Advertising: Score hair cream CSP

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

This advert conveys that the hair cream will get you all the women and conveys that the man is considered as a god as supposed to the women as they are looking up to him and reaching out for him.
2) What representations of women were found in post-war British advertising campaigns?

That women were inferior to men since the man was carrying the gun while the women were carrying him.

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.

In the image I think that it shows how the cream is supposed to get you to be attractive to women as seen by the image of the man smiling and him being carried by them almost as if he is being praised by them, we can also see a sense of colonialism as they are in the jungle and their costume being of a safari theme. It may be a phallic symbol as the advert is trying to get into the sexual pleasures of men which could link to the male gaze.

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

The man was seen as the protector due to holding a gun in his hand of his people aka the women.

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

This would have been the norm for the 1967 audience to see however in 2020 this would be considered offensive and sexist.

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?

There is a direct of mode of address which makes the audience are keen to buy the product.

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

Van Zoomen's theory- Gender is constructed through contextual means and he can see that the man is dominant while the women are submissive and following his lead.

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

Gender identify is constructed by the audience so the audience can make up their own mind about how the man and women are really represented in that advert.

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)?

This is a full heterosexual advert due the gun being represented as a phallic symbol and the women 

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

The advert is set in a jungle which links back to when Britain colonised African countries. This was around the time the empire was falling which is signified through the safari clothes. 


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 wrong sex is being empowered and women are more empowered than ever before and causes many problems within masculinity.

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

They did the successful man campaign in 2016.

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

This is more revolutionary towards the males since women are focused on more.

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

The advert is trying to be as fluid as possible for all families types and everybody.

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?

Men in advertising are seen as attractive which negatively other men who don't look in that conventional way. This normalise this by saying change is for the good and being a man is about success.