Advertising-Score Hair Cream

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

Advertising techniques in the 1960s focused less on market research as it was harder to get these details from people back in the 1960s compared to now due to the difference in technological advancements. Instead, companies focused more on the promotional methods of their companies and would do so by making their adverts more appealing to their audience by making them more comical, more interesting or by overall making their advertisements as visually pleasing as possible. This can be reflected in the score advert where the advertisement is made to intrigue a male audience through reflecting traditional men 'wants' mainly being many women to serve them.

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

Post-war British adverts began to mainly focus on women instead of men, this was after the war where women had to take over many men-run jobs whilst the men were out fighting at war leading people to see that women could do the same job as men this resulted in an attempt for women to present themselves as independent but this did not work well and continued to portray women as inferior and that their place is at the house doing all the house chores whilst the man of the house collects the income.

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.

Semiotic aspects of this advert link to the social actors of this time period. the advert was made in 1967 where sexism was still largely affecting the world and feminism was in its second wave and was trying to be more relevant to society as a whole although the idea of feminism was still rejected by many including the advertisement industry as shown in the score advert. There are many factors of this advert that link to this concept especially in terms of mise-en-scene for example the outfits used in this. we can see the main model of this 'the man' is in a safari hunting outfit which has his sleeves rolled up which reinforces his role as the man due to rolled up sleeves being a signifier of violence which is a key aspect of masculinity whereas the women who are positioned under him whilst serving him have got the same outfit but with a lot removed causing them to be more exposed and sexually exploited in order to support Mulvey's theory of the male gaze.

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

The factsheet refers to prop's character theory referring to the man of the advert as the 'hero' due to his surrounding of women which in the 1960's to men would be a great achievement and anyone in his position would be seen as a hero of some sort in their specific era of time.

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

As stated in my answer to question 4, audiences of this advert in the 1960's would view this motivationally and will most likely want to buy the product if they insist that buying the product is going to help gain female attention however there is also a part of audience that may see this in an oppositional way since hair cream is something linked more to feminist and in this era of hypermasculinity there might not be that large of an audience who will want to indulge in these products as it might portray them as 'gay' which especially in these times were heavily frowned upon.

If this was posted in 2020, the advert would be taken down in an instant and the company itself be faced with public cancellation as well as lawful action even being involved as this could slide as a mass hate crime due to the dehumanisation and sexualisation and sexism and objectification used in this advertisement.

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 main language "Get what you've always wanted" appeals to a more masculine audience, particularly younger guys who would identify and admire the male in the advertisement and want to attain the same position as him—having so many ladies admire him. The product description encourages this hyper-masculinity by promoting highly masculine beliefs like "Made by men for men." 

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

Van Zoonen- The score hair cream advert supports Van Zoonens feminist theory that males and females are constructed through the media. such as my point of the male model being placed over the female cast portraying him to seem dominant.

bell hooks-Her belief that white upper class males rule society are heavily reinforced by this advertisement as he is clearly a white male who is not presented as an upper-class man but is still shown as a ruler of some sort as he's shown going hunting whit his 'servants' serving him on his leopard skin surface that was placed to make it seem as though he has got it from hunting which is seen as a sport those of a higher class do to express their dominance.

Judith Butler-who believes that gender is based of the way one acts/ dresses which once more is shown here as the female are dressed in a very sexually revealing way and seem to worship the man aside from the black haired woman at the front of the left who is trying to make eye contact with the audience in a seductive way all of these aspects reflect femininity and as stated previously the way the man is dressed and positioned to act.

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

According to David Gauntlett, the process of building identities involves both media creators and viewers. The Score advertisement, which is unquestionably comparable to numerous other media texts from that era, clearly demonstrates the producer's involvement in influencing perceptions about masculinity. Because they were surrounded by these portrayals, men in the 1960s used them to create their own identities and understandings of what it meant to be a man in the middle of the 20th century.

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)?

As masculinity empowering this advertisement is, we must also keep in mind what the advert is promoting which is a hair cream which typically men especially in the 1960's and post 1960, men arent supposed to be worrying too much on these products to enhance themselves and stick to the traditional shampoo, body wash and dental care whereas it was the women who to a very extreme extent had to focus on all these products that would make them more visually pleasing to men such as various hair products, an extensive amount of makeup and their outfits which make them stand out to men.

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

As we know, Britain has a very extensive colonial past in terms of colonisation with over 57 colonies. Colonisation to an extent links to hunting which is the secondary focus of this advertisement (the main focus being the women) as they all sharing traditional hunting outfits. In these times, the soldiers who went to war as well as those who went to colonise the different countries were seen as elite since its a very large masculine trait to be sent out into battle and so this could be seen as an attempt to tell the viewers that they too can be like the brave and courageous fighters that went out into battle

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 woefully under-represented in boardrooms and certain walks of life, with casual sexism and unconscious bias still endemic, but the difference is that we are all now familiar with the narrative around tackling these issues.

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

It was only when sales growth slowed that the brand decided to invest in some proper research, leading to a 10-country study of 3,500 men, and consultation of experts such as neuroscientists, to find out what men are really thinking.

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

Campaigner David Brockway, who oversees the Great Men initiative for the Great Initiative, calls for "more revolutionary" business practises, especially when it comes to men's body image, which he claims is in danger of going down the same destructive road as its female counterpart. Young men's eating and body image issues are on the rise significantly. We are unable to identify the root of the problem. Advertising has a role. A 13 year old child in one class who is of ordinary build recently informed me that watching an advertisement made him feel obese. Not at all out of shape was what he meant. He meant the entire sentiment, including the idea that he is a lazy, incompetent, and unable person.