Advertising: Score case study

Score advert and wider reading

Media fact-sheet - Score hair cream:

1.

Older adverts tend to use physical artwork in order to draw out or show their message to their audience. In the 1960s, we started seeing much more photography being used in adverts to show a much more realistic approach to their product.

2.

It was commonly seen that women belonged at home to cook clean and support their husbands by doing all house chores and baby sitting.

3.

Setting - The advert is set in a jungle type set in order to have this exotic representation which was supposed to relate to the 'king of the jungle' and the idea of being a 'predator'. This sent out a message that if you use score hair cream, you will pick up these senses of being the predator and being the king of the jungle.

Actors - All the actors seen within the advert are white which shows a lack of diversity within the time period of when this advert released. The females have a very Eurocentric beatified face and fits the requirements of s stereotypical 'perfect' woman. The male is significantly older than the females and not to mention that he is sitting alone on top of the carrier which puts up his height signifying the higher status and power he holds against everyone else. This sends out the same message of using the score hair cream in order to gain more power and as the tag line says, to 'get what you've always wanted' which is a hint to getting all the girls.

Costume - All actors are wearing uniform that would be considered jungle/ hunting wear although it's crucial to point out that the male is fully dressed where as the females are all put into extremely short shorts or skirts and crop tops which make them very sexualised. Even though this is not fitting for the current setting, it does link to the theory of the male gaze. 

Props - Several props are used in this advert including the gun which is in possession of the male actor. The gun represents his power and dominance and could also be seen as sexual dominance as one of the females are reaching out for his 'gun'. Another prop used within this advert is the carrier thing that the male actor is sitting on. This again reinforces his dominant status compared to everyone else in the advert. 

4.

The factsheet suggests the male plays the 'hero' position in the list of characters. This is hon by presenting I'm in dominant position where he is physically higher than everyone and holds the only weapon in the advert. Also his facial expression and body language communicates that he is almost like the true hunter within the group.

5.

In 1967, a male audience would see this as somewhat humorous ad it's likely to convince them to buy the product being marketed. Females on the other hand see that even though this doesn't target them, it is a real representation of the time periods society and how it was back then. As for an audience in 2019, we can see how different modern advertising is, the sexist narrative is outdated and to females it becomes highly offensive. Even though times have moved on and advertising ways have changed, it doesn't stop the fact that some companies still use this idea of male dominance and over sexualised females to market their products.

6.

The tag line on the top left corner states 'get what you've always wanted' which hints to 'get all the girls'. This could be what fuels some man to buy the score hair cream. Another big hint is within the brand name, 'score' can be seen as getting a girl. Both of these are ways they use to get men to buy their product.

7.

Zoonen's theory states that 'gender' is constructed through discourse and that its meaning varies according to the different contexts. The Score hair cream advert constructs a very typical representation of women in the late 1960s which has been accepted as normality.

Bell Hooks says that feminism should be seen as the struggle to end patriarchal oppression. Although Bell Hooks uses the term 'white-supremacist' ad 'capitalist patriarchy' to talk about the oppressive factors in our society, it does resonate with the score advert.

Judith Butler believes that gender isn't biologically determined but rather determined through society. In the Score hair cream advert, both the males and the females act their biological sex ways as in males act masculine and females act feminine.

8.

Stuart Halls theory can be applied to the score hair cream advert as the advert ca raise questions about whether the producer purposely played with the inequality in the times society in order to use it to his advantage and make more people buy the product or whether he was clueless about it and it has become the norm for him that he no longer thinks about the inequality between the two genders.

David Gauntletts theory can also be applied to this as the representations of a vert traditional man is shown within the Score hair cream advert. Both the producers and the audience play a part in constructing identities. The men seeing this advert will likely use this to construct their identities as it gives them a sense of what was needed to 'make a man'.

9.

The score hair cream advert reinforces the stereotypical ad traditional traits of what it was to be a male and what it was to be a female. When the decriminalisation of homosexuality came by in 1967, 

it made males who grew up in the 70s or 80s very offended when being called anything related to homosexuality as they felt like it was directly challenging them as a man.

10.

Colonist values can also be linked to social context ad historical context of the ending of the British Empire. Gilroy says that even though the British Empire had ended, it did not stop the dominating power that the white western world had. This can be seen in Hollywood movies as nearly all characters are white and most characters playing the hero role are also white males. The Score advert can be related to this as all actors within the advert are also white and it shows the white male as the dominant person who plays the 'hero' role.

The Drum: This Boy Can article:

1.

The writer suggests that we could be empowering the wrong sex. We speak less and less of the issues that effect boys. There is an unconscious bias that males are expected to just deal with their problems without the need of any help and the constant attention to female empowerment ahs lead to men feeling increasingly disempowered which could lead to higher rates in suicide, higher rates of turning to drugs, alcohol and crime etc.

2.

When Axe/Lynx carried out their market research, they found out that men are now looking for a more diverse definition of what it takes to be a man in todays world. This led to the change in marketing and the 'find your magic' campaign.

3.

'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.

As time moves on, society changes in the all sots of ways. Brands also have to change in order to keep up to date with the society. Brands are more interested in what consumers really want and what you believe in and where they want to be in the coming future where they can adapt their products and market their products in a certain way.

5.

Fernando Desouches says that 'This is just the beginning. The slap in the face to say 'this is masculinity'. All these guys (in the advert) 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.' He the moves on to say that he will democratise the message which has yet to be exploded.

Campaign: Why brands need to change:

1.

The two ways men were usually presented as was either a James bond like hero that got all the girls or a buffoon style man who was under the control of his wife. Joseph Gelfer says that 'Brands need to reappraise masculinity for two equally important reasons: one altruistic, the other self-serving.'

2.

Stage 1 - Unconscious masculinity

Stage 2 - Conscious masculinity

Stage 3 - critical masculinity

Stage 4 - multiple masculinities

Stage 5 - beyond masculinity

3.

I think that masculinity is at stage 3 where what men are being built by society. As a guy myself, there are certain things that I can't do because I know the reactions I would be given. Even from a day to day base I hear certain comments about this and that that support the traditional views of men. I do also think that masculinity is slowly going into stage 4 as there are increasingly more and more men doing things that have been something men never did from before.

4.

The score hair cream advert was mostly in stage 1 with an argument that it could be stage 2. The advert clearly showed a very traditional view of what men were supposed to be like in the 1960s. It could be stage 2 as the producer may have purposely used traditional values in order to promote the product.

5.

For a company to understand the stage of masculinity society is in, it allows them to adapt their ways of marketing and R&D. By getting to know where people believe masculinity currently sit gives them more information about their consumers and how they feel about masculinity. This could especially benefit companies that sell men items.

Representation of women

1.
In aspects such as sexual orientation and gender, Mistry suggests that advertising has increasingly employed images and also that there are more and more homosexual images everywhere that are far removed from depictions homosexuality as comic relief.


2.
Acting as a 'traditional' woman was somehow ideal and empowering which created the foundations to 'what a female should be like'. This included things like taking care of the children, staying at home to cook and clean, having to look a certain way, always had to have hair and makeup done etc.


3.
Women were expected to constantly uphold certain expectations like wearing make-up and dressing 'feminine'. This was so heavily spoken about that it made females sound like objects awaiting someone to come and take control over them. This lead to an increase of females being shown in inappropriate dressing doing very questionable actions.


4.
The theory of 'male gaze' was said by the theorist Laura Mulvey. The male gaze means that adverts are created in order to attract the typical male which was to see women as sexual objects.


5.
The 'proliferation of distinct images' were labelled as the 'New Woman' which was a start to changing the reality of women's social position and the influence of the women's movement'.


6.
Yes people started to show women in a better light compared to older adverts, however, this can be argued to a certain extent as traditional stereotypes of having to look good ad dress 'feminine' in order to be human. This means that times have not really changed in a majorly significant way but there is minute progress within it.


7.
Barthel suggest that there is no major threat towards male power in our current day and age.


8.
Richard Dyer suggests that images like the Dior Midnight Poison Elixir advert show a misinterpretation of women's liberation. He claims that agencies attempt to take a new attitude towards their campaigns which often miss the point which results in an overly aggressive sexuality and a very liberated coy sexiness. This means that the advert has this woman who is making herself look good for men's sexual advances while thinking she is 'liberated' in doing so.



Media Magazine: Beach Bodies V Real Women (MM54):

1.
The 'Beach Bodies' campaign was an advert for a weight loss protein shake.


2.
The tag line for the advert said 'Are you beach body ready' with an image of a very stereotypical eurocentric beauty standard looking female who was white, blonde and slim. This caused controversy as it sent a message that the only beach body ready are female that look like her.


3.
The advert suggested that unless you look like the female in the advert, you were not beach body ready and that they should all go and make themselves look like her.


4.
Huge numbers of complaints were sent to protein world for the message they were sending out to people which caused them to have to take it down later on.


5.
The Dover real campaign was one of the most successful campaigns released which 'features real women with real bodies of all races and ages'. The difference between how they get message of beauty compared to protein world was day and night. Dove's advert said diversity whereas protein worlds speaks the opposite.


6.
Social media has grown rapidly and immensely over the couple of years. More and more platforms are being made to allow companies to have their adverts be shown there. This includes the adverts on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter etc. People can now access adverts on their phone, computer, tablet laptop, shops, streets, TV etc.


7.
Zoonen's theory stated that he questions whether times have really moved on that much as the protein world advert can back this up. People say that females are less pressured to look a certain way but Protein Worlds advert shows that people still believe or have the ideology of how a female 'should look'. By having a very stereotypical 'chick' wearing a bikini bang in the middle of the advert is like a message to all females to look like this or else you're not good enough. This shows that pressures on females to look a certain way are still high.


8.
I think that representations of women have changed but no where near enough to where they should be at. Yes, females are getting seen in different lights where we see females in positions we wouldn't get to see 50-60 years ago. Even though women can be seen as high status, well payed CEO's or managers, they still are expected to look good, wear make up and have a certain body type. So arguably, they are still being expected to do this and that which lead to my opinion that representations of females had not gone too far.

Persuasive techniques

Marketing in the modern age:

1.
John Berger suggests that advertising provides an 'improved version' of ourselves through the use of making their audiences feel as if their products are able to liven up their lives and make their lives 'better'.


2.
The idea of making audiences see 'better' version of themselves after using a certain product.. This could connect with endorsement, bandwagon and emotional persuasion.


3.
The result of a by-product yeast which was needed for a paste supplied by a Brewery.


4.
Unilever currently owns Marmite.


5.
Marmite used TV characters like Zippy or Paddington bear in order to attempt to persuade audiences to buy their products. This happened in 2003 and the reason was because adults were able to feel nostalgic when seeing these old TV show characters.


6.
A popular culture is a belief or ideology within our society. High culture is more about the aesthetics and cultural values within our society. Marmite uses the high culture of the queen in order to contradict the 'common' stereotypes of Marmite.


7.
Allowing customers to see themselves as both consumers and outsider viewers. This makes them feel much more enlightened and superior.


8.
There was a #MarmiteNeglect campaign which came across as humorous towards the audience. The transcendence of post modernistic humour allows audiences to question today's society where they think about what is real and what is truly valued within society.

Advertising: Narrative in advertising

1)
At the beginning of the advert, we see a male teenager on the phone to his friend. Everything seems normal as he walks into the corner shop to find his friend. The disequilibrium starts when the next character jumps up from behind him after the words 'I'm not getting on a cycle'. The second character starts to talk about the distance he has to travel to go here and there. and so on until the equilibrium is back during the part when his friend is getting a haircut and the music stops. It drags up back into reality and things are back to normal. Characters are presented through the way they speak, act, and dress. The way they speak shows the audience where they are based around (clearly London). The way they act shows the youthfulness they have, all the jogging and running and walking shows activeness. The way they dress is very London sporty teenager type of dress which again reinforces the London feeling.


2)
Nike uses celebrity endorsement in order to attract more audiences especially those fans of the featured celebrities, I this case people like Mo Farah, Dina Asher-Smith, Harry Kane etc. This gives people an idea that if well-known successful people wear Nike, if they wore it, they could also be like them. The use of less well-known people allows audiences to understand that you don't have to be well known and successful in order to wear their products. The message that Nike is out there for everyone.


3)
The adverts use of fast cutting between different shots is used in order to keep a natural fast paced flow within the narrative. Some of the basket shots were incredibly hard to get the angle on ad that contributed to how effective and eye catching the advert becomes to people. The advert is set in London allowing it to match with their target audience (Londoners). The sense of belonging and the familiarity is a USP for this advert.


4)
The range of races show in the advert associates London with diversity. In London, stereotypes for teenagers tend to be quite negative, this adverts shows a different view by showing teenagers to be hardworking and aspiring teenagers.


5)
The advert is aimed at Londoners and in general teenagers and young adults. By using teenagers from London, it allows audiences to identify themselves within them. Furthermore, the use of celebrity endorsement extends the level of demand as young adults see their role models wearing Nike products.