Draft:Washes Whiter

Washes Whiter is a 1990 BBC Two five-part television documentary series on the techniques and history of advertising, on television, from the 1950s.

Episode 1 - She's Not a Moron - She's Your Wife

The good wife in advertising

Television advertising was mainly targeted at women; detergent advertisements; Tim Shepherd-Smith, former advertising manager of Lever Brothers; Kay Scoran of Ted Bates Advertising from 1986 to 1987; Jackie Dickens, vice-chairman of Leo Burnett; a 1956 Kellogg's Cornflakes advert - 'Start your way the Kellogg's way'; Jane Graves, a Cultural Studies lecturer at Central St Martins College; Clive Rumsey, of the Lintas advertising for Birds Eye Group from 1958 to 1968; Dennis Saunders, former advertising executive for Unilever, and the development of cake mixes; American psychologist Ernest Dichter.

The good wife and her housework

Adverts for Puritan soap and Blue Vim, of Unilever; Rinso and Luvil adverts, of Unilever, and 'whiteness'; Judith Wardle of the Planning Partnership, and toilet cleaners; Barry Day, vice-chairman of Lintas Worldwide, and euphemisms in advertising; Domestos adverts - 'Domestos kills all known germs dead'.

How to address the good wife

Initially most television adverts for wives had an authoritative paternal male, often giving condescending demeaning instructions; this was replaced in the 1960s by the colloquial term 'two tarts in a kitchen' method, where the paternal male would appear briefly in the advert; Kitty O'Hagan, deputy chairman of GGK; but this method stretched credulity; the PG Tips monkeys adverts paid homage to the advertisers' conventional methods; in the 1970s advertisers made parodies of their typical methods and well-worn stereotypes; Jeremy Bullmore, a director of WPP; egg advertising in 1969; television serialised advertising.

The good wife in the 1970s and 1980s

Philip Spencer of Johnson Wax Ltd; showing men cooking in the kitchen often had counterproductive effects; a 1979 advert for Cadbury Dairy Milk that showed a man washing the kitchen floor, a form of role reversal, also had counterproductive effects, as women could not readily identify with that situation; by the late 1980s new tactics of selling detergent were needed; adverts became more gritty, or honest, in the 1980s; Ev Jenkins, a planning director of JWT.

Transmission

It was first broadcast on Sunday 1 April 1990 at 8pm on BBC Two, being repeated in April 2008 on BBC Four.

Production

It was narrated by the actor William Franklyn, who had voiced many television adverts for Schweppes tonic water, in the early 1970s.

It was produced by Archie Baron, with series producer Nicholas Barker.

External links

• BBC episode guide
• IMDb

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• 1990 British television series debuts
• 1990s British documentary television series
• BBC television documentaries about history during the 20th Century
• Documentary television series about economics
• History of advertising
• Social impact of advertising