Advertising case study 1: OMO print advert

The first close-study product for Advertising and Marketing is the 1955 advert for OMO washing powder that appeared in Woman's Own magazine.

This product provides an excellent opportunity to analyse the changing representation of women in advertising over the last 60 years.

Sample questions for Advertising and Marketing

In your Media exams, you are likely to get questions similar to these:

- Why do advertisers use stereotypes? [6 marks]

- Explain how advertisements reflect the historical context in which they were created. [12 marks]

OMO advert CSP (1955)

OMO was a popular washing powder brand in the 1950s. This advert was from 1955 and needs to be studied both in terms of historical context and how it would be received today.

In 1955, British society was still adjusting after World War Two in which women took on many traditionally male jobs with men off fighting. This led to advertising in the 1950s often trying to reinforce traditional female stereotypes of housewives and mothers in order to protect male power both at work and at home.

Annotations

In the lesson, you'll have a chance to annotate your own copy of the OMO advert and make notes of the key conventions and what they communicate to the audience.

Here are some of the questions we discussed when we annotated our copy of the advert in class:

And here's an image of an annotated advert from a lesson on OMO - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access this.

OMO advert: blog tasks

Work through the tasks in this blogpost to make sure you're an expert on this CSP.

1) What year was the advert produced?

2) How were women represented in most adverts in the 1950s?

3) What typography can be found in the advert and what connotations might this have?

4) What does the costume, make-up and placement of the model (mise-en-scene) suggest about women's role in society in 1955?

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

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

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

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

Extension questions

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

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

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

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?

You will have lesson time to answer these questions but will need to complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom.