Revision - Tide Advertisement Representation

Mrs Fisher Tide Analysis

Audience

• target audience for Tide advert were white American and British women
• aged 18-40
• difficult to tell age as the advert is illustrated
• makes them seem 'timeless' and harder to tell the age range, helping appeal to a wider audience
• married with children
• stay-at-home mum/wife
• aspired to have a perfect lifestyle and be the perfect wife
• targeted at white women due to 1950s having limited immigration and diversity
• majority of advertisements targeted white people
• mentions America in the advert so targets mainly American women, but any women within post-war allied countries
• use of beautifully illustrated women would appeal to the women aspiring to a better life
• repetition of 'women' makes it clear who the producers are targeting
• use of female specific language targets to a female audience
• multiple use of direct mode of address (e.g 'you') engages the audience and speaks directly to them
• use of the recognisable intertextual war references would engage post war audiences
• war propaganda similarities
• costumes and hairstyles in the advert were popular and fashionable with audiences at the time
• women in the washing line in the cartoon strip help us to identify the marital status and family situation of the target audience
• mens shirts and children's clothes on the washing line suggest the target audience is women who are married in a heterosexual relationship with children
• this was common in the 1950s with that age group
• washing machine is useful for targeting the target audience due to sudden boom of consumerism
• rationing has ended, people had more disposable income, consumerism went through the roof
• people started buying washing machines with this disposable income
• use of very new/fashionable item (washing machine) would have engaged audiences who wanted to become trendy
• endorsement by popular brands like Good Housekeeping would have appealed to audiences wanting quantity and reliability
• Good Housekeeping was very well respected by women of this demographic, so the seal of approval attracts the customers who idolise Good Housekeeping
• use of hyperbole and binary opposites (Tide vs all other washday products) helps audiences to see Tide as magical and great
• 'miracle', 'trust', 'like no other' makes Tide seem brilliant and different to all the other products on the market
• encourages 'preferred reading' as seen in Stuart Hall's Reception Theory
• some women with feminist ideas may have reacted in a negotiated or oppositional reading to the advert
• seen as sexist and old-fashioned
• audiences may 'read' the product in different ways depending on their gender, class, historical time period, marital status, sexuality, etc
• the effects of the representations in this advert may have 'cultivated' over time (Gerbner)
• repeated use of media language throughout the advert might be designed to cultivate ideas about Tide
• 'cleanest wash', 'whitest wash'
• giving women of the 50s what they "want"
• persuasiveness/effects of the Tide advert may have cultivated over time if an audience had seen lots of other Tide adverts
• adverts may have been used for entertainment (Uses and Gratifications Theory), being informative
• entertained by the bright colours, bold images, fun wording
• advert contained useful information about Tide
• some women may have identified with the people/lifestyles in the advert - Personal Identity (Uses and Gratifications Theory)
• some women may have enjoyed the escapist aspirational nature of the advert, dreaming of their perfect home life and ideal life for when they have more money in the future