Cleaning Adverts in the 50's.

Introduction

1950

In the 50's, household cleaning and hygiene products targeted middle class women in a multitude of ways. Ads targeted their appeals to efficiency and time management in order to get the endless homemaking tasks done with less strife. Advertisers appealed to these women's sense of security as wives or to their desire to be wives, indirectly appealing to the sense of interiority that accompanies a housewife lifestyle. This specifies the scope of necessity one can envision for a woman at this time.

PalmOlive

1952

This naturalist centered advert features two women bathing in an excess of soapsuds, smiling jubilantly, and posited in visual comparison to contemporary beauties of the time like Joan Crawford (left)and Norma Shearer(right). The ad describes the soap as Nature's chlorophyll. This is an indirectly poignant comment on how interior middle class women's everyday spending and behavioral habits were; that they needed to financially outsource access to nature's benefits.

Tide: No-Rinse Detergent

1952

This Tide advert sees a trio of affluent women commenting on their astonishment that Tide gets clothes clean without needing a final rinse. This ad emphasizes the increasing simplicity of household products by conglomerating separate utilities into one as exampled by the Tide detergent taking on more usage by reducing the labour to function required by its users. This shows how overwhelmed new wives felt trying to keep up a societally acceptable home, and how a quick-fix to this was appealing.

Flash Linoleum Cleaner Advert

1954

This Print Ad sees a glamorous woman cleaning her floors with Flash solution. This woman's excessively formal garments emphasize a middle class married woman's expected appearance in the throws of homemaking. This Ad portrays the products speed and efficiency. Left to run the home alone, Women would have been seeking out the most time efficient and labor relieving product available. The Ad essentially boasts that you don't have to sweat off your beauty regimen to keep things clean.

Camay: Loving Pink! Commercial

1957

CamayLovingPinkCommercial This Camay Loving Pink Commercial sees the foil wrapped soap in visual comparison to the fresh affluence of a lovely bride. "New as a brand new bride, Pink as a bridal blush". Emphasis on the newness, enticing young newlyweds to continue their perceived journey through the canonical cleanliness of 50's society via Proctor and Gamble. In parallel to this is the concept that cleanliness was essential to getting married.