Representation Analysis

              The Tide ad begins with a Mother who is not happy with her young daughter's choices.  The mom is wearing pink, flowers are visible along with a tea set which all convey femininity, in a traditional sense.  Her daughter is wearing camouflage while playing with bricks and dinosaurs, which traditionally conveys "masculinity".  The Mother is wishing that Tide did not work as good as it does so that her daughter would be forced to pick a new wardrobe.  It is apparent that the mother wants her daughter to be like her, "lady-like".  The ad conveys a sense of discomfort the mother has for her daughter.  At the end, the Mother states that the daughter's car garage is "beautiful".  This comment seems forced as beauty is not a common characteristic of a car garage.  The audience may receive a sense of hesitance as the Mom wants her daughter to act in a different way.  Audience members may be able to relate as they had not been accepted by their parental figures, however, the advertisement does reinforce that young girls should be like their mothers in that they should adopt the color pink into their wardrobes and traditional feminine values.

             In the Axe commercial, women are conveyed as animals.  The wardrobe design of the hoards of women was very minimalistic, as they were all wearing bikinis, which may not be the best way to represent females.  Again, the women were portrayed as animals as they were fighting to get to the "prey" first, as they were shoving their way forward.  The advertisement objectifies women and exudes that women's only purpose is to appease men.