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 - you'll need to save the factsheet to USB or email it to yourself in order to complete this at home. 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?
At the beginning, 60's advertising agencies relied more on creative instinct in planning their campaigns then of actual research. The visual aspect was simply more important. The “new advertising” of the 1960s took its cue from the visual medium of TV and the popular posters of the day.The posters relied more on photography then illustration.
2) What representations of women were found in post-war British advertising campaigns?
In the times of post-war women had a lot more jobs then previously, but because of the idea of men being threatened by women, the advertising represented women as stay-at-home wife. There were more feminist posters back in the times of war, when all the men went to fight, women had to take the profession once available only for men.
3) Conduct your own semiotic analysis of the Score hair cream advert: What are the connotations of the mise-en-scene in the image?
The advert touches a subject of the colonisation of a huge part of the world by Britain. There's also an aspect of the gun that he's holding that might be a phellic symbol. Not even just the gun, a lot of aspects, like the costumes of the women feel sexual.
4) What does the factsheet suggest in terms of a narrative analysis of the Score hair cream advert?
In this narrative, the Score advert identifies the man as the' hero '. The image shows that he is' exulted' as his' tribe' hunter-protector. Women's worship–and availability–is his reward for such masculine pursuits. This has a clear appeal to (younger) male target audience who would identify with the dominant male.
5) How might an audience have responded to the advert in 1967? What about in 2019?
Adverts like this were very common in 60's so it was recieved like any other ad. Now the Score Hair Cream ad is an unnbelievable example of the lack of equality that was happening.
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 text use a lot of masculane words, asuring the audience that there is nothing homosexual about using a cream.
7) How might you apply feminist theory to the Score hair cream advert - such as van Zoonen, bell hooks or Judith Butler?
I think the best theory would be van Zoonen because it represents the old stereotypes and sexism that we can see now as well.
Hooks also talkes about the underrepresentation of women in media, where the score ad literally has women being placed under man.
8) How could Stuart Hall's theory of representation and David Gauntlett's theory regarding gender identity be applied to the Score hair cream advert?
Stuart Hall’s ideas about the systems of representation can also be discussed in relation to the advert. The preferred reading in this advert is that if you buy this gel, it will ultimate boost your self-esteem and that's what this advert wants to be portrayed as, but also it wants to reinforce the gender roles in society in which, that men are dominant. David Gauntlett suggests that in building identities, both media producers and audiences play a role. In the Score advertisement, the producer's role in shaping ideas about masculinity is clear.
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)?
To be labeled "queer" was a direct challenge to one's manhood for males growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. In these two decades, male grooming advertisements mainly represented the user as a ' real man '. Created in the years of decriminalisation of homosexuality the representation of heterosexuality could be a very sencitive subject.
10) How does the advert reflect Britain's colonial past - another important historical and cultural context?
This ad reflects the colonial past of Britain, the white male plays the hero's role, which inevitably saves the (dependent) world from disaster. A similar narrative follows the Score advertisement. The setting of the jungle, the gun, the throne all infer that the white western male was successful in fighting off primitive or dangerous animals to save their 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'"?
There’s an unconscious bias that males should simply ‘man up’ and deal with any crisis of confidence themselves. After all, men (surely white, middle-class, Western men) are better paid, have more opportunities, and in some parts of the world are not inhumanly oppressed.
2) How has the Axe/Lynx brand changed its marketing to present a different representation of masculinity?
Men are anxious to have a more diverse definition of what it means to be a' successful' man in 2016 and to relieve their relentless pressure to conform to the suffocating old paradigms. This insight led to the former bad-boy brand's step-change ' Find Your Magic ' campaign. Which shows how these brands try to raise men's awareness and what they might be going through.
3) How does campaigner David Brockway, quoted in the article, suggest advertisers "totally reinvent gender constructs"?
“We’re seeing a huge rise in eating and body image disorders among young men. We can’t isolate the cause. Advertising plays its part. A 13-year-old boy of average build in one class recently told me seeing an ad made him feel fat. He didn’t mean a bit out of shape. He meant everything that goes with that feeling such as seeing himself as lazy, unaccomplished and incapable.”
4) How have changes in family and society altered how brands are targeting their products?
For Miller the definition of “family” in places like Britain is profoundly changing – but advertising is not helping to normalise different scenarios by largely failing to portray this new normal.“These brands are not just governed by the jobs men do or their age”.
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?
“Women have feminism. But men don’t even know they are sick. This is why we need to put men alongside women, not move them to the side to give room to women. Both genders need to be in the centre.”After all, either gender can not be fully empowered if you create divisions and disempower the other by empowering one.
Campaign: Why brands need to change
Read this Campaign article on Joseph Gelfer and why brands need to change their approach to marketing masculinity. If the Campaign website is blocked, you can find the text of the article here. Think about how the article relates to our work on gender and advertising then answer the following questions:
1) What are two ways advertising traditionally presented masculinity and why does the writer Joseph Gelfer suggest this needs to change?
Gelfer believes that it still feels like men are being given limited options: either they fulfil the traditional stereotype, or they have the kind of alternatives offered by these campaigns
Masculinity was mostly presented in one of two ways: either a glamorous James Bond-style masculinity that attracted ‘the ladies’, or a buffoon-style masculinity that was firmly under the wifely thumb.
2) What are the five stages of masculinity?
Stage 1-is defined as "unconscious masculinity", which means that traditional masculinity has been adopted by someone without them even thinking about it.
Stage 2- is defined as "conscious masculinity", which means that traditional masculinity has been consciously adopted by someone.
Stage 3- is defined as "critical masculinities" and is largely aligned with feminist thought.
Stage 4- is defined as "multiple masculinities" and suggests that masculinity can mean anything to anyone.
Stage 5- is defined as "beyond masculinities" and proposes the simple truth that masculinity does not exist.
3) What stage of masculinity do you feel you are at in terms of your views of gender and identity? You can read more about the five stages of masculinity here.
I feel like I might be somewhere from 2 to 4 because of my cultural background. I try to challenge the stereotypes as much as I can so I feel like the 2, 3 and 4 is what I associeate with, at least parts of them.
4) What stage of masculinity was the Score advert aiming at in 1967?
It's definitely aiming for the hardcore 1, actually trying to intencify the stereotypical masculinity.
5) Why are the stages of masculinity important for companies and advertisers when targeting an audience?
I feel like masculinity is defined differently in individual cultures. It offers a more granular way of thinking about men as both individuals and consumers.
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 - you'll need to save the factsheet to USB or email it to yourself in order to complete this at home. 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?
At the beginning, 60's advertising agencies relied more on creative instinct in planning their campaigns then of actual research. The visual aspect was simply more important. The “new advertising” of the 1960s took its cue from the visual medium of TV and the popular posters of the day.The posters relied more on photography then illustration.
2) What representations of women were found in post-war British advertising campaigns?
In the times of post-war women had a lot more jobs then previously, but because of the idea of men being threatened by women, the advertising represented women as stay-at-home wife. There were more feminist posters back in the times of war, when all the men went to fight, women had to take the profession once available only for men.
3) Conduct your own semiotic analysis of the Score hair cream advert: What are the connotations of the mise-en-scene in the image?
The advert touches a subject of the colonisation of a huge part of the world by Britain. There's also an aspect of the gun that he's holding that might be a phellic symbol. Not even just the gun, a lot of aspects, like the costumes of the women feel sexual.
4) What does the factsheet suggest in terms of a narrative analysis of the Score hair cream advert?
In this narrative, the Score advert identifies the man as the' hero '. The image shows that he is' exulted' as his' tribe' hunter-protector. Women's worship–and availability–is his reward for such masculine pursuits. This has a clear appeal to (younger) male target audience who would identify with the dominant male.
5) How might an audience have responded to the advert in 1967? What about in 2019?
Adverts like this were very common in 60's so it was recieved like any other ad. Now the Score Hair Cream ad is an unnbelievable example of the lack of equality that was happening.
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 text use a lot of masculane words, asuring the audience that there is nothing homosexual about using a cream.
7) How might you apply feminist theory to the Score hair cream advert - such as van Zoonen, bell hooks or Judith Butler?
I think the best theory would be van Zoonen because it represents the old stereotypes and sexism that we can see now as well.
Hooks also talkes about the underrepresentation of women in media, where the score ad literally has women being placed under man.
8) How could Stuart Hall's theory of representation and David Gauntlett's theory regarding gender identity be applied to the Score hair cream advert?
Stuart Hall’s ideas about the systems of representation can also be discussed in relation to the advert. The preferred reading in this advert is that if you buy this gel, it will ultimate boost your self-esteem and that's what this advert wants to be portrayed as, but also it wants to reinforce the gender roles in society in which, that men are dominant. David Gauntlett suggests that in building identities, both media producers and audiences play a role. In the Score advertisement, the producer's role in shaping ideas about masculinity is clear.
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)?
To be labeled "queer" was a direct challenge to one's manhood for males growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. In these two decades, male grooming advertisements mainly represented the user as a ' real man '. Created in the years of decriminalisation of homosexuality the representation of heterosexuality could be a very sencitive subject.
10) How does the advert reflect Britain's colonial past - another important historical and cultural context?
This ad reflects the colonial past of Britain, the white male plays the hero's role, which inevitably saves the (dependent) world from disaster. A similar narrative follows the Score advertisement. The setting of the jungle, the gun, the throne all infer that the white western male was successful in fighting off primitive or dangerous animals to save their 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'"?
There’s an unconscious bias that males should simply ‘man up’ and deal with any crisis of confidence themselves. After all, men (surely white, middle-class, Western men) are better paid, have more opportunities, and in some parts of the world are not inhumanly oppressed.
2) How has the Axe/Lynx brand changed its marketing to present a different representation of masculinity?
Men are anxious to have a more diverse definition of what it means to be a' successful' man in 2016 and to relieve their relentless pressure to conform to the suffocating old paradigms. This insight led to the former bad-boy brand's step-change ' Find Your Magic ' campaign. Which shows how these brands try to raise men's awareness and what they might be going through.
3) How does campaigner David Brockway, quoted in the article, suggest advertisers "totally reinvent gender constructs"?
“We’re seeing a huge rise in eating and body image disorders among young men. We can’t isolate the cause. Advertising plays its part. A 13-year-old boy of average build in one class recently told me seeing an ad made him feel fat. He didn’t mean a bit out of shape. He meant everything that goes with that feeling such as seeing himself as lazy, unaccomplished and incapable.”
4) How have changes in family and society altered how brands are targeting their products?
For Miller the definition of “family” in places like Britain is profoundly changing – but advertising is not helping to normalise different scenarios by largely failing to portray this new normal.“These brands are not just governed by the jobs men do or their age”.
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?
“Women have feminism. But men don’t even know they are sick. This is why we need to put men alongside women, not move them to the side to give room to women. Both genders need to be in the centre.”After all, either gender can not be fully empowered if you create divisions and disempower the other by empowering one.
Campaign: Why brands need to change
Read this Campaign article on Joseph Gelfer and why brands need to change their approach to marketing masculinity. If the Campaign website is blocked, you can find the text of the article here. Think about how the article relates to our work on gender and advertising then answer the following questions:
1) What are two ways advertising traditionally presented masculinity and why does the writer Joseph Gelfer suggest this needs to change?
Gelfer believes that it still feels like men are being given limited options: either they fulfil the traditional stereotype, or they have the kind of alternatives offered by these campaigns
Masculinity was mostly presented in one of two ways: either a glamorous James Bond-style masculinity that attracted ‘the ladies’, or a buffoon-style masculinity that was firmly under the wifely thumb.
2) What are the five stages of masculinity?
Stage 1-is defined as "unconscious masculinity", which means that traditional masculinity has been adopted by someone without them even thinking about it.
Stage 2- is defined as "conscious masculinity", which means that traditional masculinity has been consciously adopted by someone.
Stage 3- is defined as "critical masculinities" and is largely aligned with feminist thought.
Stage 4- is defined as "multiple masculinities" and suggests that masculinity can mean anything to anyone.
Stage 5- is defined as "beyond masculinities" and proposes the simple truth that masculinity does not exist.
3) What stage of masculinity do you feel you are at in terms of your views of gender and identity? You can read more about the five stages of masculinity here.
I feel like I might be somewhere from 2 to 4 because of my cultural background. I try to challenge the stereotypes as much as I can so I feel like the 2, 3 and 4 is what I associeate with, at least parts of them.
4) What stage of masculinity was the Score advert aiming at in 1967?
It's definitely aiming for the hardcore 1, actually trying to intencify the stereotypical masculinity.
5) Why are the stages of masculinity important for companies and advertisers when targeting an audience?
I feel like masculinity is defined differently in individual cultures. It offers a more granular way of thinking about men as both individuals and consumers.
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