Who is the primary audience, what are the cultural values the ad assumes we share, how does the ad work to create a specific effect —besides “to sell things”?

This is an advertisement made by Alcoa Aluminium in 1953, promoting their HyTop twist-off bottle cap.

The primary audience of this audience is targeted towards women. It is viewed as a social stereotype during the 1950s. When women are “dependent” on their husbands to do things they “can’t do”, such as opening a ketchup bottle, they “have to ask someone to open it for them”. The New York Daily News stated that the woman in the advertisement is “clearly stunned and possibly delighted” at being able to open the bottle easily. The Independent claimed that it enforced the stereotype of a woman as an unintelligent housewife.

The first sentence of the article it accompanied stated, “Easily—without a knife blade, a bottle opener, or even a husband!” Which enforced the stereotype even further that women often need external help and that they are unable to do things themselves. Although some women during that time period are protesting against gender discrimination. Many internally accepted the fact that they need men’s help for many things, and that they are “dependent”.

The advertisement uses contrasting colour such as yellow and red to attract readers’ attention to the woman and the bottle. The colour of the lips of the woman is similar to the bottle. Which could establish the connection between women and cooking, “women are here to cook and to cook only” was a common stereotype during that time. Lipstick is also one of the female stereotypes. This advertisement not only spreads that stereotype but also reinforces it to the audience.

The advertisement has been subject to criticism in later reviews and is viewed as a symbol of casual sexism that was prevalent in the United States during the 1950s.