Advertising: Score case study

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. If you need to access this from home you can download it here if you use your Greenford login details to access Google Drive.

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?

Advertisers used less market research and instead used their own creativity.  “Eschewing portrayals of elitism, authoritarianism, reverence for institutions and other traditional beliefs, ads attempted to win over consumers with humour, candour and, above all, irony.” They used large visuals and minimal copy for a dazzling, dramatic effect which is evident in the score advert.

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

Women are more prevalent in the workplace and, therefore, have more discretionary income than women in the sixties. The 60s reinforced that the woman's place was at home and in the kitchen, the typical sexist stereotype of women. 

3) Conduct your own semiotic analysis of the Score hair cream advert: What are the connotations of the mise-en-scene in the image?

There is a denotation of a woman reaching for the man which could show how the product makes you desired by women and therefore makes you above women, also shown by the higher position he's in. The scantily dressed women in the ad show that men only 'really want' a sexualised image of a woman - reinforcing Mulvey's male gaze theory.

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 ‘exalted’ as the hunter-protector of his ‘tribe’. The adoration – and availability – of the females are his reward for such masculine endeavours

5) How might an audience have responded to the advert in 1967? What about in 2019?

The 1967 male audience might read the narrative as ironic and humorous (the dominant reading?) but it is unlikely that they would challenge the underlying ideology implicit within the advert. Females, though not the target audience, might read the gender representations in an oppositional way but at the same time accept its representation of a patriarchal society as normal or inevitable. Modern audiences, including students of the media, are likely to respond in a different way, aware that its sexist narrative is outdated and, for some, offensive

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 anchorage text gives meaning to the product as well as reassuring men about their sexuality through the repeated emphasis that the cream was made by MEN. Bandwagoning is also present as if other men get it, others will feel inclined to follow suit. The slogan 'get what you've always wanted' is an example of a traditional reference of gender and masculinity.

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

Van Zoonen agreed with Butler on that she sees gender as negotiated and dependant on social and historical context. Butler's Gender Trouble can be applied here as well as this shows that the meaning and representation of the female sex is completely the work of the social influences undergone by the creators if the advert.

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?

Here, according to Hall, Score is actively constructing their representations of both men and women to suit their personal criteria. The sense of individuality provided to men is then completely false as it's all a reflected version of a pre-constructed representation.

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)?

The anchorage text reinforces that manly men made this and therefore are pushing a heteronormative agenda on its customers. This opposed the 1967 decriminalisation of homosexuality as this shows that heterosexuals are a dominant gender here.

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

The jungle-like setting as well as the adventure clothes hint to the colonial era as they are all holding up, or even worshipping, a white man with a gun.


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'"?

A growing global ‘boy crisis’ suggests that we could be, in fact, empowering the wrong sex. Of course, 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, thanks in no small part to groundbreaking campaigns such as ‘Like A Girl’ by Always, Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ and Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’

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

As Lynx/Axe found when it undertook a large-scale research project into modern male identity, 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. This insight led to the step-change ‘Find Your Magic’ campaign from the former bad-boy brand.

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

 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?

there is a slow but growing shift towards targeting consumers on more than the usual ‘ABC1 male’ demographics. Quite a few brands still segment like this, but others are seeking “a true understanding of their target consumer; who they really are, their beliefs, their attitudes, where they are now, where they want to be in future. “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?

“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.

“What being a man means, and what ‘success’ means, is changing and this change is for the good. The message hasn’t exploded yet but we will make it explode. We will democratise it.”