The Big Issue

Compare how the audiences are positioned by the representations in Resource A, the Quality Street advertisement, and the Tide advertisement you have studied as part of the set products:

· How the representations construct versions of reality

· Similarities and differences in how the audience are positioned by the representations

· How far the representations relate to relevant media contexts

Both of the adverts are created in the 1950s, therefore they reflect the social values and gender norms of the society back then. The Tide advert upholds the stereotypical idea of women being housewives. The advert constructs an image where women enjoy doing domestic work and taking care of her family. The heading “Tide’s got what women want” further reinforces the idea that the life of a housewife is something that women strive for. The hair of the female character is tied back and kept neat, not only for aesthetic reason but also to show that she is prepared to do housework. Overall, the general idea that is being presented to the audience is that women enjoy staying at home; the colour red has connotations of love and affection, as well as the hearts above her head. The fact that she is holding the Tide box and smiling shows

how happy she is to have the product. Tide made women’s life easier back in the 1950s, and the advertisers deliberately made the female character to be an aspirational figure so more people would buy their product; for example they have used fashionable clothing and made them look quite modest, in order to sell the product and keep a good brand image. She doesn’t seem sexualised, however the red lipstick and the hearts around her could possibly have sexual connotations. However, in the Quality Street advert the representation of women seems different. Both of them are kissing the man on the cheek in order to get to the sweets; being a housewife is not being represented, however the inequality of power is still there. The man is justified in the centre and has a more dominant position than the female characters. His costume is quite sophisticated, and the audience is encouraged to take him more seriously, but the women are wearing dresses with the same colours as the sweets, therefore the 1950s audience does not take them seriously. The women in this advert are definitely sexualised and portrayed as shallow and maybe even the stereotypical idea of a old-digger as they are using affection in order to get something materialistic, in this case – the sweets. One of the differences between the adverts is that in Tide the female character is not sexualised as much maybe the use of colour has sexual connotations but not her body language or speech. However, in Quality Street the women are portrayed as inferior to the men and have body language with sexual connotations. I believe that both of the adverts are very man-serving, as both of the adverts the representation of women advantages men; for bottom right corner shows the women doing laundry, but we can clearly see that they are holding men’s clothing. The deeper meaning of the message could be that women enjoy doing domestic work for their husbands and that they are only adequate of staying in the house. The message portrayed in Quality street is that id u uphold the class standard and act like the male character who is portrayed as the inspirational figure, you will get the same female attention as him. Also, the image above his head looks like an angel halo and he man is portrayed as superior and God-like. And again, we can link this to class; in Tide they portray the woman as an aspirational figure who her husband is happy with as her house work is perfectly done, and in Quality street the man is the aspirational figure as he is the one that is holding the sweets and gets the female attention.