Textual Analysis:

• Strapline is “Get what you’ve always wanted”. This immediately attracts the customers attention
• Big slogan above a long (repetitive) paragraph.
• 1 main male.
• 5 main female models, are shown in awe of the man, supposedly because of the product.
• The setting that the models are in is supposed to be Africa, this is evident due to the leaves behind, and safari-style clothes.

Representation

The strapline ‘Get what you’ve always wanted’ appeals to the aspirer, who wants to achieve greater things. The advert also implies that wearing its product will help you gain the sexual attention of young women, which appeals specifically to heterosexual men. Also, by choosing to use a group of white people in Africa, the product appeals to 1960s imperialists who are still clinging to the ideals of the recently collapsed British Empire.

There is no doubt that the audience response to this product will have changed quite a bit over time. Firstly, the lack of diversity in the advert is now laughable (especially when you consider that the advert is supposed to be set in an African safari). Also, the sexual politics of the advert now seem rather questionable. The man in the advert looks around 40-50 years old, and yet he is being carried around by women who look as if they’ve just turned 20 years old. The addition of a gun as a phallic symbol also hasn’t aged well, as it implies that ‘to be a real man’ men have to be powerful and violent.

Also, by implying that the group had sex, the advert is trying to appeal to the ideals of ‘the second wave of feminism’ which created a larger acceptance of birth control, divorce, abortion and homosexuality.

Clearly, the advert is trying to use sex to sell their product. This is an extremely common strategy even today, but the products explicit way of using it hasn’t exactly aged well compared to today’s modern standards.

Similarly, feminist critical thought became much more prominent and pronounced during the counter cultural movements of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, which heralded, among other changes a greater acceptance of birth control and divorce, abortion and homosexuality.

There was also the abolition of hanging and theatre censorship, and the Obscene Publications Act (1959) which led to the Chatterly trial. Nevertheless, as Johnathon Dollimore wrote: ‘all this should not be seen as a straightforward displacement of dominant conservative attitudes‘ (1983:59).

However, the Score advert was produced in the year of decriminalisation of homosexuality and as such, the representation of heterosexuality could be read as signalling more anxiety than might first appear. The reference to colonialist values can also be linked to social and cultural contexts of the ending of Empire.

The advertising techniques of fifty years could be compared to those of today. For example, references could be made with the Lynx Effect advert and the Specsavers adverts (both from 2010) which received criticism from the ASA, and again reference to body image and changes in what society deems acceptable and unacceptable representations. So have ideas and acceptance around representation of gender really changed since the 1960’s?

• made in 1697
• sexist – sexualises women by representing them in revealing, tight clothing.
• racist – all white characters in an African jungle setting however no black characters

1. Mise-en-scene analysis – Through the denotation you can see 1 male and 5 females, 3 of the females whom are looking at the male, one of the other ones is looking off in the distance with a smug smile on her face and the other is directly looking into the camera. It seems like they are in a jungle due to the types of plants and clothes they are wearing (safari clothes) Below all of this is the product advertisement explaining what its about and a picture of it.
2. Semiotics – The dominant signifier would be the male as he is being upheld by all the woman. There is an strapline with the picture at the top of the advertisement which reads out “Get what you’ve always wanted” and there is also a copy which is the white box at the bottom of the advertisement. The advertisement is seen as reactionary. They could be creating a myth where to make men think that’s what will happen to them if they were to use that product.
3. Representational Analysis – All of the woman are upholding the man as if he is the most important, they are also grabbing onto him and reaching out to him which suggests that they want him. The girl looking into the camera could give the ideal heterosexual man voyeurism.