Tide and Kiss of vampire compared and contrasted

Compare and contrast the representations of gender in the two set texts below.

The advertisements are two very different adverts promoting two different products from completely separate industries yet there are similarities yet differences between the way gender is being represented on both.

The tide advert depicts a typical housewife mesmerized by a box of Tide washing suds, the woman being a housewife is encoded with the dress codes with her donning the stereotypical 50’s house wife spotty dress and scarf for her hair. Her adoring the washing product is also encoded due to her gesture codes wither hugging the box. The representation is a hegemonic view of women and conveys the stereotypical ideology of females exclusively being the “chore doer” and a housemaid back in the 50’s. This would be a social norm for an audience back in the 50's yet would not have resonated well for women. 

However, as we move on from the 50’s to the 60’s we see a gradual increase in feminist movements and society adjusting to this change. As shown with the 1963 poster advertising the movie “Kiss of the vampire”. Here we have a representation of both women and men with the two counteracting each other. The vampire as previously depicted in many adaptations before such as 1958’s Dracula is a cold blooded male predator. So it is with great surprise not only to see a female vampire on the front cover but also her being in front of the male vampire and looking fiercer and less vulnerable than her counterpart. However, both women featured in the poster are both depicted through the male gaze with both wearing clothing that is revealing and one kneeling in a lustful position.

Unlike the Tide advert “Kiss of the vampire” depicts a strong female character taking up what was now a typically male role yet falls back due to male perspective possibly due to its monster movie target audience being largely male dominated (this is possibly a reason for “Dracula's Daughters” under-performance financially). The tide advert is promoting a product specifically to women as evidenced by the tagline “Tides got women want!” due to the gender stereotype encoded in society back in the 50’s. Kiss of the vampire also reflects upon societies current view on gender roles with the change in women’s movement being reflected in the poster. An audience from the 60’s would recognize this being a monster movie due to the fonts and dark aesthetics and all other codes and conventions linked with a typical monster movie poster except now the usually female victims is being manipulated with a male victim being overthrown by a female monster. Both exploits women however one does it to gather a larger audience and the other due to hegemonic views.