"Christmas morning she'll be happier with a Hoover" - Image 3

"Christmas morning she’ll be happier with a Hoover" reads Hoover’s advertisement for their newest vacuum. The advertisement shows a woman dressed in a fine green and white dress lying on the ground next to her new gift. The woman has delicately placed her hand over the vacuum, an action that can be compared the comforting and compassionate body language one displays toward a child. Her special Christmas present is similar to a child. Her green dress corresponds with the red vacuum and red font, tying together the Christmas theme. Red is associated with passion, which conveys the message that the woman shown here is extremely happy and passionate about the Hoover. The text is written in cursive font, eliciting an elegant and sophisticated feel toward the advertisement. This also gives the advertisement an older feel, as if it’s from the 1950-1960’s.

Although a woman is shown in the ad, the audience is directed toward men because it refers to the woman as "she", rather than "I" or "you". Under "morning" in the main text reads "and forever after", which shows that Hoover is timeless and irreplaceable – just like your wife should be. In smaller font, a rhetorical question states, "If you really care about her… Wouldn’t it be a good idea to consider a Hoover for Christmas?" This creates a sense of guilt toward the husband, who now feels inclined to return the favor to his wife. Women may also see this ad and show it to their significantly other. Regardless of the viewer, the directed audience is still the male. Those who read this ad are most likely in the middle or upper class due to the elegance of the ad as well as the price of the vacuum, being listed in very small font as $99.95. Placing the price in the bottom corner in a very small font makes it almost unnoticeable to the reader and says that the price doesn’t matter when it comes to satisfying your wife.

Explicitly, the advertisement is stating that your wife would be happier if you bought this product. However, implicitly, Hoover Company is really conveying society’s stereotype of male dominance. By directing this ad toward men, it is showing that men in a relationship are responsible for making money and taking care of the family. Women are therefore totally dependent on the man in their life and would otherwise not be able to afford this on their own. In a marriage, the woman is also only good for her cleaning and maintaining the home, and it is the only thing they enjoy doing as well. Even though the Hoover vacuum is a present for the house, it is a present for her, which can be directly shown in the excited expression on her face. In a man’s mind, the idea of staying home every day is terribly boring, so deep down they must know that their woman must sometimes have similar feelings. Hoover’s tactic of targeting the man’s guilt through rhetorical questioning is what makes this advertisement so powerful and the male audience so inclined to purchase this timeless product.