Blog task: Score advert and wider reading

 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?

The 1960s ushered in an age of new and pioneering advertising

techniques. According to AdAge (adage.com), advertising agencies

in the 1960s relied less on market research and leaned more toward

creative instinct in planning their campaigns. As score in exploring gender roles, sexuality

and the advertising techniques of the

1960s.

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

Women's place was in the home. Ironically, during the Second World War,

propaganda posters had convinced women that their place was on

farms and in factories while the men were away fighting.

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.



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

The Score 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. This has a clear appeal to the target

audience of (younger) males who would identify with the male and

aspire to share the same status bestowed on him. The idea of women

being sexually available and falling at the feet of a man is echoed in

the long running series of Lynx deodorant commercials that ran for the

greater part of the early twentieth century.

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

In 1967 the audience would've reacted as if its normal and nothing was wrong with it but in the 2020s it would not of been allowed and would of got cancelled

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?

To emphasise the masculinity of men using women as a prize and objectifying them for male satisfaction with the slogan "get what you've always wanted" assuming heterosexuality and that sore hair cream would leave you surrounded with female attention

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



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

Suggesting that using hair cream is not gay as the repetition of masculinity shows that and the constant female attention shows heterosexuality

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

After 20 years of India's independence the jungle/safari theme suggests the end of british colonialism as the background is easily seen as fake 

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'"?

 suggests that we could be, in fact, empowering the wrong sex

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, and to relieve the unrelenting 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"?

In order to prevent a full blown crisis of self-worth, Brockway advocates that advertisers “totally reinvent gender constructs” and dare to paint a world where boys like pink, don’t like going out and getting dirty, or aren’t career ambitious, for example.

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



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?

“This is just the beginning. The slap in the face to say ‘this is masculinity’. All these guys [in the ad] are attractive. Now we have our platform and our point of view, we can break the man-bullshit and show it doesn’t matter who you want to be, just express yourself and we will support that.