Daily Archives: November 10, 2021

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Advertising, Audience, Exam Prep, Score

Score CSP

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In this advert, you can see that there are 5 white women underneath a white male who seems to be held up by some sort of platform covered in a Cheeter print, suggesting that they’re in the jungle. The 5 women are almost draped over this man wearing little amounts of clothing, which appeals to men.

This advert is definitely reactionary as its target audience is males in their 30-50s who most likely want to appeal to women. With having these skinny women draped around him, it suggests that by using this product, women will automatically find you attractive. With having the women wearing provocative clothes, it just reinforces the target market as males will find these women attractive and think they have a chance to ‘win’ a similar looking women after using the product.

The man is also holding some sort of hunting gun, which proves my point further about him being above all people because he’s ‘really masculine’. This suggests that only men are allowed to go hunting and women can only throw themselves at ‘manly’ men instead of doing things for themselves.

The word ‘Masculine’ is actually used in the description of this advert in the phrase ‘Score’s famous masculine scent’. This indicates the fact that if you use the product, not only will you look good and appeal to women, you will also appear masculine AND smell masculine.

The description of the product is rather repetitive and poorly written. This may be repetitive to get their point across of how it’s all men want. By repeating the name of the product many times, it gets it into people’s heads and they will most likely buy it because they remember it more.

There is a clear narrative of being above people. Before he used the ‘Score’ product, he was just an average man with ‘greasy hair’ and then he used it and now he’s above all women with the ‘perfect’ hair. You can see that there are no People of Colour in this advert, which indicates that he is also above all people who aren’t white.

The strapline ‘Get what you’ve always wanted’ suggests that every man who sees this advert has ‘always wanted’ this product and that it is some sort of life saver. It doesn’t seem like a very good strapline that will encourage people to purchase the item, it seems rather dull and possibly narcissistic, assuming their hair product is what people have always wanted.

When looking at the Iconic sign (image) of the product, it reminds me of a bottle of super glue, which would be a negative effect on them as that is the last thing you would want to put on your hair. If they really wanted to embrace masculinity, they should have the hair product in a more manly, masculine bottle that boosts their confidence when buying it, instead of a small clear/transparent bottle as it looks like they’ve put little to no effort on the design.

Not only is there a lack of representation for People of Colour, but there is also a lack of representation of the lgbtq+ community. For example, they say that only men who want to be masculine and want to attract women can purchase and wear this product, when in reality, people with any gender and any sexuality can wear it too. If for example, a male doesn’t want to present himself as masculine, the advert almost shames him for not being a ‘real’ man.

Advertising, Exam Prep

score

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score constructs a narrative which appeals to the target audience as there is a clear story plot to the advert which sells the product.

You can see girls are surrounding a man which has used to product meaning that the product ables you to have any girl attracted you when you use the product and treat you like the best. Men will feel desire to use this as it is showing they will be above others and simply feel like the ‘cool man’ and bring them pleasure.

Overtime people will have different views on the advert as times have changed and will realise that the ad is sexist, racist and homophobic, class based aka representing posh people.

a reason the setting is a jungle could be representing the fact the girls are animals and he is the pack leader.

Feminist Critical Thinking, Representation, Theory

Feminist critical thinking

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<Feminist<>Female<>Feminine>

Feminism-Hautlieu-003Download

As part of our investigation into representation, we have already looked at THE MALE GAZE – Laura Mulvey as well as John Berger (who wrote the book Ways of Seeing) and of course, Feminist Frequency

To add to this brief introduction, we drew upon Toril Moi’s (1987) crucial set of distinctions between: ‘feminist’, ‘female’ and ‘feminine’.

  • Feminist = a political position
  • Female = a matter of biology
  • Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics

So in summary, we have already looked at a number of key concepts, ideas, approaches and theories, which can be applied to a range of cultural / media texts. For example, Jean Kilbourne‘s work at the Media Education Foundation looked at visual narrative media / culture, primarily in terms of advertising.

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Advertising, Exam Prep, Notes, Representation, Score, Semiotics

ADVERTISING: CSP 3 – Score

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Representation

This advert was from 1963 and is a reactionary representation of men and women in media due to the fact it is portraying the white male as the dominant figure, which contrasts the females who are portrayed through the eyes of the male gaze and give off a very submissive persona . This is stereotypical of the advertising industry as these representations were very much reflect the dominating ideology then as well as now. It shines a negative light on women as it creates this belief that they are often very dense and will do anything to please a man whilst shining a positive light on a mans favourable characteristics such as their ability to attract women and easily dominate them just by simply using a hair product – this point is seemingly very sexist. The only aspects of women that the advert show are those that are favourable to men: their bodies and their stereotypical submissive tendencies – illustrating the voyeuristic tendencies of the patriarchy. The advert highly sexualises women by using conventionally attractive women and exposing their bodies by dressing them in little to no clothing – which seems ironic as the product is to be used by men . It then positions them in such a way that they carrying him, as if they are his slaves, and are reaching for the man in hopes for his approval. The combination of the seductive image of the women and their positioning is used as a way to sell the product as it makes a man believe that by using the hair cream he will suddenly attract more women. The fact that the man is positioned higher than the women, sums up that the dominant ideology that men are superior to women is in fact a real thing (but not necessarily true), and that using this hair cream will maintain this sexist hierarchy.

In terms of representations that are less obvious, this can also be seen as a racist portrayal in the sense that not one black person is represented in the advertising of this product. Their lack of representation creates the misrepresentation that this product is not for black people which accurately illustrates societal views of black people at the time which will prevent them from buying the product. This is reiterated by the exotic setting which reflects upon colonialism when white people exploited and stole land from the black natives once again reinforcing the white supremacy ideology and that this product is not directed at them.

vvvAdditionally, this can be seen as a homophobic representation due to the strap line ‘get what you’ve always wanted’. This implies that by using this cream you will attract more women, due to the image of multiple women admiring the man, creates a misrepresentation that someone whose sexual orientation is not women will not get the same effect of the product. Therefore people of that collective identity will not be able to relate to the advert and therefore wont buy it.

In terms of identity, each person in the advert has formed a constructive identity based on the principles of what it is to be a man during the 1960s and what it is to be a woman. The man in the advert, conveys the stereotypical masculine persona, dominant, manly, powerful, because any other identity would have been rarely accepted at the time – he has constructed his identity based on what he was told was ‘right’ at the time. The same goes for the women, they have constructed the stereotypical feminine persona, submissive, beautiful, innocent, as ,at the time, they would have been told that the is all they were good for. You could also link this to the idea collective identity as the male creates his identity to fit in with other male, likewise with the females

Narrative

  1. Initially, he is an average man living an average life.
  2. He then buys Score hair cream
  3. After using the cream he finds himself bombarded with female attention

This narrative is used to sell the product as female validation is what their male target audience will seek.

Advertising, Notes, Score

CSP – SCORE

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CSP 3 – SCORE ADVERTISEMENT

In the scene, the dominant signifier of the male character is being put in a position of power over the female characters.

Textual Analysis :

  • Advert slogan – “Get what you’ve always wanted”
  • Image of products
  • Information on product
  • 1 Male Character and 5 Female Characters
  • The advertisement contains iconic signs of a ‘safari’ scene with use of animal print, plants, leaves,.
  • A shotgun is used, linking to the male character’s pride and masculine identity. The gun connotes to violence, conflict and dominance – the toxic masculinity being portrayed
  • The male character is being held on a platform, carried by the women. He is not only physically above them, but, the advert also suggests that he is superior to them socially.

The male character is seemingly heterosexual, he seems to be enjoying the female attention he is being given. He creates as reactionary representation and stays in line with the social stereotype. Specifically the lack of homosexual representation at the time of production, (1967). All of the characters being portrayed are white, there is no representation of people of colour. This advert is racist in a sense as it could be suggesting that people of colour are at an even more inferior position.

The advertisement is also classist. The male and female characters are seemingly of a high class due to their well groomed appearance (in the A1 social class bracket). Evidently, the product is for ‘The Aspirer’ although it would be found for a relatively inexpensive price at a high street store so would most likely appeal to ‘The Mainstreamer’ and those in a middle class bracket.

The female characters are dressed in revealing clothing and are over sexualised and their body’s, over emphasised. This is yet another example of the way in which the female body is used to satisfy the male gaze (Laura Mulvey), a form of pleasure for male gratification. This representation of femininity is unnecessary and has no link to the product being advertised. This also links to the theory of voyeurism – “One of the most obvious persuaders in advertising is sex”

The narrative being portrayed is that, before the man used Score’s new hair product – ‘Score Liquid Hair Cream’, he was at the same level and status as everybody else. Now, he is put on a platform of dominance, on which he can ‘get what he has always wanted’. The advert leads the audience to believe that, in the future, the man will always have the female attention and toxic masculine identity he was deprived of before using the product. The advertisement also links to gender roles and how, at the time of production, women were obliged to attend to a man’s every need. The male role was to sit back and relax.

The use of the slogan/tag line ‘Get what you’ve always wanted’ positions the passive audience to believe that this product has the power to elevate your social status.