Advertising and marketing

• It was created in 1967
• It has a reactionary representation of men and women.
• About hair cream
• It is a sexist advert

Media language

Mise-en-scene analysis: This is a French term which translates to “setting the stage”. It talks about focusing on set design, lighting and actors. The female actors in this advert are surrounding the one Man who is holding a gun, with bushes around them wearing safari clothes.

Production values and aesthetics: It has and exotic aesthetic as it has a jungle setting. The outfits used reinforce this as they are safari type clothes.

Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings: The short clothes could suggests that the women are to be seen in a sexual way. This helps gain the male gaze. The jungle theme would be unfamiliar to the audience so it may intrigue them.

How advertising conventions are socially and historically relative:

The way in which media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies: – Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze Theory

Narrative

Jean Kilbourne

• Talks about how woman have been overly sexualised in advertising over the years.
• Says that it gives both men and women an unrealistic depiction of women.
• Companies sexualise children as well in a less serious way however it still happens.
• Advertising makes it seem like aggression towards females is okay when its not
• “Our need for social and personal change and power is often co-opted and trivialized into an adolescent and self-centered kind of rebellion.”

Jungle/exotic background

‘Get what you’ve always wanted’ – implies men want women

The photo implies that if men have good hair they’ll get attention from a lot of attractive females

Holding a gun – masculinity? Hunting? Tiger Skin

Man – Fully dressed/T-shirt + trousers

Women – short/crop tops + short skirts (Male gaze (Male oriented advert)) – Link to Tomb Raider (minimalistic clothing)

Semantic field of masculinity

• Masculine scent
• Made by men
• Grooming

‘Made by the men’ – Implies because it is solely made by men, it is better

Jean Kilbourne

She is a public speaker, writer, filmmaker and activist who is internationally recognised for her work on the image of women in advertisement.

She talks about how both men and women are sexualised in adverts but are sexualised differently. Women are shown to be sexual objects and men are taught to see women as sexual objects

Score – pre-1970

Denotations:

• male surrounded by group of females
• phrase ‘get what you’ve always wanted’ in the top corner
• females wearing small amounts of clothing
• male is fully clothes and holding a weapon
• the models are in a jungle setting
• five females are carrying one male on a seat through a jungle

Connotations:

• the phrase suggests that the product being advertised has allowed the male in the image to ‘get’ the females that are surrounding him
• the male model holding a weapon suggests an enhanced image of masculinity and that the product being advertised may help male consumers obtain the same image
• the female models i the image are wearing clothing that shows their midriffs and their legs this suggests that the advert is alluding to the male gaze
• the male is surrounded by a group of ‘attractive’ females which suggests that if using the hair product being advertised you will become more desirable to the opposite gender

Key quotes:

• get what you’ve always wanted
• Score’s famous masculine scent
• if you haven’t been getting all you want from a liquid hair groom, get new Score Liquid
• made by the men

Evaluation:

this advert is attempting to appeal to the male gaze and the gender stereotypes of masculinity in order to sell a hair cream product. the product is described as ‘Score’s famous masculine scent’ this suggests to the consumer that the product helps to enhance a males masculinity. from the image the advert also suggest to the consumer that the product will make you more desirable to females as the male model in the image has used the product and ended up with a group of females in ‘the middle of a jungle’ fawning over him, attempting to reach out to him and touch him and carrying him. it also suggests and enhancement of masculinity through the image of the male model carrying a dangerous weapon. the theory of the male gaze is used in the advert as the producer has specifically chosen stereo-typically attractive females in shot skirts and cropped tops to be at the front of the image, this is what they are using to draw the consumer into the advert in the first place. they have created a narrative in the advert though different components of the advert, the phrase in the top right corner suggests the narrative that it is the hair cream that could land you in different situations and getting what you want and for the male model in the advert it suggests that he wants a group of females to be in admiration of him and attracted to him. the advert attempts to persuade the consumer that by using Scores product not only will you get the desired hair style that you have been wanting but also will be open to new opportunities in getting other things you want in life. the advert states “if you haven’t been getting all you want from a liquid hair groom, get new Score Liquid”

Theories to link:

• Edward said – Orientalism
• Laura Mulvey – male gaze – 2nd wave feminism (60’s/70’s)

• ”get what you’ve always wanted” – implies men priorities female attention
• man surrounded with women, objectification
• jungle/exotic look and setting – Orientalism
• made at the time of the Vietnam war – representing soldiers, making men want to look like male in advert, trying to get men to join army
• imperatives used to persuade buyers ‘get new score liquid’
• holding gun – hunting for prey?women are prey?
• scent – almost animal like

LANGUAGE ANALYSIS

1. Mise-en-scene analysis

• everything infront of the camera, eg lighting, actors, set design

1. Production values and Aesthetics

• technical quality of methods and materials used to make a media product such as a film or advert
• aesthetics is how pleasing something is to look at

1. Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings

• the nature and culture of an advert and sometimes hidden messages in adverts are shown through semiotics

1. How advertising conventions are socially and historically relative

• the way media products are advertised has changed over time and advertisement of different types of products (eg films vs magazines) is different
• advertisement can aim to target a specific group of people to attract a certain target audience

1. The way in which media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies

• people’s views can be altered by what they read (suggested by Althusser, can be changed without knowing it and over time, Chomsky and Gerbner)
• hegemony (gramsci) – ideoloiges can be changed by using power eg big media conglomerates changing the way their audience thinks

Narrative

1. How does Score construct a narrative which appeals to its target audience

1. How and why audience responses to the narrative of this advert may have changed over time

• over time ideologies shift as people learn more about the world and how the media changes the way it feeds info to the public

1. How does this advert create desire for the product

1. Techniques of Persuasion

1. Students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the persuasive techniques used in the advert and issues surrounding brand values, brand message, brand personality and brand positioning should inform the analysis

Media Representations

Discussion of the Score advertisement will focus mainly on representation of gender including

1. The processes which lead media producers to make choices about how to represent social groups
2. How audience responses to interpretations of media representations reflect social, cultural and historical attitudes
3. The effect of historical contexts on representations
4. Theories of representation including Hall
5. Theories of gender performativity including Butler
6. Feminist theories including bel hooks and van Zoonen
7. Theories of identity including Gauntlett

HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS

• Score hair cream, 1967
• 1967 – period of slow transformation in western cultures with legislation about changing attitudes to the role or women (and men)
• year of decriminalisation of homosexuality
• colonialist values can be linked to social and cultural contexts of the ending of Empire

Media Language –

Mise-en-scene – ‘Mise en scene is the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play. Translated from French, it means “setting the stage” but, in film analysis, the term mise en scene refers to everything in front of the camera, including the set design, lighting, and actors’

The use of props such as the outfits, the gun, the trees and the animal skin in combination with the stances of the women and the higher positioning of the male all force the audience to believe that this product is able to give uses this form of superiority and dominating or dangerous power.

Language Analysis – Semantic field of masculinity – ‘Men’ ‘Masculine’ ‘Scent’ ‘Groom’, almost animal like. Also use of repetition in order to reinforce the product and force readers to think about it.

Production values and Aesthetics – ‘Exotic’/ ‘Tropical’ aesthetic reinforces the idea of animal like behaviour. The use of the ‘adventure-esq’ outfits is used to reinforce the language used, referring to adventure and animal like behaviour as well as more glorifying more ‘exotic’ cultures that contrast to Western societies.

Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings – Could be interpreted as a form of cultural appropriation. The outfits resemble that of famous adventurers such as Indiana Jones, it also uses a similar technique used towards Lara Croft in Tomb Raider as the females outfits are short and easily sexualised in order to suit and capture a stereotypical male Gaze.

How advertising conventions are socially and historically relative – In contrast to more modern social norms and dominant ideologies, this piece may be viewed as quite sexist as it glorifies women’s bodies purely for male satisfaction and benefit.

The way in which media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies – Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze Theory

Narrative –

How does Score construct a narrative which appeals to its target audience – Takes the POV of a Male gaze, sexualising women and giving the ONLY male in the ad power and domination, represented through ‘animal’ like semiotics to describe the product he is using as well as his overall positioning in the shot.

How and why audience responses to the narrative of this advert may have changed over time – Social norms, dominant ideologies as well popular political opinions vary and change within cultures over time, following popular norms or as a way to adapt to an adjusted socio-economic climate. When this ad was created in 1967, ideas on the role of women were very different to now, women were seen more as objects that were disposable to men rather than independent individuals with the same capabilities as men.

How does this advert create desire for the product – This product has a target audience of adult men, therefore the representation of loads of women seemingly inferior to the ONLY male in the ad allows for the target audience to believe that this product may bring them some form of sexual gratification.

Techniques of Persuasion –

• Representation of Women
• Figurative Language techniques – repetition/ Semantic Fields
• Cultural appropriation – suggests exotic product
• Weapon – signifies power and authority
• Higher positioning of Man – Also to signify dominance and power of men (in society too)
• Heteronormativity – ‘the belief that heterosexuality, predicated on the gender binary, is the default, preferred, or normal mode of sexual orientation. It assumes that sexual and marital relations are most fitting between people of opposite sex.’

Students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the persuasive techniques used in the advert and issues surrounding brand values, brand message, brand personality and brand positioning should inform the analysis

Media Representation –

Representation of Gender –

The processes which lead media producers to make choices about how to represent social groups – in terms of a late 1960s perspective, the representation of social groups, especially gender, is an accurate representation for society IN THE 1960S, sharing very different beliefs to modern society.

How audience responses to interpretations of media representations reflect social, cultural and historical attitudes – Depending on when an analysis of the product was conducted, the response of the audience would be different. For example in terms of the Theory of preferred reading, those from the late 60s or early 70s may have a preferred reading towards the piece as it is appropriate with their cultural and social norms. However, from a modern perspective, I have more of an opposition reading of the texts due to the difference in dominant ideologies between 1967 and 2020.

Theories of representation including Hall –

‘Hall is very closely identified in media studies with an approach
known as “cultural studies,” and he starts with one of its central concepts: representation. The usual meaning of this term is connected with whether the depiction of something is an accurate or distorted reflection. In contrast to this, Hall argues for a new view that gives the concept of representation a much more active and creative role in relation to the way people think about the world and their place within it. This new view of representation is central to thinking about communication in much more complex ways. Hall shows that an image can have many different meanings and that there is no guarantee that images will work in the way we think they will when we create them.’

In other words, the audience has to be active in order to decode the messages of a piece of media. Due to this and the different beliefs people may hold, their understanding and reading of the product may be completely different.

The effect of historical contexts on representations –

Historical views on gender typically place men as the superior and women as the inferior, which contrasts to todays climate as there due to previous and continuous fight for gender equality.

Theories of gender performativity including Butler –

She describes gender as a ‘stylised repetition of acts’ therefore meaning that the stereotypes forced upon people are likely to influence the way that they view and present themselves. For example, a common negative stereotype of men would be that they should show less emotions as this is viewed as a feminine trait that signifies weakness.

Theories of identity including Gauntlett –

Gender Fluidity – The idea that whilst in the past the media tend to convey singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities, the media today offers us a more diverse range of icons and characters from whom we may influenced by. Gender identity is less constricted. This idea isn’t really represented in this CSP though as in the 1960s, although there was an increased amount of feminism and fight for gender equality, men were still viewed as the superior.

Jean Kilbourne –

Ted Talk – The Dangerous ways Ads see women – 2014

Second wave of feminism – late 1960s

Second-wave feminism of the 1960s-1980s focused on issues of equality and discrimination. The second-wave slogan, “The Personal is Political,” identified women’s cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked and encouraged women to understand how their personal lives reflected sexist power structures.

Jean Kilbourne’s film “Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Images of Women” shed light on the ways in which women are negatively portrayed and often objectified in advertising, paving the way for larger conversations about media and gender research.

Jean Kilbourne has transformed the way in which organizations and educational institutions around the world address the prevention of many public health problems including smoking, high-risk drinking, eating disorders, obesity, sexualization of children, and violence against women. In the late 1960s, she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and its impact on several public health issues, most notably violence against women and eating disorders. Ms. Kilbourne launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems – a radical and original idea at the time that is today mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs.

Feminist theories including bel hooks and van Zoonen –

The advert was produced and released in 1967 which is the same period of time where equal pay act was introduced 1970.

Both men and women wore clothes for the jungle however the woman had more revealing clothing which depicts the sexualisation in that period.

The setting of the jungle is a tough environment which requires a tough male character.

It is also important to note that all of the models seem to be British and are all white. This is probably due to the fact that racism was still around around the time of this advert. Furthermore, the male model has muscular, hairy arms which further creates an extremely heterosexual advert.

• FACTS:
• Created in 1967 – swinging 60s (60 years ago)
• Reactionary – Rep of male and women
• Social changes; abortion legalized, homosexuality decriminalized, feminism (2nd wave)
• Dated – context of reception
• 50-70 disappearance of empire – commonwealth creation – post colonialism (jungle/exotic)

• ANALYSES:
• Traces of hypermasculinity (psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behaviour, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality) are evident in this CSP.
• The over emphasis on the male protagonists as being domainte over the inferior women.
• Examples:
• Sitting on a stretcher covered in tigers skin (masculinity/strength)
• Carrying a rifle (masculinity/power/fighting/war/control)
• Jungle setting (wild/power)
• Surrounded by women being lifted by them (inferior/sexual/idolizing/power over)
• Women wearing lots of makeup/ hair styles
• Thin women, wearing minimal clothing
• Man smiling – women poising
• Semantic field of masculinity – ‘masculine sent, groom, action’ etc
• FEMINISM:
• Jean Kilbourn talks about the representation and effects that advertising has in society. Such as the affects it has on women’s self esteem, body image and goals in life and how it affects men’s perception of women.

• made in late 60s early 70s
• advert about hair creme
• sexist “masculine scent
• This was seen as a period of change in the UK in regards to the changing attitudes towards the role of women and men in society. 
• The equal pay act was introduced in 1970
• homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967
• this period was known as the swinging 60s, where drugs and sex were at their peak
• the representations in the advert can be read as signalling more anxiety might might first appear
• reinforces traditional stereotypes and traditions in order to calm those individuals who did not like the drastic changes that were occurring
• both female and male models are wearing clothing suited for camping
• women wearing short skirts – revealing = sexualised in these times, perceiving as objects
• makeup is heavy and smokey – creating a seductive nature, reinforcing the male gaze
• in 60s,70s, you had the disappearance of the British empire – setting of jungle links to Britain trying to keep hold of power once the empire was deteriorating