Advertising: Score hair cream CSP

 Blog task: Score advert and wider reading

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 towards creative instinct in planning their campaigns. The "new advertising" of the 1960s took its cue from the visual medium of TV and the popular posters of the day, which featured large visuals and minimal copy for a dazzling, dramatic effect. The score advert shows this with the dramatic leaves and background for a jungle scenery along with clear importance of the positioning and costumes of each person in the advert, eye catching.

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

Women were clearly seen to belong in the home and to support the family and family only. Considering that women helped during the war slightly adjusted adverts into representing women's purpose is to help and support the man which is clearly seen in the score hair cream advert.

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.

The obvious hierarchy in the advert showing the man as the top and the women as below represents the colonial pasty of Britain.

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

They suggest that women are the reward for masculine endeavours, therefore, they should buy the product in order to get whatever woman they want.

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 but it is unlikely that they would challenge the underlying ideology implicit within the advert. People in the 2020s would acknowledge the problems with the advert but little boys, knowing that their products are still advertised this way, would probably not see it as problematic.

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?

.Slogan: "get what you always wanted" - offers equilibrium/aggressive heterosexuality

.Anchorage: "getting what you want"/"men" "masculine" - reaffirming men's sexuality/ masculinity

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

.belle hooks: This advert could be in response to the second wave of feminism as a fight against it. Men trying to prove themselves as still superior which shows that it is a patriarchal society.

.Van Zoonen: The media represents women as weak because of the dominant ideology and norms in the 60s but now in the 21st century they're presented as strong and independent which represents the new ideology and social norms. This proves that gender is constructed.

.Judith Butler: In the 60s women were represented as the man's helper but now they're represented as independent and hardworking.

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

The score hair cream advert really represents what was the dominant ideology of masculinity in the 60s.

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)?

The constant repetition of "men" or "masculine" emphasis in the text could be representing how their product is not for homosexual people and only for straight masculine men so if any men wants to prove that they should buy it.

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

The score advert follows a similar narrative. 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 tribes.

Wider reading

The Drum: This Boy Can article

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

We are much less equipped to talk about issues affecting boys. There is an unconscious bias that males should simply 'man up' and deal with any crisis of confidence themselves.

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

As Lynx/Axe found when it undertook a large scale research project into modern male identity, men are craving a more diverse definition of what it means to be a "successful" man in 2016.

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

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 ambitious.

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

Whinecup suggests experimenting with social media as it allows flexibility and for more targeted messages. One example is the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), which raises awareness of male suicide. 

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?