cultural and Ethnic Studies
In this paper you will be analyzing/making an argument about images in the media of the past, whether drawings or notes or advertisements. You need to describe each picture a to what we need to see, even if the picture is attached. Go to the library and scope out some really cool ads on a certain theme.
You have learned: how to make an argument and support it with footnotes and appropriate quotes, to zero in on something you can make an argument about,
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2017-04-14 22:16:59 Clear Ads, Accurate Depictions
President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.” During the early to mid of 1900s women were expected to have one role in society, to be home and take care of their children and managing their household while their husbands worked. Good Housekeeping portrayed women just that way in that day. The 1960s saw many changes to our United States: women were given equal rights, the military fought in the Vietnam War, key political figures were assassinated, and then Woodstock occurred in New York. Although the 1960s was a decade full of upheaval and growth, several advertisements from Good Housekeeping tell a story about family values, specifically family values in the home.
The first advertisement is Velvet showing how Velveeta can help you in the “Big Job of Being a Mother.” The mother is home with her two youngest children while the others are away at school, the husband is off to work. This advertisement is a glimpse of a typical day. Kraft, the makers of Velveeta, are able to help mothers with their “job:. How? By using only two ounces of Velveeta on a child’s sandwich, the mom is giving her children “much fine nourishment”. This nourishment, according to the advertisement includes: high quality protein, calcium, phosphorus, riboflavin, and vitamin A; all more than in an 8 ounce glass of fresh, whole milk. Wow! She is caring quite well for her children when she makes a “husky” sandwich for her girls. It is obvious by the ad that this mom does care for her girls. This slim mom is seated in a chair with her daughter, aged 6-7 in front of her on the floor while she brushes her hair. The younger daughter, approximately 3 years old, is seated in front of her older sister while her hair is softly being brushed. All three have big smiles on their faces. This advertisement acknowledges that it is a “Big Job” to be a mother, they will help you with this job you will feel confident your children are getting good nutrition by providing the best nourishment in merely 2 ounces of their Velveeta cheese. This ad depicts a mother taking time out of her day to show her daughters she cares by making them sandwiches made with Velveeta. When looking at this picture it is clear that this mother loves what she is doing; all three people in this picture, the mother and her two daughters are all seemingly happy and enjoying their time together. In addition to providing nourishment for her daughters, this mom is also taking care of her “figger”. By eating Velveeta moms can get nourishment for themselves with “needed milk nutrients” and are still able to keep that calorie count within their “calorie budget”. This is possible when ”fresh fruits or vegetables are added to Velveeta” for snacks. On the box of the Velveeta this nutrition point is made obvious, there is a glass pitcher which would have milk in it with a smaller box of Velvet inside. Nest to this pitcher it says that it is “full of health from milk”. At the top of this advertisement, there is a sample lunch for the children of a Velvet cheese sandwich with apple slices and celery and for the mom there are crackers with Velveeta cheese slices on top also including apple slices and a piece of celery. Both plates have a mug of milk next to them. This ad is clearly looking to market the mother’s desire to provide her children with good nutrition all the while she maintains her trim figure.
In this second advertisement, we see a young-looking woman with many different color variations in the same picture four different times. This ads plays to women being in charge of home decor and desiring a change. In each picture we see this woman standing over her dining table, either she is placing something onto the table or standing back in admiration of the table; yet something is vastly different in each picture. In the first picture she is standing in a blue dress, the drapes and seat cushions on the chair are a mustard yellow. The tablecloth is a dark maroon and she is placing a white vase onto the middle of the table as a decorative piece. The caption in this picture is, “lovely-to-live with colors for the modern family…Rit Gold and Rit Cocoa Brown. In the second, she is in a bright yellow dress, the tablecloth is a distinct orange, the table is set with white plates, there are napkins on the plates that are a Pepto Bismol pink that match the color of the seat cushions and drapes. On top of the table is a basket of assorted fruits. The caption for this picture is,“Experiment! Try smart and unusual combinations like Rit Orange and Rit Pink.” The third picture, on the bottom left, has the most of one color. The drapes, tablecloth and seat cushions are two different shades of green. Wearing a maroon dress with a pink scarf, this woman is arranging pink, red, and purple flowers in a white vase on the table. The large green plant is in the background. This caption reads, “Two shades of one color, so comfortable and relaxing. Here, Rit Light Green and Forest Green.” The last picture is easily the most vivid of the four pictures. As the woman in a black dress stands in admiration with her arms stretched out towards her table, she has used every shade of color previously seen, and it pops of color. The drapes are green, blue, maroon, and pink, each panel being a different color. The tablecloth is blue with the seat cushions red, green, and pink matching the curtain panels. This caption reads, “Rit Royal, Scarlet, Orchid, and Chartreuse introduce the new ‘multi-color’ theme. (Dresses are Rit-dyed too!)” The bottom of the ad states, “Now! Dyeing is fast, fun… and almost foolproof. Just do it in your washer with New Formula.” There is a small picture of a washer to show the convenience, a sink for “tinting lingerie and other dainty items”, small color squares that show there are 34 “smart, lovely colors”, a small hand with 3 fingers up showing that Rit has all 3 essentials: “more dyeing power, true color balance, and quick dissolving.” Throughout these pictures we see this woman with a bright and joyous smile on her face, obviously enjoying what she is doing. This ad is displaying how much fun it can be to change colors around your house, how easy it is to dye fabrics, and the economical value of Rit dye, “America’s favorite-the finest dye money can buy.” This advertisement is marketing to the woman who want her home to be “modern”, “comfortable,” and “relaxing”, while also being the economically savvy homemaker.
A third advertisement is more simplistic than the other two, showing a woman and what appears to be her daughter. The woman is shown from the shoulders up with only the left side of her face visible. Her eyes are closed and she has a soft smile on her face. The small girl is smiling with her teeth showing as she is looking at the woman. They are both wearing floral shirts with the same floral wallpaper in the background. The woman’s hair is a light natural brown with soft waves styled throughout her short above the next length. This advertisement for Clairol hair coloring product shows how natural their product looks on a woman by saying, “Does she or doesn’t she?” insinuating that they want the reader of the article to ask whether or not the woman pictured uses their hair dye. “Hair color so natural only her hairdresser knows for sure!” “Through every season, every age….” this ad is appealing to women of all ages who want to have dyed hair that looks “natural, soft, shiny, color rich, sparkling, and fresh as the freshest blossom,” hence the flowers covering the background and clothes. This is a hair color that women can do in their own homes and is “preferred by hairdressers everywhere.” By stating that, “MORE WOMEN USE MISS CLAIROL, THAN ALL OTHER HAIRCOLORING COMBINED” Clairol is appealing to the masses of women who want to cover their grey, have “silky, lovely, and completely natural-looking hair.”
When I think of washing clothes in the 1960s I think of a mother outside in the backyard with a pail of water and a washboard sweating in the hot sun as she washes all of her family’s clothes by hand. She leaves them to dry on a string or rope that stretches the length of the entire yard. Although this picture painted is far from accurate, actually, the washing machines and driers were quite sophisticated in the 1960s. A company that almost everyone who has done a load of laundry might be familiar with, Whirlpool, also has an interesting ad that caught my eye. Two bright smiling faces, a white front loading washer that doubles as a drier, green towels, and offer a few snapshots into daily chores in a household in the 1960s. In this advertisement a nicely dressed mother is showing her cute little daughter how to do laundry, her daughter who cannot be over the age of ten. She appears to be having the time of her life helping her mother get towels from on top of the counter next to the drier. Even though this advertisement is for gas appliances, it is focusing on how this mother-daughter duo do their chores together. The ad reads, “RCA WHIRLPOOL Ultimatic washes a 10-lb. load; dries it ‘Powder-Puff Soft’ because it’s GAS.” There are three pictures in this advertisement; the first and largest picture is of the daughter reaching on top of the counter to grab the top towel on a stack of folded towels as her mother watches her while holding her own stack of towels. The second and smaller picture is of both the mother and daughter holding a stack of towels as the mother looks down at the daughter with a loving smile as her daughter looks up at her with admiration. The third picture is the same size as the second and shows the mother and daughter holding onto the same un-folded towel and looking at each other with big smiles as they hold the towel to their cheeks. This advertisement is another clear example of how a large company would typically depict a mother and daughter in an advertisement. Whirlpool is appealing to the mother and daughter togetherness, saving time and money by choosing their gas dryer.
All of these pictures represent women who are at home, two are depicted with mothers and daughters ,while all have huge smiles on their faces. There is no mistake that these advertisers are saying that by using these products you will be smiling. These advertisements were found in a Good Housekeeping magazine meant for women who are stay-at-home moms or women who are not yet mothers but do not work outside of the home. Nearly all of the women who would typically have read these magazines fit that description. Of all the similarities that stood out from reviewing several Good Housekeeping magazines, nearly all of the pictures in the ads showed mothers with their daughters. This is no coincidence. The advertisement that did not depict mothers with their daughters was a well dressed lady taking care of the chores around the house by herself. These advertisements did not contain men anywhere near them while they were doing chores.
Women in advertisements are depicted with their daughters to show them that the women should be including and raising their daughters to be exactly like they are, to look younger, with good figures, doing each other’s hair, preparing meals, and keeping their homes nice looking. They should not leave out their daughters on the women’s fun life experiences such as dyeing their hair, or from the duties of the house such as washing and drying clothes. If women in these ads were not depicted with their daughters doing chores, cooking, cleaning or looking prim and proper, the daughters would most likely not know how to manage their home and their pleasing looks, at least in the fantasy land that is in advertisements. This was a clever marketing scheme by the large and small companies of that day, who knew their target audience. By putting advertisements in Good Housekeeping, they knew they could lead the mothers to see a certain family dynamic depicted as desirable. Also, the women could carry on with their products, and start a cycle of mothers and daughters using the same products religiously because they grew up on those brands.
Obviously, women in these ads were depicted at home with their daughters doing chores and other tasks around the house, accurately representing the women and most families of that day in the sense that the father spent most of his time at work or with his son, if he had one, showing and teaching him how to be a man, while the mother spent most of her time in the house or showing her daughter how to be a mom, a wife, and a proper lady. These advertisements gave women a model of what a “good mother and proper wife” should be like and should be doing with her time during the day. Good Housekeeping was a very popular magazine in the 1960s which pierced deep desires of a woman to be the ideal mother, ideal wife, and best homemaker that she could be.
“The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.” President Eisenhower could not have foreseen how the role of women in society, the home, the family, and the workplace have vastly changed. In this day and age women are no longer expected to be at home and tending to their family’s household needs. Today, allowing women the same opportunities as men, with more shared roles in the home, expectations have changed drastically.
Bibliography
“THE BIG JOB OF BEING A MOTHER,” Good Housekeeping Vol 153 (July 1961): Page 112 Print.
“Give your dining area new life with color! It’s easy!,” Good Housekeeping Vol 153 (October 1961): Page 3. Print.
“Does she… or doesn’t she?” Good Housekeeping Vol 153 (October 1961): Page 257. Print.
“ RCA WHIRLPOOL Ultimatic washes a 10-lb load; dries it “Power-Puff Soft” because it’s Gas,” Good Housekeeping Vol 153 (August 1961): Page 14. Print.
