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A growing group of Americans spoke out against inequality and injustice during the 1950s. African Americans had been fighting against racial discrimination for centuries; during the 1950s, however, the struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life. For example, in 1954, in the landmark Brown VS Board case, the Supreme court declared that “separate educational facilities” for black children were “inherently unequal.” This ruling was the first challenge to Jim Crow.

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Americans had more money to spend and companies introduced credit cards and buying on credit. This also introduced supermarkets and shopping centres. during war women worked because the men were overseas.

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Print adverts from the 1950s conventionally used more copy than we’re used to seeing today. Consumer culture was in its early stages of development and, with so many ‘new’ brands and products entering markets, potential customers typically needed more information about them than a modern audience, more used to advertising, marketing and branding, might need.

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The likely audience demographic is constructed through the advert's use of women with whom they might personally identify (Uses and Gratifications Theory). These young women are likely to be newly married and with young families (the men's and children's clothing on the washing line creates these connotations).

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The headband or scarf worn by the woman also links to the practicalities that women’s dress codes developed during this time. For this advert, having her hair held back connotes she’s focused on her work, though this is perhaps binary opposed to the full makeup that she’s wearing

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The D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency handled P&G’s accounts throughout the 1950s. Its campaigns for Tide referred explicitly to P&G because their market research showed that consumers had high levels of confidence in the company.

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Uniquely, DMB&B used print and radio advertising campaigns concurrently in order to quickly build audience familiarity with the brand. Both media forms used the “housewife” character and the ideology that its customers “loved” and “adored” Tide.

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Though the 1950s was in many ways a period of conformity with traditional gender roles, it was also a decade of change, when discontent with the status quo was emerging

Popular culture and the mass media reinforced messages about traditional gender roles, consumer culture, and the Cold War ideal of domesticity, but the reality of women’s lives did not always reflect these ideals.

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The dress codes of the advert’s main female character include a stereotypical 1950s hairstyle incorporating waves, curls and rolls made fashionable by contemporary film stars such as Veronica Lake, Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth. The fashion for women having shorter hair had a practical catalyst as long hair was hazardous for women working with machinery on farms or in factories during the war.

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The post-WWII consumer boom of the 1950s includes the rapid development of new technologies for the home, designed to make domestic chores easier. Vacuum cleaners, fridge freezers, microwave ovens and washing machines all become desirable products for the 1950s consumer. Products linked to these new technologies also develop during this time, for example, washing powder.

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Designed specifically for heavy-duty, machine cleaning, Procter & Gamble launched Tide in 1946 and it quickly became the brand leader in America, a position it maintains today.

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In the 1950s, while men were being targeted for the post-war boom in America’s car industry, women were the primary market for the technologies and products being developed for the home. In advertising for these types of texts, stereotypical representations of domestic perfection, caring for the family and servitude to the ‘man of the house’ became linked to a more modern need for speed, convenience and a better standard of living than the women experienced in the pre-war era

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The likely target audience of increasingly affluent lower-middle class women were, at this point in the 1950s, being appealed to because of their supposed need for innovative domestic technologies and products. The increasing popularity during the 1950s of supermarkets stocking a wider range of products led to an increased focus by corporations on brands and their unique selling points.