Tide 1955 Advertisement Analysis

Tide (1955) Advertisement Analysis

• Context: Produced by Procter & Gamble in 1955, reflecting post-WWII economic prosperity and consumer boom.
• Social Context: Empowered, independent women were seen as a threat to traditional masculine economic & social norms. The advertisement likely reinforced existing societal expectations of women.
• Technological Advancements: Rapid development of new technologies, particularly white goods like washing machines, made domestic chores easier, leading to product development like Tide.
• Consumer Culture: Consumers were actively engaged, requiring adverts to use more information to attract and differentiate a brand from similar brands.

Media Language Analysis

• Visual Style: Z-line composition and rule of thirds followed, along with vivid, primary colours.
• Communication Style: Colloquial language, sans serif font, comic-book style, slang (e.g., "suds”).
• Ideological Messages: Hegemonic code using "you women," implying collective identity and an assumption about purchasing habits. Frequent use of superlatives, hyperbole, and tripling to highlight product benefits.
• Brand Authority: Serif font and technical details suggest a serious, expert brand. Inclusion of opinion leader endorsements (Good Housekeeping).
• Emotional Appeal: Semantic and semiotic codes emphasizing love, adoration, and domesticity. Tide acts as a symbol for the ideal domestic lifestyle.

Representation Analysis

• Feminine Representations: Women primarily portrayed as subservient, domestic, and adhering to stereotypical feminine ideals.
• Idealized Beauty Standards: Eurocentric notions of beauty, high expectations, and emphasis on caring, affection, and beauty.
• Patriotism: American colours and imagery used, suggesting ideal All-American housewife figure.
• Potential Sexualization: Some elements, e.g., lipstick and figure representation, may carry suggestive sexual connotations.

Media Language Theories Applied

• Barthes' Semiotic Codes: Love hearts, comic strip style, and housewife attire used to create idyllic imagery around Tide.
• Semantic Codes: Hyperbole and superlatives used to create an unquestionable consumer choice.
• Proairetic Codes: Exclamatory statements creating emphasis.
• Enigma Codes: Alliterative slogans with repeated words and phrases ("what women want").
• Binary Oppositions (Levi Strauss): Tide positioned against competing brands.
• Propp's Characters: Housewife character acts as a heroine, obtaining the desired product (Tide).
• Iconography: Tide acts as an indexical signifier for domesticity.

Representation Theories Applied

• Gauntlett's Identity Theory: Identifies potential conflict between societal expectations of women and individual aspirations, as expressed through representations of ideal housewives or their critique.
• Hall's Representation Theory: Analyzes the alignment between the representation of domesticity and the reality of the primary target audience. It suggests a direct link to the lives for the audience.
• hooks' Theory: Explores the potential for lighter skinned women conforming better into Western beauty constructs. Suggests advertisement reflects these concepts.
• Butler's Gender Performativity Theory: Analyzes how the advert conforms to patriarchal views of women in post-war societal shifts, where women were increasingly restricted to the domestic sphere.

Audience Theory

• Hall's Preferred Reading: The advert encourages audiences to aspire to the housewife persona and buy Tide to achieve that lifestyle.
• Oppositional Readings: Audiences might critique the regressive representations of women and reject the stereotypical domesticity.
• Gerbner's Cultivation Theory: Ad's imagery, cultivates a preference for Tide, reinforcing regressive societal expectations of women.