Tide - Nothing like it?

Today's ad comes from McCall's magazine, in 1949. This was a time when there was still a thing called "wash day". Doing the laundry was an all-day chore. Also, it was apparently the exclusive responsibility of women. This is kind of disgusting. It's also disgusting that, also in '49, getting blown up by angry foreigners was the exclusive responsibility of men. Ah well.

"There's nothing like it!" Really? Tide seems a little like amphetamines, by the look in the lady's eyes. I can see her with a spoon, scooping it into the machine. "One for the underpants. One for Momma *gulp*. One for the socks. One for Momma *gulp*."

I dunno. The expression on her face could be due to something else. She's only shown from the waist up. We can't see what's going on "downstairs". That was juvenile. Gotta make a note to have an intern cut that joke out.

It's a beautiful painting, even when you understand that art like this is heavily photo-referenced. (You know... they take a photo of a model in the same pose and clothing, and just have an artist make a painting of the photo.) It still takes tons of skill with the brush, but it's just less amazing than the thought painting something like this from thin air. It especially makes sense when you think that this was done on a deadline and a budget and the artist has to eat.

I don't know if Tide still puts the "oceans of suds" slogan on the nine-gallon jug of laundry goo that you buy at Giant Warehouse Discount Chain, but I never even associate the name with the ocean. It's been a laundry soap for so long, I don't even think about the name. Only when I looked at this ad did it occur to me where the name came from. This is either a victory of branding technique or a total failure of same. Maybe I need to have a spoonful for myself and open my third eye.