Representation Analysis

Representation One: Tide

This advertisement involved a mother and her daughter, who were very different from each other. The mother was wearing pink and floral clothing in her living room, which was also the same color and design, showing that this mother is wealthy enough to afford a some decorated clothing and house.  On the other hand, her daughter was wearing green and dark colored clothing, which can be most typically associated with being worn by boys. This provides a representation of a gender and look that are opposite, different from what is usually presented of girls. Still, it provides the audience with a varied look of how girls could look at that age, as not every girl is into things such as pink, flowers, skirts, and more. As she explains the uses of the product, Tide, she looks at her daughter, who may be around 7-10 years old, with not the most pleasant look, showing her distaste with what her daughter is doing or how she may be looking. The mothers implicit disliking can be detrimental to audiences who are the little girl or who are the mom of this type of little girl, who may be thinking that who they are is wrong, and the certain treatment of their child like in the advertisement is correct.  and cause them to think the way the mother looks is the way that those little girls should look. This advertisement presents a alternate way that a mother and daughter may look, one being more girly than the daughter, but does not provide the validation of their differences as correct, and proceeds to show the daughter in a more unfavorable light than the mother.

Representation Two: Axe

This advertisement involves a mass amount of women on an island, who come from different places on the island like the land, the sea, and other places. At first, it is not noticeable who they are running to, but it is later shown that they are running to a man, who is spraying Axe body spray. From the beginning, the women in the advertisement are expresses as animals, as they are running in a more rough fashion, yelling at certain times when people are in their way, who they even push down. As who their running to is revealed, it can cause for the women to be looked at as people who may only care about men, as the advertisement showed more than hundreds of girl running towards the one man spraying the Axe spray. This can represent the gender of women as limited to talking about men, when women independently have accomplished dreams and goals in life like getting a certain job, living in a certain place of liking, and overall create the best life for themselves, without the help of a man. Moreover, this portrays the man as an alpha figure, or one who has the most power, after spraying the Axe body spray. This can represent and influence either gender to believe than men have the most power in a women's life, and in society in general, causing for men to believe in this "power" and women to conform to that reality, which is most definitely not needed. The advertisement showed the product as one of the most powerful and working, but put forth a flawed notion of women as an example.