3 historical adverts

1950s hair gel ad




This advertisement is about a special type of hair cream that is suppose to appeal to men but uses the female as the selling point. In the advertisement it shows a down on his luck man with a normal life using a shampoo that is designed to make you seem more attractive and give a confident boost. The female casts is supposed to be the object of desire for the man and a "reward" for using the shampoo for good effect. It portrays the female as weak to temptation for not the mans charms or personality but for his hair that has just bursted into life. Without the use of the females approval the ad is not effective and therefore the male audience is not convinced or satisfyed that the product works. However for all the sterotypes that are displayed in this advert it contridicts what some reasearchers like gunter suggest with it actually being the man who is obsessed with his apperance as apposed to being concerned with his work.

1950s soap ad

This advertisement is about a new brand of soap that was being relased that was being aimed at both a male and female audience. Despite this the producers felt the need to cast a woman in this role because as a sign of the times where the women were mostly seen as houswives and therefore most likely to be in the house doing something whether it was cooking or cleaning. Using soap back then was as something that was femenine and was a direct reference to thier mythical (barthes) obsessity of being as clean as possible both with them selves and the house they were lviving. There are a lot of close up shots the advert uses on the woman to demonstrate how happy she is to be using it to become clean , this partly relates to walters theory that they want to be as clean as possible and use make up in a boost to gain attention from men. They have used a women for the female audience to identify themselves with her as apperently this is what they were concerned with at the period of time. In additon gunters study also backs up what is shown " where all ads featuring women three quarters were for kicthen and bathroom products"

Purgeot 1970s ad

This advert substansially degrades women to the level that they are only objects of a males view of an idealistic world. The advert is a 1970s advert for a Peugeot 305, which at that period of time was a new and improved version of current cars that were on offer. So quite why a female was cast in the advert to help sell a male dominated and targeted product which has nothing to do with her furthers emphasises the pointless roles that female used to play in persuading men to buy products. It shows the car from different angles to give it a better appaerance but also contains a physically attractive woman saying how good the car is, this demonstrates the image of brainwahsing the male audience through what the woman is promissing, making them beilive that buying the newest car around will help them to attractive females. With the actress partcipating in some promiscoius poses it suggests the idea of sex sells, in additon what she is saying is good about the car connotates what is bieleived that the women wants in her ideal man as she says it has "power" and "control" which further brainwashing males.