Advertising: Score hair cream CSP

 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?

- In the 1960s advertising agencies relied less on market research and leaned more towards creative instinct in planning their campaigns. 

- Instead of portrayals of elitism, authoritarianism,reverence for institutions and other traditional beliefs; advertisements attempted to win over consumers using, humour, candour and above all, irony.

 

- The visual took on a greater performance

- Score reflects this through its raunchy, phallic imagery with use of the gun the man is holding. This may make consumers laugh and prompt them to even buy the product just as a ‘joke’

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

In the 60s, sexism was on a much bigger scale than today- this was especially seen through advertisement. Most ads were targeted towards a male audience as many women earned less than men, so with the portrayal of sexist commentary and imagery this drew men in to buying certain products. 

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.

With the jungle background and the outfits of the people in the advert , there is an all around theme of uncivilised nations. This connects to the British Empires loss of their colonies, which caused them to loose some of their power against other nations and therefore lose respect and fear from others. This adverts represents a backlash to the disrespectful they felt from their ex-colonies, with the use of the fake plants and animals skin suggests the adverts attempted imitation of these perceived ‘uncivilised’ nations. However this imitation ultimately fails due to the artificial lighting and the clearly white studio backdrop- there is no substance to the advert and therefore unbelievable to the audience. The women are dressed in scarcely short skirts and their midriffs are on display, depicting the sexual revolution that happened in the 60s( also nicknamed the Swinging 60s). The man who is being held up has a smirk on his face with his eyes directly looking at the audience, this action code of direct address towards the audience suggests that the man wants us to have what he has- women surrounded by him and to get that we must use this hair cream to increase our chances of success with women. The woman to his left, situated at the back is looking up at him, this suggest that women also look at men the same way men look at women. Her eyes suggest a sense of lustful sultriness- this connects to the theorist Mulvey- who suggest that there is a female gaze. This makes complete sense for the advert at the time due to the sexual liberation of women at the time. The women to the right at the very front is looking to her side towards him, with a smirk on her face, similar to the man’s expression. This action code suggests that women can also feel a sense of pride when they attaint the man they’ve been pining for, solidifying Mulvey’s female gaze theory.

The fact that the man looks very clean shaven and moisturised with hair perfectly in place suggests the new era of man that arose. Where men now took more care of themselves physically and paid more attention to their appearance but this advert suggest that this effort is not for them but for the accumulation of more women. 

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

-The 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 adoration – and availability – of the females are his reward for such masculine endeavours. Which has a clear appeal to the younger male audiences who identify with the male and aspire to share his success. 

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

In 1967 the male audience would most likely see it as humorous and ironic (a dominant reading). In comparison to a female audience, although not the target audience they may not like how they’re represented, they most likely would have accepted this representation as perfectly normal. In contrast to the 2020s, where a male audience would find the advert entertaining and humorous but think nothing harmful of it. In comparison to a female audience of this time that would have an oppositional reading to the advert and would find it all extremely 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?

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 obvious  in its sexual connotations 

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

The feminist writer Liesbet van Zoonen argues that ‘gender’ is constructed through discourse and that its meaning varies according to the cultural and historical context. The ‘Score’ advert constructs a representation of women that is typical of the late 1960s - and accepted as normal. Women in this era were largely represented as

either domestic servants or sex objects – and in Score they might be considered both servant and sex object. Much like Laura Mulvey, van Zoonen argues that in mainstream media texts the visual and narrative codes are used to objectify the female body.

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

Gauntlett suggest that the media play a role in constructing identities. As the advert constructs, subsequently portraying what a man should look like or present like in that time. Similarly with the representation of women, they learn their place in the world as sex objects despite the political and sexual liberation of the time 

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 man is presented to be extremely groomed, with his hair perfectly in place and skin glowingly clear. This was a newer form of masculinity where it was ok for men to start taking care of themselves and therefore encouraged this behaviour. Although in society at the time still saw things like this as ‘gay’, in despite of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality. This representation of men in the advert could be a backlash in response to this liberation of gay men.

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

In Hollywood film, for example, the white male (usually American) plays the role of the hero, who inevitably saves the (dependent) world from disaster. 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 tribe. This is a reference to the British Empires colonies, that were gaining independence at the time. 

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'"?

Women are increasing empowered subsequently making men feel disempowered as not much attention is paid towards them.

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

Men are craving a more diverse detention of what it means to be a successful man in 2016, as well as relive the pressure on them to “conform to suffocating old paradigms”

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

He essentially wants adverts to adhere to a ‘gender flip’, where they encourage or in his words “dare” young boys to be comfortable with liking the colour pink, or not liking to get dirty or don’t want to go outside or aren’t career ambitious. 

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

In some countries men are now doing 40% of the supermarket shopping and in some US households men are running the budgets. Essentially advertisers are missing out on potentially one of their biggest consumers by not targeting them as they don’t recognise their potential yet. Miller says that the definition of “family” is changing in places like Britain. However advertising is not helping to normalise these different scenarios and are largely failing at portraying this “new normal”. For brands nervous of saying the wrong thing, it’s suggested that they should experiment on social media as it allows fluidity and more targeted messages.

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?

He says that ads must give their point of view on what masculinity is and break it down so men are able to express who they want to be or who they are at their core so society can support them with that.