Blog task: Score advert and wider reading

 Blog task: Score advert and wider reading

Complete the following tasks and wider reading on the Score hair cream advert and masculinity in advertising.

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?

Ads required less marketing research and more creative instinct as seen through the almost adventure esque theme the score ad ended up going with although it doesn't directly tie into the product in any crucial, meaningful way ; they also relied more on photography than illustration as seen by the fact that the advertisement is photograph instead of painting reinforcing the idea that the man's life is one capable for a real person outside the thresholds of fiction even though it's clearly staged.

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

Ones aiming to make women feel useful in a more domestic sense contrasting mid war Britain where they're place was on farms and in factories with the good wife being the most common representation of women taking pride and joy in housework with in the later part of the decade females were shown as sex symbols present within even the score advert itself.

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 lack of clothing on the women reflect the increasing liberal attitudes of the sexual revolution of the late 60s with it not being uncommon to view women as both subservient to men (present through the connotations of authority the man holds by being held higher than the woman) and as subjects of the 'male gaze" ,as proposed by Mulvey (1975) , with the ad being tailored to men leaving the audience positioned to look through a male lense furthermore there is the presence of a gun perhaps a phallic symbol or a reinforcement of masculine stereotypes at the time.

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

It feeds into Propps character theory "hero" with the image inferring that he's rewarded as the protector of their tribe for his masculine endeavours for an audience of moreso younger males who identified with the male and aspire to share the same status. At the time the male audience would view it as ironic and funny following the dominant reading whereas now it would be recognised as oppositional although the same techniques is used for lynx and other similar brands.

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

In the late 60s it would be viewed as relatable and funny whereas now some younger audiences might still view it as non problematic or as sexist but olden reflecting patriarchy of the time.

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 slogan suggests to the target male audience that using the Score hair cream will result in you becoming extremely attractive to women. The fact that this is 'what [they] always wanted' suggests that being swarmed by women was something men took pride of in the 1960s and it is what they dreamed of. They also want to be very powerful and dominant compared to the women.

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

The score advert takes place in the 60s which feeds in van zoonens arguement that mainstream media texts uses the visual and narrative codes are used to objectify women with hooks idea of a "white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy" to describe all the oppressive factors in our society with Butlers belief that gender is biologically determined not really relating as this advert heavily reinforced masculine and feminine societal gender roles at the time. 

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

At the time of the production of the score hair cream advert it was a time where being labelled as queer was a direct challenge to ones manhood in contrast as of recent years and society becomes more woke therefore society is complying with gauntlets belief that there's a decline in tradition as social gender roles have drastically changed with the increase of women in the work place and so forth 

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 1967 decriminalisation of homosexuality never actually occured with it only being partially decriminalised under certain conditions but this advert aided in highlighting that although the law was more leaning at the time the public remained stationary in it's ideals.

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

The jungle setting with the gun,throne and such all infer that the white western male has been successful in fighting off primaries 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'"?

The writer suggests there's a growing boy crisis due to the lack of tools equipped to talk about issues affecting boys that's slowly growing in our society for example th e unconscious social bias of male stoicism being preffered that some people still have trouble getting over or the fact that men commit suicide more than women due to lack of stable community around them and they're more likely to drop out of education and get involved in crime.

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

They changed their branding  in order to give a more diverse definition in 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"?

He spoke of a child in class that was showing early signs of later life long and debilitating body image issues that he believes stems from the advertisement he's seen and therefore he believes that in order to prevent this becoming a crisis in young men he advocates for a world where boys can freely like pink,don't want to get dirty,aren't ambitious and such to well the feeling of worthlessness when they fail to meet these impossible standards.

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

Certain adverts depict outdated ideations for example Tesco with men shopping when after a 10 country 3500 pp scale study was conducted it found 40% of men do the shopping. Definitions of family in Britain are changing but adverts don't help normalise that by largely failing at portraying such as normal 

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?

 Because it highlights how this isn't a process capable of happening overnight it took years for this to happen for women so although non comparable to what they had to fight for changing socially ingrained expectations takes time.