Case studies

water-aidtidekiss-of-the-vampire

Product context:

• Designed for heavy duty machine cleaning, Procter & Gamble launches Tide in 1946 and it became the leading brand in America.
• The D’Arcy Maisus Benton & Bowles advertising company handled P&G’s accounts throughout the 1950’s. Its campaign for Tide reffered explicitly to P&G because thei market reasearch showed that consumers had high levels of confidence in the company.
• DMB&B used print and radio advertising campaigns in order to build audience familiarity with the brand. Both media forms used the “housewife” character and the ideology that its customers “loved” and “adored” Tide.

Historical context:

The post WW2 consumer boom of the 1950s included a rapid development of new technologies for the home, desiged to make domestic chores easier. Vacuum cleaners, freezers, microwaves and washing machines all became desirable products for the 1950s consumer. Products linked to these new trechnologies also developed during this time e.g. washing powder.

Cultural context:

Print adverts from the 1950s conventionally used more copy that we’re used to seeing today. Consumer culture was in its early stages of development and with so many “new” brands and products entering the market, potential customers typically needed more information about them than modern audience.

Historical context in relation to the audience:

The product is not aimed at a modern audience. The advert encompasses the American Dream and the steriotype of a house wife. The audience is women who’s sole responsibility would have been being a house wife. They are targeted by the ideallic clean floors and the whitest wash. On the poster the product is seen as new and exciting by the use of primary colours and large font. Also the use of hyperbole and exclamation marks makes the product seem an essential buy. Furthermore the endorsement by good housekeeping would have further convinced the target audience of its effectiveness as a product.

Social and cultural context in relation to represention:

Interesting intertexts to consider would be WW2 adverts for the ‘Womens Land Army’ and J. Howard Millers ‘Rosie the riveter- we can do it!’ advert for the war production co-ordinating committee. The representation in these adverts challenge stereotypical views of women being confines to the domestic sphere.

In the 1950s women were the primary market for technologies and products being developed for the home. The dress code of the adverts main female character includes a stereotypical 1950s hairstyle incorporating waves and curls. The shorter hair fashion trend started as long hair was hazardous for women working with machinery on farms during the war. The headscarf is also a popular accessory for women in the 1950s, showing their practicalness opposing her full face of makeup.

What is the social and cultural context in relation to audience:

Womens roles changes drastically during the war, they assumed male roles, when the war was over they returned to mainly domestic roles, as a result domestic items were mainly targeted to women. After the war rations ended and disposable income grew, leaving people more likely to spend money on consumerable products. The arrival of commercial television increased platforms by which adverts could reach audiences.

 

Product context:

• The charity Water Aid was established in 1981 as a response to a United Nations campaign for clean water, sanitation and water hygiene education. It now works with organisations in 37 African, Asian and Central American countries plus the Pacific region. Since 1991 its patron has been Prince Charles.
• Created by Atomic London in october 2016 this advert starts 16 year old Zambian student Claudia and aims to show how communities benefit from clean water by depicting everyday chores such as farming and laundry.

Cultural context:

Following 1984s Do they know its Christmas? single for Band Aid, 1985s Live Aid was the first global event aiming to raise funds for the relief of the ongoing famine in Ethiopia. The Comic Relied telethon was launched by Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry in 1985 with the same initial famine relief aim. The contemport audience for this advert could be assumed to be familier with the codes and conventions of both audio-visual adverts and those for charitable organisations in particular.

Social context:

Launching the Rain for Good campaign, Water Aid said that it had deliberately broken away from the traditional charity ad formula, in response to the publics dissinterest to normal fundraising tactics. The stereotypical ‘victim’ needing our help is an archetype with which the audience would be familiar from many other charity adverts. This would make th more postitive representation of Claudia as a healthy, independent and musically talented women stand out to an audience who might otherwise become immune to the emotibe representations conventionally deployed by this advertising sub-genre.

Social and cultural context in relation to the audience:

In December 2016, this advert had been viewed about 47,000 times on Water Aids YouTube channel and this page also actively encourages the sharing of the advert through social networks. Further evidence that the likely target audience are literate with technology is that donations are encouraged through the imperative “Text SUNNY to 70555” and the use on Twitter of the hashtag #ShareSunshine. The advert includes the 1990s song Sunshine On A Rainy Day, this could indicate that the target audience are in their 30s-40s as they are likely to remember the original and get pleasure from the nostalgic value of hearing a song with which theyre familiar. The advert using a positive attitude to address the target audience leaving them with a positive impression of those who need clean water and they can see that their donations do help. The use of a real young woman allows the audience to identify personally with Claudia and parents can also imagine their children in her place.

Product Context:

• Produced by Hammer film Production and distributed by J. Arthur Rank and Universal, Kiss of the Vampire was intended to be the second sequal to 1958s Dracular, although the film’s script actually makes no reference to Stoker’s character. This is perhaps to distance itself from unfavourable comparisons to the superior Christopher Lee who starred in the original film.
• In addition to Dracula, Hammer had, by 1963, successes with other ‘monster movie’ franchises such as The Mummy and Frankenstein. Distributers Universal also saw early success with films in this genre.
• Historically 1963 saw the early stages of ‘Beatlemania’ and the so-called ‘swinging sixties’, the assassination of JFK and the Soviet Union launching the first woman into space.

Cultural Context:

The 1960s audience for this advert could be assumed to be familiar with the codes and conventions of a ‘monster movie’ films posters- such as its composition, fonts and representations of ‘the monster’ and its (usually female) victims. Interesting intertexts for comparative study might include: The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) and Blood from the Mumm’s Tomb (1971).

Political and social contexts:

The 1960s is often seen as the start of womens sexual liberation, aided by events such as the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1960. More women than ever were entering paid work and sixties feminists were campaigning for equality. In America, equal pay legisation was passed in 1963. Older stereotyples of women as passive victims of men and more modern ‘male fears’ of women challenging male dominance could both be seem to be encoded in this film poster.

• In the poster both women wear pale dresses made of light materials , these dresses reinforce the feminimity by highlighting the curve of their bodies and revealing the flesh on their upper chests and arms.
• The gesture code of the woman on the left is that of the steretypical passive victim of the ‘monster’, his power highlighted by the fact that he’s holding her by just one arm.
• Baring her teeth with her arm raised almost fist-like as she’s being bitten by the bat, the second womans gestures are more agressive and the submissive pose of her male represents her in a non-stereotypically dominant way.