Blog Entry #1

Vintage Palmolive Commercial


Analysis:
The purpose of this commercial was to convince the buyer to purchase this dish soap by promoting the idea that it could both soften hands and clean dishes effectively.   It is selling the version of reality that allows women to both stay beautiful to please their husbands, keep a clean house, and possibly participate in the work force in some way.  The assumption is that a woman's happiness comes from her ability to have it all.  She can maintain her beauty, care for and clean her home, and potentially have a career (as per the discussion about being a manicurist vs. being a nurse).  Interestingly, I looked up the year that Madge's character first appeared as a spokesperson for Palmolive and discovered that these commercials ran from 1967 through the early 1990s.  I thought it would be interesting to look at a later version of one of the commercial to compare.  This commercial appeared in 1987, twenty years after the commercial that we are focusing on in this post.



In this later version of the commercial, Madge is still helping women to keep their hands soft by using Palmolive, but this time we see that the woman is rushing in to make her hands look good for a big job interview.  Instead of seeing the soap washing dishes, we see the woman actually soaking her hands in the Palmolive for the manicure itself.  The focus seems to have shifted from pleasing her husband, to impressing the interviewer for a new corporate job.  There is no longer a male voice in the commercial, it is only the voice of Madge, now a trusted cultural icon twenty years after she first appeared advocating the Palmolive product.

Audience:
The target audience seems to be women who have the responsibility of caring for a home and family. The story is told through the eyes of two women, one seems to be a bit older as she is passing on her wisdom on "having it all."  The audience is given an inside view into the secrets being shared among these two women.  Interestingly, most of the commercial is told through the woman's point of view. However, when the voice of authority speaks about the product, it is a strong male voice that is used. This voice seems to validate the discussion between the two women.

Representation:
The people in this video are portrayed as those who seem to know the secrets to being able to stay both beautiful and efficient in their work at home.  The assumption is that cleaning is meant to be the job of women, as there are no male figures portrayed in the actual commercial.  Interestingly, there are also no children present.  The view seems to be that the task of cleaning the dishes falls solely on the woman in the family.

Design
When creating this add, the video producer had to consider ways in which one could feel as though they are eavesdropping on a conversation between two women.  Madge had to be played by a woman who has some experience, and appears trustworthy to the audience.  The character receiving the information about the dish soap had to be someone that the audience not only connects with, but wants to emulate. The setting of the commercial also took place in two spaces.  The first is inside the beauty shop while the woman is receiving her manicure.  The second is outside the salon while she is carrying a bag of groceries.  The chosen settings represents the goal of the commercial, to show that a woman can have both beauty (as represented by the woman receiving the manicure) and efficiency in her work at home (as represented by the same woman carrying a bag of groceries).  The visual media used to share the conversations of the two women allows the audience to feel as though this is a representation of real life.  The scene in the middle of the commercial seems to give authority and validation through the male voice as the woman's hands are shown washing the dishes.  The text showing "two weeks later" to introduce the last scene is meant to help the audience understand that this is a quick fix to both the problem of dirty dishes and maintaining soft hands.

References:


[sideshowcarny]. (2006, Sept 5). Palmolive Commercial. [Video File]. 
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bEkq7JCbik&feature=related.

[Media Memories]. (2015, June 9). Madge the Manicurist 1987 Commercial. [Video File]. 
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlP6AaCGkGA.