A detailed deconstruction of the Tide advertisment

 How and why are representations constructed in the Tide advert - PEA paragraph examples

The advertisement constructs a stereotypical representation of a white working class American housewife. This representation is constructed through the MES of the gesture of the housewife hugging the box of soap. This message is anchored through the MES of the cartoon-like hearts, and finally through the lexis, Tide’s Got What Women Want, a hyperbolic mode of address which emphasises the housewife’s relationship with the product. This all constructs the straightforward ideology that women love to clean and to wash clothes. By reinforcing an ideology that women clean, a reality is constructed where the female audience will agree with the hegemonic message of the advert, and more importantly will buy the product to buy into this lifestyle. 

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In the Tide Advert, a representation of a stereotypical, American, white working class housewife is constructed. This representation is constructed through the gesture code of the housewife hugging the box, confirming its importance. Furthermore, the anchorage of the colour red symbolically represents love and passion, which in combination with the cartoonish MES of the love hearts all construct a representation of an all American stereotypical housewife. This combination of media language constructs an ideology that white American women love to clean. This deeply sexist ideology would have been tolerated in 1950s America, as it would have been a dominant hegemonic value. Ultimately this advert would strengthen the stereotypical representation of women in 1950s America. 

A detailed deconstruction

The title

• The font is bold, which connotes both importance and excitement. 
• The colour red here connotes love, passion and excitement
• The letters appear to be painted on, which has connotations of being carefree, constructing a reality where women are carefree and less serious 
• The typeface follows a wave pattern, reinforcing the themes and symbolism of water
• The letters are sans serif, which has connotations of the working class
• The exclamation mark, in combination with the bold typography constructs a stereotypical representation of women. It represents washing as the most important aspect of a woman’s life. 
• The lexis suggests a universal love for cleaning. The binary opposite of want is do not want, with the suggestion that women that do not want to clean are wrong.
• The painted font suggests a quick process and a lack of effort. It represents women as a group who do not make effort. The plain san serif typography here suggests a plain and straightforward life
• The text takes the shape of a wave, suggesting silliness and a lack of effort, again reinforcing stereotypes about women

The insert image (housewife holding the sign)

• The use of red typeface has symbolic connotations of importance 
• The housewife’s expression is exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness, constructing a hyperbolic mode of address
• The housewife holds up a sign, connotative of her passion for this product
• The use of hyperbolic lexis here represents the product as beyond the quality of its competitors
• The MES of the woman holding the sign is connotative of the woman advertising the product.  This reinforces the ideology that the white working class American housewife believes 
• The MES of the housewife’s facial expression is also ridiculously hyperbolic, constructing a representation of a stereotypical stay at home housewife 
• Finally, the MES of the overflowing washing machine is connotative of the power of the washing, again reinforcing the power of cleaning in the lives of contemporary women

The comic insert

• The facial expressions are exaggerated, with the MES of the exaggerated smiles of the women in the garden constructing a symbolic code that women enjoy washing and hanging clothes
• The setting constructs an everyday activity. Yet the representation is exaggerated and clearly fake. The MES of the speech bubbles are iconographic of comic books, a medium that tends to target younger people. This childish mode of address assumes the target is less educated, reinforcing a stereotype about women. 
• The lexis ‘there’s like proctor and gamble’s tide’ is connotative of advertising, and constructs a world where women only talk about the quality of cleaning products.
• The sans serif font of the discussion reinforces the overall style of this advertisement. Sans serif here connotes bold and eye catching, constructing a reality where the less educated female audience will be able to engage with this advert
• The binary opposition formed by the colours, with the multicoloured clothes compared to the stark white background constructs a reality where ‘washday’ is an exciting day
• The cartoon speech bubble is connotative of a much younger audience. Yet the target audience is much older than the audience for comics. Not only does the MES of the speech bubbles connote childishness, it also suggests that words are literally being put in to the mouths of the women by the producer.
• The lexis ‘there’s nothing like proctor and gamble’s tide is completely unrealistic and forced, suggesting this advert is trying every trick to convince and even manipulate the target audience to buy it. It subjectifies the audiences 

The ‘conclusion’

• The facial expression of the housewife here borders on mania. Her expression is so exaggerated it is ridiculous once again reinforcing the ideology that women adore tide. This condescending mode of address assumes a low level of education. The tone is annoying, insistent and even manipulative. 
• The endorsement by Good Housekeeping magazine reinforces the quality of the product, and is an example of brand synergy 
• The dominant ideological perspective on women in America in the 1950s is that they should cook, clean, look after the house and have/rear children.
• “Cleaner than anything you can buy” - highly manipulative mode of address that infers that not agreeing with the dominant ideology would be stupid. 
• “The best” - exaggerated language
• The housewife appears 4 times in the advert, reinforcing the definitive target audience for the advert. It also reinforces hegemonic standards of being a woman
• There is an endorsement by Good Housekeeping magazine, reinforcing the values and quality of the product. 
• Finally, the graphic encouraging the target audience to ‘remember’ reinforces the idea that this audience is less educated

A semiotic and structuralist initial analysis of the Tide advert

Let's all get used to looking at this image, because you will need to know it inside out!

•  The heading ‘Tide’s got what women want’ stereotypically places the female target audience in the position of traditional values; that women should complete household chores. 
• While the advert features 4 separate images of women, there is no explicit representation of men. The only symbolic signification that men exist is the MES of the men’s clothes, which in the context of the time this advert was produced (the 1950’s) could be assumed to belong to a man
• The text at the side of the picture occupies less space than the main image. However there is a lot of text on this advert, a convention of 50s advertising. The amount of text functions as a proairetic code, suggesting the complex formula of this powder will clean clothes better 
• The three points on the right of the image is a good example of the rule of three: three memorable points to help the target audience understand the value of this product
• The red font and the MES of the red packaging has symbolic connotations the housewife’s passion for the product. Here passion functions polysemically: it means both enthusiasm, but also a sexual lust.
• This lust is encoded through the signification of red lipstick, which has connotations of sexual passion. This use of red here links to the headline, also in red ‘Tide’s got what women want’. This is also polysemic, suggesting that women not only want to clean clothes, but are also passionately and even lustfully involved in the cleaning process. This is reinforced through the ‘kissy hearts’ jumping out of the housewife’s head, iconography of cartoons, and the red lipstick, stereotypically symbolic of passion.
• The woman is a housewife. She is situated in a home environment, reinforced through the MES of the washing line, the washing machine, and she is wearing clothes which stereotypically and symbolically suggest she is a housewife. 
• The most important words are highlighted in red, symbolically suggesting that these are most useful (and most passionate!). For example, ‘clean’ is highlighted, suggesting the important cleaning power of the product. 
• The language used is hyperbolic, including the MES of the sheer amount of bubbles emerging from the washing machine, proiretically suggesting the extreme cleaning power of Tide.
• The advert was made in the 1950s in America. Immediately post world war two, the patriotic symbolism of the red white and blue colours (a classic example of the rule of three) will appeal to Americans in a post-war climate
• The heading also functions as a slogan: Tide’s Got What Women Want, symbolically suggesting that the women reading this advert will benefit from owning and using this product. 
• The product itself is washing powder. However, the advert constructs washing powder as exciting. The use of block capitals addresses the audience in an exciting and over the top way. Furthermore, the hyperbolic claims of the subheadings (“world’s cleanest wash”) makes ridiculous claims about the quality of the product. 
• The colour red, used throughout the advert, is symbolic of love, and even passion. This is anchored through the red of the box, symbolically encoding excitement and passion. Further, the gesture of the woman hugging the box is reinforced through the MES of the model’s bright red lipstick, functioning as a proairetic code, suggesting she’s going to kiss the box. Finally the cartoonish lovehearts blasting out the woman’s head confirm her passionate love.
• This advert carefully constructs society's expectations of women in America in the 1950s. The sole expectation for women in the world of this advertisement is laundry, washing and hanging. However the housewife appears to be excited about the hard work that she is forced to accomplish. 
• The advert presents a misogynistic ideology: the hatred of women. The only function of women in this advert is to clean clothes: a clear example of objectification, with  the housewife character never given a name.
• The model is highly stereotypically attractive, which is reinforced through the MES of the glamorous makeup of the model. Symbolically connoting a night on the town rather than cleaning up, it reinforces the assumption that women should be presentable, that is to be shown off to men at all times

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