Advertising: Score hair cream CSP

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

The intention of this advert was that if you war the hair cream you would attract all the women. The man is also carrying a gun symbolising power which shows him as more superior to the women who are carrying and admiring him like he is some sort of prize.
2) What representations of women were found in post-war British advertising campaigns?

Women are represented as spectacles that men are either awarded or earned.

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 use of the gun "phallic symbol" and the women's revealing clothes portrays to us the man's sexual needs will be met when you buy the product.

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

The man is being portrayed as the hero who is going to protect all the women around him which motivates the audience to also buy the product.

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

The audience of 1967 would be completely fine with this ad however in 2020 people may be offended and call it 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 are lots of direct mode of address to the audience communicating to them that this product is essential. There are lots of information about the product to convince the audience 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?

Gender is constructed through contextual values that men are dominant and women are inferior.

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

The audience defines what gender is. They can either choose to support the idea or go against it.

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 advert leads to a heterosexual side since the gun can be seen as a phallic symbol and the women are clearly attracted to the man.

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

The advert is set in a Jungle which may have portrayed how the British colonised some African countries and that this advert was during the time of the British Empire.


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'"? We are empowering the wrong sex  Men's suicides are much higher than women since women are getting empowered while men are getting dis powered.

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

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"?

They would be more revolutionary when it comes to the male body since they focus on women more.

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

Advertising has tried to be as fluid as possible for all types of families.

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 all men in advertising are seen as attractive. This affects men who do not have that type of body standard. This is normalised by saying being a man is about success.