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.