Tide Print Advert- 1950

Designed specifically for heavy duty machinery. Launched in 1946 by procter and gamble and it quickly became the brand leader in America and has maintained this position. D'arcy Masius Benton and Bowles advertising agency handled P&G's accounts throughout the 1950s. Its campaigns for tide referred explicitly to P&G because their market research showed 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 consumers loved and adored tide.


Mode of address- specifically talking to women, uses direct address- 'no wonder you women.' Makes demographic clear immediately. Forces female domestic agenda- 'you need this.' Direct mode of address.

Lexis- use of exclamation mark suggests target audience should be excited by this as well as emphasising the meaning. If you don't buy tide then you're not a woman.

Hand-painted font- connotes friendliness, approachable bur also practical. Men use typewriters and women do art. - informal mode of address. 'you women buy' men don't factor in at all, the women do the shopping and the cleaning.

Ideology
The idea, beliefs and values of the producer.

Anchorage
The way a media product is 'fixed' by elements of media language- can fix meaning.

Composition- words 'clean' and 'tide' are in red and larger, emphasises them and makes them buzzwords.

Colours- Use of patriarchal colours pushes American Dream- women stay at home at work. Red all over advert to emphasise and embed ideology of love.

Lexis- blunt repetitive, suggests women are less educated.

Mise en scene- foaming washing machine acts as symbolic code for good value and effectiveness of product- or is the overflowing suggesting that women can't even clean properly. Machine has ringer which suggests it's very hard work to use- but housewife is still overjoyed because it's tide. Cartoon images associates target audience of women with demographic of children. She's holding up sign- agreeing with messages of advert, also acting helpful to audience making them admire the brand. Buy tide so you can be as helpful as her.

Heading and three subheadings- organising it to stop women reading getting confused?

Composition- 'tide is truly safe' is written at the bottom- as though it's the least of their worries.

Lexis- Colloquial 'yes, tide will get your wash cleaner'- tells audience what they're thinking. Worlds whitest wash- alliteration makes it childlike. 'Actually brightens' -isn't lying but suggests other brands are and aren't as good. Use of language reinforces power of product- after you're persuaded to buy it's continuing to sell it with overuse of persuasive lexis. 'Miracle' religious imagery, hyperbole almost as if it's beyond science. 'Trust' all your washables with us so you don't have to trust the women. 'No wonder more tide goes American homes'-patriotic- if you don't buy tide you're not American, having tide in this country is also a privilege. 'World's whitest wash' - white is superior. reinforced by exclusively white models.

Lexis- 'Sudsing whizz' 'There's nothing like procter and gambles tide' would never be said and is clearly advertising brand. P&G are their saviours.

Composition- The word bubbles are in front of them- as if tide and talking about tide is all women have to offer.

Mise en scene- Both women are holding men's clothes, which proves they're not a gay couple but are also serving men. Dressed up to do the washing which suggests their purpose is to look good and clean- it's not practical. Ideal weather shows the tide is in an ideal world.

Stereotypical representations are used to target lower-middle-class women who are expected to be using these products. 

'Tides got what women want' -double meaning, sexual connotations appealing to men.

The use of white colours in this advert connotates purity, words 'cleanest,' 'whitest' and 'brighten' are in bold.

Composition of the poster follows Z patterns. 

Levi Strauss structuralism- the other the competition of products.

Roland Barthes- hugging the washing detergent, proairetic code. 

Audience-

20-35

New family mum

female

lower middle class

'50s and '60s were the birth of feminism, the oppositional audience would reject this. The negotiated audience would like the product but say it misrepresents them.