Representation Analysis

The Tide ad featuring a woman and her daughter is one that works to try to break gender roles and stereotypes. The girl is wearing a camouflage shirt and cargo shorts, which are usually considered to be masculine clothing choices. The mom talks about how the daughter left crayons in her pocket, and almost all her clothes were ruined, and that she wished they were. This, paired with the juxtaposition of the daughter's clothes and the pink, feminine clothes and setting of the living room, shows how the mom wishes her daughter would dress more feminine. It also shows how the daughter is shattering gender roles and simply enjoying her own style. People in the younger generations would probably use more of Tide products seeing that they care about representation and want to support those who are under represented (masculine dressing girls and vice versa). People in older generations may feel angry about this change and refuse to use Tide products. The ad ends with the line that only cleanliness matters in fashion, saying that people should be allowed and accepted to wear what they wish.

H&M released an ad in which is tries to break almost all fashion stereotypes in terms of gender, hair color, sexuality, and race. The ad shows several common stereotypes, such as wearing red as a redhead or having underarm hair as a woman. They have several other examples, and at the end they claim that the only important rule of fashion is to recycle your clothes. Here, they present another message aside from representation. Representation is used as a marketing strategy to both encourage people who do not conform to stereotypes to shop at H&M and to recycle their clothes. The message being conveyed by the voiceover is juxtaposed with the visuals of the people breaking the said stereotype. This adds more power to the message, as it shows the people breaking the stereotype. Since this is something that people tend to not see, it makes people really take in the message being conveyed.