The Tide advert: a detailed textual analysis

• Colour - The slogan (Tide’s got what women want) is in red. Bright red! This particular shade has connotations of love and romance, and is also one of the dominant colours of the Tide box, therefore building brand identity.  Additionally, red is a bold and exciting colour, and forms a binary opposition with the boredom of washing clothes!
• Font -  The font is in block capitals, and is sans serif. This allows the advert to adopt an informal mode of address, suggesting a working class audience 
• Lexis - The word ‘women’ is used frequently, reinforcing the notion that this advert is exclusively targeting women. By conflating women and washing, the advert constructs a highly stereotypical mode of address, and is arguably highly sexist . However, it reflected the dominant ideology of 1950s America. 
• The subheading utilises direct address, with the lexis “you women” not only explicitly targeting women, but also excludes men. This specific and highly targeted address is highly stereotypical and highly sexist. Sexism is a belief that one gender is more important than the other. However, by reflecting the dominant sexist ideology of 50s America, the advert reflects ideologies of women that existed at the time
• The use of red symbolises boldness, love, excitement and even romance. It could suggest a love for the product itself, which is anchored elsewhere.
• The font is bold and vibrant, and sans serif, which suggests a huge target audience, and a relatable message. The letters appear to have been enthueastically painted on, which symbolically suggests the enthusiasm for the product. 
• The Lexis ‘Tide's got what women want’ constructs a superlative mode of address, and suggests that the target females will miss out on important life events by not buying the product
• The repetition of ‘no other’ in the lexis suggests Tide is the very best out of every product. Use of superlative language. The housewife is dressed in the colours of the American flag: red, white and blue. The dots on her blouse are also symbolic of the stars on the American flag, which suggests to the audience that Tide is an essentially American product. By building a patriotic mode of address, the producers utilise a stereotype of the american public, and infer that by buying the product, you will become a better american. The housewife is presented as a stereotypical working class housewife, which is constructed through the anchorage of the washing machine right next to her. The housewife is strikingly attractive. She has a stereotypically attractive hourglass figure, and resembles a model or a film star. She is wearing bright red lipstick, her eyebrows have been sculpted and she is wearing blush. The makeup functions as a proairetic code, and suggests that the housewife is about to go on an exciting date. However, instead she is washing up. By dressing up in such a stereotypically attractive way, the housewife clearly lives up to societal standards regarding women.
• The housewife is dressed in a contemporary and fashionable manner. Her facial expression is ecstatic, and her eyes are wide open, as is her mouth.
• She is weariung significant makeup including bright red lipstick, blusher, shaped eyebrows and eyeliner. Her heavy makeup forms a binary opposition with the boring and mundane nature of her tasks. In fact, jher makeup functions as a prairetic code, suggesting an exciting night on the town
• The housewife has an hourglass figure, with a larger bust and thin waist. This emphasises her stereotypically attractive body, and utilises a sexually attractive woman as an aspirational rolemodel for the target audience
• The MES pf a sign is used to explicitly inform the audience of the benefits of the product. The colour red is used to emphasis the words CLEAN and TIDE, and again associates these words with love and excitement. It also reinforces the dominant ideology that women love to clean
•  The lexis ‘white’ is of particular symbolic importance here, as it is highlighted in red, which has connotations of love, romance, power, and passion. It is repeatred several times over, which epmaphsises it’s superlative qualities. However, considering the context of the time in which the advert was produced, the word ‘white’ here is synonymous with both race and cleanliness, which constructs a fusion between these two concepts. Therefore we can argue that the advert adopts an implicitly racist mode of address. In the 1950s in America, racial segregation was in many states a dominant ideological perspective, and therefore this potentially racist advert would not have been seen as such.
• “Cleanest” is yet another example of a superlative adjective, and suggests the product is better than all of the competitors
• “Only Tide…” again reinforces not only the brand identity, but also excludes all other brands from consideration
• “Tide is truly safe” - connotations of reliability amnd trustworthiness
• “Actually brightens colour” reinforcing the veracity and truthfulnmess of the advert
• “More tide goes in to American homes” language here suggests a patriotic mode of address, and suggests that not buying tide is potentially anti American behaviour 
• The colours of the washing are predominantly red white and blue, the colours of the American flag. This constructs the clear symbolic code of patriotism, and further suggests that hanging up the washing is a truly American act.
• The MES of the high key natural lighting constructs a sunny atmosphere, which suggests that washing is fun and good. This is further anchored through the gesture codes of the housewives facial expressions 
• The costume codes of the housewives suggest a working class lifestyle, which provides a highly relatable mode of address to the working class target audience
• The housewives look very similar, and both share the same hourglass figure. This presents a highly objectifying mode of address, that would potentially appeal to the target audience
• One housewife refers to ‘Procter and Gamble’s Tide’ provides emphasis to the importance of the product, and suggests that this typical housewife loves the product and knows all about it. Brand awareness
• The vibrant colours function as a symbolic code, and suggest confidence and happiness
• The MES of the clear blue sky, further anchored through the image of the sun constructs an idyllic and even perfect world, even though the situation is mundane and straightforward. The two housewives appear to be chatting one another, and their happiness is anchored through their forced smiles. This reinforces the ideological perspective that women should adopt the role of a stay at home wife, and live up to the standards of the American Dream. The notion of America as a nation is also symbolically encoded through the red white and blue colour scheme. This patriotic mode of address will appeal to the average American housewife.
• Many of the clothes are stereotypically masculine, and this MES reinforces ideological perspective that women should ideally clean clothes. However, in the 50s this would simply reflect the dominant ideology.
• The dialogue between the women is stunted and robotic. The dialogue sells a lifestyle where women are intensely knowledgeable about cleaning products. By repeating the name of the company, the audience build an association with the brand and associate it with quality.
• The main image features the housewife literally embracing the box of detergent, gazing into the distance. The MES of her red lipstick and the gesture code of her pursed lips function as a proairetic code, suggesting that wishes to both kiss the box and engage in romantic relationships with it. This notion of romance is symbolically reinforced through the MES of the graphic of the love hearts shooting out of the housewife’s head. The style of the love hearts is informal and even childish, and suggests that the housewife is loyal to this particular brand of detergent. However, the childish nature of the love hearts also polysemic ally connotes that the housewife herself is childish and immature. The image resembles a vivid daydream or even a reference to a romantic drama. It also resembles classic American war propaganda posters such as the famous ‘we want you’ poster, that encouraged American women to join the workforce to replace conscripted men. Therefore the Tide advert is making a wild suggestion that buying and using Tide is somehow helping American values
• The recurring colour red, uses time and time again throughout the advert emphasises the audience who the product will love the product as much as the housewife. However, instead of merely being interested in the detergent, the codes of this image construct a narrative of infatuation and romantic love. Romantic love is encoded through the facial expression of the model, and functions as a proaietic code, suggesting she is going to kiss the box. This is further anchored through the intense MES of the HWs red lips, pursed in such a way that she appears to be kissing the box. Additionally the MES of the cartoonish love hearts has connotations of childishness and innocence. The assumption here is that the audience is naive and immature, and responds to the world in a simple and straightforward way. A binary opposition is therefore formed between the mundane box and the intense romantic love. Furthermore, the image resembles the final scene of a romantic film, which will resonate with the female target audience
  
  

What impact does this representation have on women?

The representation of women in the Tide advert not only constructs a reality where women love to clean and love the product Tide, it also actively romanticises the act of cleaning. Ultimately, this representation reinforces the ideology that women love cleaning and that it is their sole purpose. Potentially the advert may encourage women to clean more, and reinforces the expectation that in order to be a ‘good housewife’, women must conform to certain stereotypes.