Blog task: Score advert and wider reading

 Media Factsheet - Score hair cream

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #188: Close Study Product - Advertising - Score. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. If you need to access this from home you can download it here if you use your Greenford login details to access Google Drive.

Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) How did advertising techniques change in the 1960s and how does the Score advert reflect this change?

 Advertising agencies in the 1960s relied less on market research and leaned more toward creative instinct in planning their campaigns.  “Eschewing portrayals of elitism, authoritarianism, reverence for institutions and other traditional beliefs, ads attempted to win over consumers with humour, candour and, above all, irony.” This reflects Score advert as it shows how they kind of focused on patriarchy as well as hieararchy. 

2) What representations of women were found in post-war British advertising campaigns?

In the UK, advertising in the post-war period was characterised by campaigns that very effectively reinforced that idea that a woman’s place was in the home. Also, in advertising campaigns still identify women as objectified and portrayed as servants.

3) Conduct your own semiotic analysis of the Score hair cream advert: What are the connotations of the mise-en-scene in the image? You may wish to link this to relevant contexts too.

Costume - The costume of the male character shows him wearing a t-shirt which kind of connotes his musculinity and how it reinforces the typical stereotypes of men being dominant. On the other hand, female characters were shown as showing a lot more skin, which kind of allows the advert to gain more audiences as it seem provocative.

Make up - The females's make up shows how women always have to wear make up to look pretty even when doing work or being submissive which also reinforces the typical stereotypes of women.

Prop - The prop that the females used which seems to be a carriage for the man kind of connotes women doing the work for men and how he's the one being carried connoted his dominance and patriarchy. 

Setting - The setting shows that they're in a jungle which reinforces the skin-like-blanket that the male is sitting on. This connotes how the man character may have been hunting which again connotes his dominance or the idea that the female characters are his prey.

4) What does the factsheet suggest in terms of a narrative analysis of the Score hair cream advert?

The Score advert identifies the man as Propp’s ‘hero’ in this narrative. The image infers that he is ‘exulted’ as the hunter-protector of his ‘tribe’. The women could be the damsel in distress or his sidekicks. 

5) How might an audience have responded to the advert in 1967? What about in the 2020s?

The 1967 male audience might read the narrative as ironic and humorous (the dominant reading?) but it is unlikely that they would challenge the underlying ideology implicit within the advert. Females, though not the target audience, might read the gender representations in an oppositional way but at the same time accept its representation of a patriarchal society as normal or inevitable. Modern audiences, including students of the media, are likely to respond in a different way, aware that its sexist narrative is outdated and, for some, offensive.

6) How does the Score hair cream advert use persuasive techniques (e.g. anchorage text, slogan, product information) to sell the product to an audience?

They paid much more attention to building a distinctive character for the brand. The brand message is clear: to present the product as grooming product for a ‘real’ (masculine) man. The choice of the ‘Score’ brand name is deliberate and carries very obvious connotations. They also used the idea that when men used this cream they would be able to get a girl, and also the idea that they put information about the product in the anchorage text.

7) How might you apply feminist theory to the Score hair cream advert - such as van Zoonen, bell hooks or Judith Butler?

From van Zoonen's theory it kind of shows how women are being objectified as well as their body. From bell hooks theory, her contemporary perspective identifies a kind of double or triple oppression of women who are also black and/or working class. Indeed hooks uses term ‘white

supremacist, capitalist patriarchy’ to describe all the oppressive factors in our society. This might aptly describe the image presented in the Score advert. Furthermore, in Judith Butler's theory, both the male and the female in the core advert are performing the roles of the (masculine) man and the (feminine) woman in accordance with their biological sex. The advert also serves to reinforce the binary opposite gender roles ascribed by society.

8) How could David Gauntlett's theory regarding gender identity be applied to the Score hair cream advert?

The role of the producer in shaping ideas about masculinity is clear in the Score advert. women would have a clear sense about their place in the world, despite many of the social changes that were leading to greater equality both socially and sexually. Whereas, men being dominant and masculine.

9) What representation of sexuality can be found in the advert and why might this link to the 1967 decriminalisation of homosexuality (historical and cultural context)?

It partially decriminalised it under certain conditions. In the years that followed, gay sexuality was policed more aggressively than before and the number of men arrested for breaching those conditions actually rose considerably.”

10) How does the advert reflect Britain's colonial past - another important historical and cultural context?

Paul Gilroy argues that despite the passing of empire, the white western world still exerts its dominance through cultural products. The jungle setting, the gun, the throne all infer that the white western male has been successful in fighting off primitives or dangerous animals to save his own tribe.

Wider reading

The Drum: This Boy Can article

Read this article from The Drum magazine on gender and the new masculinity. If the Drum website is blocked, you can find the text of the article here. Think about how the issues raised in this article link to our Score hair cream advert CSP and then answer the following questions:

1) Why does the writer suggest that we may face a "growing 'boy crisis'"?

 They suggest that we could be, in fact, empowering the wrong sex. Women are under-represented with casual sexism and unconscious bias still endemic, but the difference is that we are all now familiar with the narrative around tackling these issues.

2) How has the Axe/Lynx brand changed its marketing to present a different representation of masculinity?

Axe/Lynx brand changed its marketing by creating a campaign, leading to the step-change 'Find Your Magic' campaign.

3) How does campaigner David Brockway, quoted in the article, suggest advertisers "totally reinvent gender constructs"?

Urges the industry to be “more revolutionary”, particularly when it comes to male body image, which he says is at risk of following the negative path trodden by its female counterpart. “We’re seeing a huge rise in eating and body image disorders among young men. We can’t isolate the cause. Advertising plays its part. A 13-year-old boy of average build in one class recently told me seeing an ad made him feel fat. He didn’t mean a bit out of shape. He meant everything that goes with that feeling such as seeing himself as lazy, unaccomplished and incapable.” In order to prevent a full blown crisis of self-worth, Brockway advocates that advertisers “totally reinvent gender constructs” and dare to paint a world where boys like pink, don’t like going out and getting dirty, or aren’t career ambitious, for example.

4) How have changes in family and society altered how brands are targeting their products?

As Miller says, the definition of “family” in places like Britain is profoundly changing – but advertising is not helping to normalise different scenarios by largely failing to portray this new normal. Joey Whincup, insight director at Creative Race, agrees that success comes down to better research and she’s witnessing a slow but growing shift towards targeting consumers on more than the usual ‘ABC1 male’ demographics. Quite a few brands still segment like this, but others are seeking “a true understanding of their target consumer; who they really are, their beliefs, their attitudes, where they are now, where they want to be in future. “These brands are not just governed by the jobs men do or their age”.

5) Why does Fernando Desouches, Axe/Lynx global brand development director, say you've got to "set the platform" before you explode the myth of masculinity?

On Fernando Desouches, Axe global brand development director, he knows that. And, as he says, you’ve got to “set the platform” before you explode the myth. “This is just the beginning. The slap in the face to say ‘this is masculinity’. All these guys [in the ad] are attractive. Now we have our platform and our point of view, we can break the man-bullshit and show it doesn’t matter who you want to be, just express yourself and we will support that. “What being a man means, and what ‘success’ means, is changing and this change is for the good. The message hasn’t exploded yet but we will make it explode. We will democratise it.” The passion in the Argentinian’s voice is tangible; this is a man on a mission. He’s already forged partnerships with several NGOs, from CALM to Promundo to The Representation Project, and says more developments are on the horizon. The Axe repositioning has been a “difficult”, steep learning curve. Desouches argues that “men are actually more emotional than women” and that they need more empowerment than women.