I decided to look at a the Vintage Palm Olive commercial. I use that dish soap sometimes so I wanted to see how their marketing strategies have evolved.
Analysis: The purpose of the commercial was to advertise bath soap not dish soap. The mom is young, beautiful and the commercial makes it seem as though the soap is the reason she is this way. The daughter says that she wants to use the soap so that she can be beautiful just like her mom. The commercial goes back and forth between reality and fantasy. Pixies appear singing that the little girl wants Palmolive soap for her beauty bath.
Audience: While I was watching this, I had a flashback to watching the Donna Reed Show or the Dick Van Dyke Show when I was younger. The intended audience is white, young middle-class women and their daughters. The commercial is in black and white during this time period most of the marketing focused on young white suburban mothers because they were stay-at-home moms and the primary people to go shopping for their families. The commercial makes it seem as though this beauty bath will make the mom and the daughter lovely, relaxed and have proper cleansing.
The information is conveyed through the eyes of a child in reality and in a fantasy world. In the beginning of the commercial, the child is watching her mom in reality. The mom is in a fancy nightgown grooming herself then she tells her daughter that she can take a beauty bath with Palmolive. Towards the middle of the commercial, the child start seeing the pixies singing. She then points them out to her mom then they start singing about how Palmolive is the soap you always want to use for a beauty bath. Once the voice over of a man starts to tell you how great the soap is, you see the child washing up in the tub. The voice cuts out and then the pixies start singing again.
Representation:The representation is closely linked to the audience of the commercial. The bathroom is a nice, middle class bathroom for that time period. The mom has a fancy nightgown on. The bathroom is clean. During this time period, they were the main shoppers for the families. This commercial appeals to both the children and the moms. The jingle is catchy as well so if the moms don't remember the beauty bath then children will sing the jingle to remind them. No other socioeconomic group, age group or race is being appealed to besides middle class, young white females.
Design: During this time period jingles were especially prevalent in advertising. The commercial was in black and white. The setting was in the bathroom during bath time and it cuts in when the girl and her mom are having a conversation. In this conversation the audience hears that the girl wants to have a beauty bath like her mom. The mom allows her too. When the voice over comes in and it is perfect timing. You want to hear why this soap is so great and the voice over does just that. Then the jingle comes on again. In the commercial you see the soap in its package and outside of its package. There is no way you can miss it at the supermarket because you have seen it from every angle. This ad appeals to your emotions. The touching scene with the mom and daughter. There is clearly love between them. The daughter wants to be like the mom by using the same product. Not only that, you are informed about the soap. It is large, has proper cleansing, refreshes you and relaxes you. Again, the jingle is catchy and simple. "You want Palmolive soap for your beauty bath"! The pixies around the soap are also adorable and happy.
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that in both your analysis of the Palmolive and mine of the VW ad that it is very clear that the design involved appealing to certain stereotypes based on who they thought would be most likely to buy their product. If you want someone to buy what you are selling, you need to make them want it. Perhaps this is something that we as educators need to keep in mind if we are trying to "sell" our course content.
Ben
Ben, I agree completely which is why I'm challenging myself to re-design even my Media Center Orientation. Students need to know which resources will help them, best suit their needs and how they can access them. I need to start selling the services as opposed to just informing them about what is available here. I need to do the same thing with the teachers. Interesting how all jobs seem to have an element of sales in it.
DeleteJennifer,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post! I watched the Ciroc Vodka ad, and I also felt that they were trying to appeal to fantasy versus reality. Just like in your soap commercial, the vodka ad made it seem as though the people were having a great time because they were drinking Ciroc. I agree that the Palmolive ad really does target a very specific audience. The producers make it very clear who they are trying to appeal to. In terms of education, I feel like this is difficukt! We know our target audience as a whole, let’s say 4th graders, for example. However, each 4th grader is different! So we must appeal to a general yet specific demographic. Tricky!
Lauren
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteYou really dissected each part of the commercial and you clearly understand the implications and message that the commercial is trying to portray. I watched the other Palmolive commercial about how gentle the dish soap is for your hands and how women will love doing dishes with this soap. It's interesting to see that Palmolive during two different time periods (yours from the 50's and mine from the 60/70's) still targets women as their majority consumer market.
I also think using cartoon figures in the commercial is a great way to appeal to children. I think your analysis of the target audience is accurate and it seems to be a trend for Palmolive to target women. Even in more recent commercials, women are the primary target in their marketing efforts. Men apparently don't care about soft hands. ;)
Sean
ReplyDeleteJennifer, your post has a lot of good details to it! It is interesting how you focused on the scene between the mother and daughter which was used to initiate strong emotions. It shows the love that is present between the mother and daughter. The daughter decides to use Palmolive like the mom to be just like her. You also mentioned that how in the commercial they showed every angle of the soap. By zooming into the package and making it clear that the audience has heard about Palmolive and even seen how it looks, they will be more likely go out to buy it. This again goes back to the point of how females at the time were seen as housewives who were always looking for ways to make their skin look good and they were the ones in charge of shopping. After seeing, this commercial, the targeted audience would go out to buy the product.