26/9/23- Tide advert

                                                        

Tide advert

                                                   

• Advert is old fashioned 
• Highly conventional of the 1950s
• Extensive use of the colour red may connote love and excitement and potentially eye-catching.
• A pushy address. A lot of text, presenting a lot or reasons to buy the product.
• An extremely specific target audience
• A potentially sexist mode of address

Background

Designed specifically for heavy-duty, machine cleaning, Procter & Gamble launched Tide in 1946 and it quickly became the brand leader in America, a position it maintains today.

The D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B)advertising agency handled P&G’s accounts throughout the 1950s. Its campaigns for Tide referred explicitly to P&G because their market research showed that consumers had high levels of confidence in the company.

Uniquely, DMB&B used print and radio advertising campaigns concurrently in order to quickly build audience familiarity with the brand. Both media forms used the “housewife” character and the ideology that its customers “loved” and “adored” Tide.

Stereotype- a fixed general image or set of characteristics that a lot of people believe represent a particular type of person or thing. Widely held belief about a certain group of people eg. girls like pink, boys like blue.

Brand identity- An image of a brand which distinguishes them from other competitors.

Representation- How a group of people, an issue or and event is shown again by the producer.

Semiotic analysis- Tide

• The sans-serif font on the advert could suggest that the text is very simple and straight to the point which could connote how the target audience is working class women like the woman in the advert. This is reinforced through the mise-en-scene of the housewife completing her own washing rather than a maid  
• The expression of the model connotes both happiness and passion, which is reinforced through the mise-en-scene of the colour red which dominates this advert. Red has symbolic connotations of love, passion and sex which is repeated through out the advert. Therefore an exciting and dramatic lifestyle is sold to the target audience. The advert resembles the poster for a romance film and therefore targets a predominantly female audience, which helps to maximise success.
• The graphics of the love hearts emerging from the housewife's head demonstrates a genuine love and connection for the product and re-emphasises the romantic themes of the advert. 
• The Z line rule is used extensively in this advert, to clearly present the advert to the target audience .
• The main heading, 'Tide's got what women want' uses a pushy mode of address, and not only targets a stereotype of a housewife, but also represents women as stereotypical. Between the 1950s and now many ideological changes have happened, and such a viewpoint is now seen as sexist. However in 1950s America this would have been seen as the dominant ideology.
• The colours red white and blue are perhaps symbolic of the American flag. It constructs a patriotic ideology, and appeals to a patriotic audience and infers that it is the best in the country.
•   The font used looks like it has been painted on with a brush, which may suggest a friendly and informal mode of address. However it could also connote messiness ( therefore needs to be cleaned) a sudden thought, a homemade aesthetic, nd a sense of permanence. This highly polysemic approach leaves the interpretation to the audience, while at the same time leaving it clear that we (women) should buy the product.