Does She or Doesn't She?

The invention of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries was the first step toward modern advertising. Weekly newspapers in London started carrying ads in the 17th century, and this is how advertisements have started to occupy a significant place in our lives (Britannica, n.d). In modern days, it is undeniable that advertisements have an impact on our consumption decisions. Some of them are so impressive that the effect continues even after years. One of them is the advertisement for Clairol, which is a haircare company.

This ad print was published in 1957, and Shirley Polykoff is the creator of it. The slogan "Does she...or doesn't she?" was inspired by Polykoff's future mother-in-law, since the mother asked her son whether the hair of Polykoff is real or dyed (Times, 1998). On the ad print, there is this question. Its answer was 1 in 15 as just an amount of people used artificial hair dye at that time. For those times, dying hair for women was taboo in a way it was a thing that should not be mentioned. However, with this advertisement, according to TIME Magazine, the result was 1 of 2 only 11 years later (Cox, 2021). The popularity of the advertisement was huge and even affected law. Some states quit asking women to indicate their hair color on their driver's license.

On the surface level, there is a woman who has bright and well-groomed hair on the ad print. She has a child whose hair is the same color as herself. She is suitable for the nice and ideal woman image in the 1950s. It is written below the image that hair color is so natural, only her hairdresser knows for sure. However, most words are written in smaller font, it could be concluded that since it is a hair dye ad print the image has more significance. Only ‘’the does she or doesn’t she? ‘’ is written in a bigger font than others, and since it is a question, it is aimed to attract attention. Moreover, the clothing is not spectacular, so it does not distract the attention from the hair. Her make-up also looks very natural. There is no exaggerated make-up. Therefore, the image of a natural woman tried to be given from head to toe in this ad print.

On a deeper level, they choose to emphasize the image since visuals have more effect than just telling, and rather than using an ordinary slogan such as nine of ten women prefer to use this, they want to use a creative slogan that catches attention. The slogan is basically about that no one can understand whether you dyed your hair or not except your hairdresser who dyed it. This slogan was one of the milestones of ad print history. Because it encouraged women at a time when it was not customary for women to dye their hair. In this way, no one could question them since their hair looked natural (Anderson, 2018). In this ad print, the hair of the woman is the same as her child, and this gives the viewer the impression that her hair is natural. As I have mentioned before, the clothes of the woman are not flashy. In addition, the coat of the woman is green, and this color represents nature in many cases, this color somehow could be chosen to emphasize the naturalness. The color of the kerchief of the woman is orange, which represents warmth and encouragement, and these qualities were one of the main goals of the brand. Thus, in my point of view, the color decisions were not random, the brand wanted to convey the message of their product via colors. The main message that wanted to be conveyed is that the product preserves the naturalness of the woman, and all details were chosen accordingly.

It is obvious that advertisements and ad prints have a significant impact on humans. Sometimes they could influence the norms and habits of a society. Ad print of Clairol was one of them and helped to alter the unfavorable point of view about dyed hair. However, they did not achieve this success by chance since this ad print has deeper messages in it, and these messages achieved to reach their audiences.

REFERENCES

Anderson, V. A. P. B. K. (2018, June 27). Does She. . .Or Doesn’t She? Kenzie Anderson. https://kenzielanderson.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/does-she-or-doesnt-she/

Cox, L. K. (2021, January 19). The 18 Best Advertisements & Ad Campaigns of All Time. Blog Hubspot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-advertisements

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). advertising | Definition, History, Objectives, Examples, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/advertising

Times, T. N. Y. (1998, June 8). Shirley Polykoff, 90, Ad Writer Whose Query Colored A Nation. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/08/nyregion/shirley-polykoff-90-ad-writer-whose-query-colored-a nation.html#:%7E:text=Then%20in%201956%20Miss%20Polykoff,from%20declasse%20to%20de%20rigueur.