1) This advert was produced in 1955.
2) In the 1950s, women were presented as housewives, or the keeper of the household/carer of the family; who were fully dependent on their husbands. They were portrayed to be inferior or have a less important status as opposed to men, and in most adverts they were seen to be wearing an excessive amount of make-up (perhaps implying that their appearance is the only focus and that they are expected to always look presentable) and fulfilling domestic duties like cooking for their family or cleaning the house. They were also predominantly shown in adverts such as cleaning products, cooking brands or others based towards men which featured women solely to make them seem like the man's property or look almost incapable of doing usual everyday activities on their own.
3) An example of a verbal code shown on this advert includes the heading at the top placed in the center, which states 'OMO makes whites Bright!'. This promotes the advert by eloquently indicating that the product not only whitens clothes, but instead leaves them looking bright and even cleaner than before. This also suggests that the product is a must-have and persuades people (typically women) to purchase it, further reinforcing the demeaning stereotype that it's a women's job to clean up after her family. The typography is almost comic-like, which again promotes the advert as they were hugely popular during the 1950s.
4) The woman in the advert is seen wearing an apron-like dress, with other clothing items thrown over her shoulder. This emphasises the expected role of a women in the 1950s, which was to take care of cleaning clothes for the rest of the family. She is also portrayed to be wearing an extravagant amount of make-up, despite the fact that she is only shown to be doing a usual chore like washing clothes. This can be deemed as stereotypical towards women given the fact that she has to wear a lot of make-up, including a very deep red lipstick, although she is only performing a casual task; perhaps further enhancing the certain idea that women are supposed to look orderly at all times. The placement of the women is showing her hanging clothes up on a washing line whilst making a face at the camera. This is again yet another largely-thought stereotype towards women that it is her duty to be doing all the household chores which shows just how normalised it was in society during that time.
5) The pack shot of the product shown at the bottom right of the advert is perhaps there to show the audience, which is specifically targeted at women, what the packaging of the product looks like in an attempt to possibly emphasise the idea that it is also a women's job to buy the groceries and basic household necessities.
6) The colours displayed throughout the advert - red, white and blue - might be to portray the colours of the British 'Union Jack' flag as this advert was released not too long after the end of World War II. Britain is a very nationalistic and patriotic nation, and so they represented themselves and their triumph almost everywhere.
7) The anchorage text includes the fact that "millions of women" approve of the product, which further encourages the rest of the female audience to purchase it as it was what they were expected to do and it's what every other woman would do at the time; and so not fulfilling those expectations would be to discard the role they were given. However, it could also be seen in a positive light, as the text seems comical and humorous which plays it off as a witty remark - this is also another way in which the producers had hoped to persuade others to buy their product.
8) Women are constantly represented as devoted wives and mothers, as portrayed by the woman in the advert. They are shown to be dedicated to their supposed duties and always taking on the role of cleaning up after their family, again reinforcing the alleged stereotype that it is their job to always be washing up after others. It also supports the idea that women are incapable of taking on other traditional jobs which are reputedly only for men, and that their role is to only support the well-being of their family.
9) The preferred reading of this advert is that women should perhaps adopt the role of which they were given, to be a housewife and support her husband and family. The producers' intended message to the 1955 audience was to encourage the normalised idea that it should be a women's role to clean for her family, which is why the advert is distinctively targeted towards them.
10) The oppositional reading of this advert is that it is stereotypical and blatant misogyny, especially from a modern audience, where now women are valued more and became less inferior to the opposite gender. A modern audience may take this entirely differently to what the producers of the original 1955 advert had originally intended, as now not only is it normalised for women to be having generally 'manly' jobs, but men are now seen to be taking on household and domestic duties as well; which is entirely different to how society was like over 60 years ago.
Grade 8/9 extension questions
1) Within the last 60 years, there have been significant changes as to how women are presented through adverts. For example, several decades ago, women were represented to be the sole carers of the family, and faithful wives who's duty it was to cook and clean for her husband and children. Nowadays, women are presented in less of a stereotypical way, as not every advert featuring them is to do with cleaning products or cooking brands as opposed to 1950s/1960s adverts, and they are instead shown to be performing actions such as martial arts and sports - both of which would be absolutely abnormal for a woman to be seen doing over 60 years ago. The changes are shown clearly through the examples below:
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