
-The direct mode of address of the images in the top right and bottom left hand corner link to the imperative “Remember” and the use of personal pronouns (“your wash”, “you can buy”).
Tide- Audience
– 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 increase focus by corporations on brands and their unique selling points.
-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 house keeping magazine makes them and opinion leader for target audience, reinforcing the repeated assertion that Tide is the market-leading product.
-The preferred reading(Stuart Hall) of the adverts reasoning lexical fields (“trust”, “truly safe”, “miracle”, “nothing like”) is that , despite being a “new” product , Tide provides solutions to the audiences domestic chores needs.
Demographic-
-Audience demographics is constructed through the adverts use of women whom they might personally identify with.
Gratification theory-
-Their is an active audience who choose the mass media they consume.
5 different reasons for it-
Information & education
Entertainment
Personal identity
Escapism
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 which she wants ).This according to Hall, is the dominant or hegemonic encoding of the adverts primary message that should be reclused by “you women”.
-The direct mode of address of the images in the top right and bottom left hand corner link to the imperative “Remember” and the use of personal pronouns (“your wash”, “you can buy”).
