Omo print advert

 1) What year was the advert produced?

1955

2) How were women represented in most adverts in the 1950s? Add as much detail to this answer as you can as these are the social, cultural and historical contexts we will need to write about in the exam.

In the 1950's adverts tended to present women as weaker or less than man presenting them as simple housewives who's only jobs were to please their husband, look presentable and take care of the house 

3) How does the heading message ('OMO makes whites bright') and the style of the text promote the product?

By giving the connotation that white on clothes is clean and bright 

4) Analyse the mise-en-scene in the advert (CLAMPS): how is costume, make-up and placement of the model used to suggest women's role in society?

the costume of the model is presented as the typical clothing a house wife would tend to wear thus placing the role of the typical female house wife on her furthermore the lighting makes her face look more bright and thus leaning into a beauty standard of the time suggesting that women should look a certain way to be more "presentable" 

5) Why is a picture of the product added to the bottom right of the advert?

to give attention to the product and what it looks like whilst also showing how the product is used 

6) What are the connotations of the chosen colours in this advert - red, white and blue?

white could symbolise something is clean while red is used to shine attention of the viewer and blue gives the ideas of water and cleanness aswell

7) How does the anchorage text use persuasive language to encourage the audience to buy the product? Give examples.

The text is big and bold in order to draw attention to it the language used "Omo makes whites brighter!" is meant to give the impression that omo is such a good product that it turns light clothes even cleaner 

8) What representation of women can be found in this OMO advert? Make specific reference to the advert and discuss stereotypes.

the woman in the advert is shown in a typical dress hanging clothes from this we get the stereotypes of woman being house wife's and woman cleaning and cooking further more she is shown wearing bright makeup that is saturated in order to catch the eyes attention this shows the stereotype that women need to be beautiful and eye catching

9) What is the preferred reading for this advert - what did the producers of the advert want the audience to think in 1955?

The producers wanted the reader to think their product is one of the best and should be used to clean clothing spotless

10) What is the oppositional reading for this advert - How might a modern audience respond to this text and the representation of women here?

That women should cook and clean and be presentable house wives 

Grade 8/9 Extension Questions

1) How much do you think things have changed over the last 60 years with regards to representations of women in advertising? Give examples from a variety of adverts

Adverts ever since the 1950's have taken a big change when presenting females example in the Omo advert women are presented as house wives but over the last few years we see Nike adverts that show women doing track running or exercising thus leaning away for the "traditional roles" placed on women

2) How is the aftermath of World War Two reflected in the Omo advert? Why did many adverts in the 1950s strongly reinforce the stereotype of women as mothers and housewives?

as world war two came to a close women were told to go back to being housewives as the war was over and men could return home this was met with slight backlash as women proved to be capable of doing "men's jobs" and thus propaganda started to emerge in the form of commercials such as this in order to get women to go back to being housewives

3) Read this Guardian feature on possible law changes with regards to gender representations in advertising. Do you agree with this approach?

In my opinion i believe it is a good approach in order to stop gender stereotypes from creating a harmful society where women and men are seen in a certain way and are treated as such

4) Now read this Guardian feature entitled 'Mad Men and invisible women'. Why does it suggest the advertising industry has 'failed to move on'? Do you agree? Read some of the comments below the article to get a range of differing views on this topic.

The guardian feature suggest that the advertising industry has failed to move on as it still uses gender stereotypes in many adverts today In my opinion i can partially agree with this statement and the advertising industry should do more in order to not stereotype genders