Tide Laundry Detergent... What more do they promote?
My Tide: Hoodies and Cargo Shorts was a successful commercial. It received plenty of views online and numerous views through television. Although it was a controversial commercial with its sexist and anti-gay comments some people liked it even seen nothing wrong with it and many people were in disgust.
The commercial begun with a mother stating how she wanted her daughter to wear the color pink but "it did not work out". All the while the mother is the most feminine mother seen on a television commercial. She is dressed in a skirt, with a pink blouse on, her hair ir pushed back with pink headband, legs crossed and surrounding her in her "lovely" home are flowers and the color pink. The scene is very homey and only the mother is in attendance the whole time while discussing what she wanted her daughter to wear and how she hoped her boyish clothes would be ruined in the wash.
The commercial has no underlying tone or message. It is blatantly flagrant about the message they want viewers to receive; a girl should wear "girly" clothes and if they dont they may be lesbian. This commercial, in my opinion is wrong in so many ways. For an example, Tide a laundry detergent company, is promoting this message. In addition, in this time period we live in why can't we accept the fact that people are going to wear what they want and live how they want to live. Even if the little girl does not like the color pink should not mean she will be a lesbian when she grows up. It should not even mean that she is a tomboy. How about that she is just more comfortable wearing boy apparel and neutral colors.
There are errors of reasoning in this commercial. Tide as a whole disrespects the community of people who feel more comfortable in the opposite sex apparel. Tide was aiming at an emotional approach for those families who have a child that act like the daughter in the commercial; for those families that agree with this commercial. Logically, they were successful because they chose a controversial topic which established a "hot" topic for our society. Tide, does not have any credibilty in this topic which pushes me further away to want to watch. I believe Tide could have chosen a different topic to get their point across about how their detergent works well and is better than the competition.
Which leads to me state how Tide merely mentioned their name of the product once, granted commercials are supposed to be short and to the point. However, they did not really reach their point of the commercial. It was based on sexist comments from a mother who in the end was "trying" to support her daughter. Is that how Tide thinks it will always end?
I am not sure if this commercial helped their sales or not. Nonetheless, I would not be surprised if it declined sales. There are many reviews on the commercial and all that I have seen are negative. I am still a consumer of Tide Laundry detergent but I do not support the message that is being portrayed in this commercial. If they keep it up maybe I will not be a consumer.
You did a good job explaining the commercial however, watching it, I didn't get the whole gay bashing thing. I didn't see how it was even implied. Other than that I think it was written very well.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with Cassy, that I also did not see the anti- gay/lesbian references in the commercial. I also would argue to say that there was an underlying message in the commercial because they did not actually come out an say that girls dressing like boys or wearing "boy colors" is wrong, but instead just gave implications that the mother hated that the girl didn't like "girly" things. If anything it could have been said that this commercial had a hidden curriculum which is teaching value preferences to children, and in Tides case, teaching gender stereotypes to it's viewers. I would also disagree with you that they did reach their point in the commercial. It came off to me that the mother was hoping that the little girl's "boyish" clothes were ruined, but because she used Tide detergent they came out good as new. However, I would agree with you that this was a poor move for the Tide company who normally comes off as a good company with good values.
ReplyDeleteFrom the previous people that commented on your article, I guess we can say that there are different opinions on this commercial. For me, when I first saw it on television a while ago, it didn't seem sexist- at least I did not think of it as a commercial that would try to portray that. Seeing it again, I can see how you would believe this is coming out to be sexist and, although I am not sure of Tide's true intentions, I think that the commercial does go a bit too far here. I liked how you clearly emphasized your opinion and thoughts on the commercial.
ReplyDeleteTaken from a Youtube comment on the video:
"My biggest gripe is that these laundry commercials NEVER show men doing laundry, or at least, seriously doing it the correct way. So men are so incapable of taking care of themselves. Everyone does laundry!! Not just women."
Il-Rev, I like how you just proved your own point wrong with the video comment. It becomes harder to say the commercial "didn't seem sexist" when we acknowledge that these commercials never show "men doing laundry" or doing it correctly?--That is a great example of sexism in the media: believing that women are better at laundry because doing laundry is something women are somehow predisposed to do, being more into cleanliness, color schemes, and not into heavy lifting...
ReplyDeleteOn another note, while this may not be outwardly gay-bashing, the problem everywhere is that our society equates femininity and masculinity to our sexual orientations. Sometimes this is overt. Sometimes it isn't. Name me a "gay" stereotype and I'll show you how it is really a feminine/masculine stereotype and has nothing to do with who someone is attracted to. In this way, Yasmina is absolutely correct to see some underlying connection to a judgement on sexual orientation based on a judgement on gender expression.
I thought you gave us a great visual while you were explaining the commercial. I also liked how you determined the effectiveness of the commercial by stating that it recieved many negative reviews.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to say that I definitely did not see any gay/lesbian issues in this commercial. I think the point of this commercial is that the mom wanted her daughter to wear pink, and was happy when the daughter left her crayins in her pocket. But with the use of the laundry detergent, the colors came out and the daughter could then wear her camoflauge hoodie again. But I would agree that this was a poor way for the tide complany to advertise their product.
ReplyDeleteI did not understand the underlying gay/lesbian message in this commercial. The mom clearly did not want her daughter to wear those clothes, but with the detergent, nothing could ruin it even if you tried to. It did not matter what clothes the child was wearing, just the fact that the detergent was able to take out the stains.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that this commercial uses the gender stereotype that girls must be feminine in their way of dress and attitude at all times, I did not necessarily get the feeling of the attack on sexual orientation. I did however find it to be a subtle but intentional choice on the casting part that the woman speaks with a southern accent. Overall I found it very well written and although I did not immediately agree with all of your points, you defended them well.
ReplyDelete