That Ivory Look: So Clear, So Fresh, So Easily Yours
The advertisement That Ivory Look: So Clear, So Fresh, So Easily Yours was created by Procter and Gamble. It was published in January of 1957 in the Ladies' Home Journal publication. The advertisement itself promotes and showcases the product "Ivory Soap" through the means of a large image of a young child and smaller one of a woman's face. This imagery helps metaphorically connect the product being sold to important themes that women began to understand such as: cleanliness, beauty, personal care, and an increasing influence of femininity, since it appeared in a popular women's magazine. The advertisement, within the journal collection, reached an audience that was specifically drawn to understanding more about personal care, purity, hygiene, beauty products, and even a women's role within family life. Its ability to combine the warm photos, bright coloring, and call-to-action written language was easily able to encourage the female audiences to establish an association between Ivory Soap and a having healthy, cleared up skin.
This example emphasizes how mass mediation is prevalent and how that shapes social and personal identities as this advertisement was able to influence how women viewed themselves and those around them. Through the mass-produced magazines, in addition to the advertisements, beauty standards were able to be communicated to larger audiences, specifically impacting women's thoughts on cleanliness. It started to become a very important part of feminine identity within society to keep up with having fresh, clear skin and maintaining a certain beauty appearance. This theme connects to the question, "How does 'femininity' shape women's personal interests, and how have those interests redefined graphic design," as traditional feminine interests, such as personal care or beauty, are prominent subjects within the realm of graphic design. These interests are able to be used by advertisers to develop visual messages that can appeal to certain audiences, specifically female audiences in this case.
What drew me to this advertisement was how interesting something as simple as soap could turn into something that was marketed in a way to achieve such a specific reaction from feminine audiences. It was able to market a very idealized appearance, and rather than just focusing only on the products practical purpose, the design was able to highlight a larger, metaphorical societal expectation. I think this demonstrates how graphic design was able to reinforce a social expectation/scenario that could also respond to the personal identities and interests that the intended audiences were looking for.
