Tide

Context: Basic Info

• Year: 1950s

• Owners: Procter & Gamble (P&G)

• Advertiser: D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B)

Context: 1950s

• During WW2, factories were run predominantly by women as most men were fighting in the war. They primarily produced weaponry and other war supplies, but when the surviving men returned, women were replaced, and the production of white goods (e.g. washing machines) took over. As a result, women were forced back into the home, leading to the popularisation of the ‘housewife’.

• Second-wave feminism began in the early 1960s and focused on addressing gender roles when it came to families.

• Consumerism increased by 115% in the 1950s, leading to products like Tide being launched with iconic and recognisable marketing strategies.

Media Language & Representation: The Ideal Woman

• The housewife character in the dominant image is cradling the box of Tide as if it were a baby, and the hearts above her head are a symbolic code (Barthes) often associated with love, and their light pink shade is a semantic code (Barthes), connoting maternal love. These elements work in combination to present housewives as caring and motherly.

• Ideas of homemaking are communicated via the housewife character appearing multiple times on the poster, completing the stages of Tide (buying Tide, then washing and drying clothes), thus acting as an action code (Barthes).

• Women were seen as commodities, explaining why the housewife character is costumed in a fashionable 1950s polka dot dress with her hair tied up in a bandana and her makeup done whilst doing mundane tasks like washing.

• This representation of the ‘ideal woman’ is undoubtedly idyllic as it shows a traditional hyperfeminine image (Hall) of what men expected of women, showing the belief that they are simply love objects for men.

Media Language & Representation: Building Trust

• The dominant image is a MCU, positioning the audience in close relation to the subject (the housewife character). This close relationship is established so that the audience trusts her.

• The housewife character is facing the right, presenting her as a protagonist, once again, building trust. She is looking up to the product, which she is cradling, giving it a sense of dominance over her.

• The Tide box is a saturated red/orange colour that is a semantic code (Barthes) as it has connotations of urgency, implying that one must buy Tide upon seeing this advert. This contrasts with the blue letters spelling out Tide, creating focus which is important when marketing a product so potential customers remember what it looks like. Furthermore, the yellow rings around the title draw attention to the word Tide.