Quality Street advert (1956)

Quality street advert (1956)

Quality Street Link

Denotations and connotations 

In the centre of the advert there is a white man, with brown hair, in a navy suit. Underneath he is wearing a white shirt and red tie. Overall his final appearance is smart and contains authority. The man is holding a bucket of the branded sweets which is being advertised. They are spilling out of the pot to show that there are an abundance of choice as well as quantity. Beside the man there are two women one being blonde, in a red dress and the other, black haired, in a red stripy top and green skirt. They are both sitting on the grey sofa beside him and kissing him on each cheek while reaching into the sweet box. This idea could portray the woman as being attracted towards the man showing their affection towards him. This would entice the male audience to the product as they would want women to be loving towards them. As well as portraying the women as tricksters as they are distracting the man with affection to get to the prize of the chocolate. This fits with the stereotype that all women love chocolate and would do anything for it. Secondly the man is portrayed as a male ‘hero’ choosing between two ‘damsels in distress’ (Propp’s theory) > females choosing the chocolate. The anchorage of the gold frame have the connotations of a halo effect around the man and the product giving it central framing. The frame consists of two more characters a man in a uniform as well as a woman dressed up in a purple and green gown. They are looking down to those sitting on the couch smiling to show they are friendly however also to portray their power over them. The background of the wall is blue to symbolise loyalty, confidence and trust showing that you can trust the advert. 

In the bottom third of the advert there are 3 different sweet wrappers which could relate to the characters clothing in the advert. The first being the "chocolate strawberry cup" this has a colour scheme of red and green which connects to the woman on the left of the man's outfits which is red and green like the packaging. Secondly the sweet beneath that "harrogate toffee" connects to the woman to the right of the mans outfit as well as hair. This is due to the packaging of the sweet being red and gold. the ladies dress is red and her hair is a golden blonde. Finally the "chocolate toffee finger" has a golden wrapper which could symbolise the golden frame. 

The explanation  of " what a delicious dilemma!" is large and in a bold text to stand out. It is stating that because the are so many different and tasty chocolate it is hard to choose from. We can also extract this from the text "18 delightfully different toffees and chocolates in....". The "18" is large and in purple to show easily to the audience of the variety. The "Mackintosh's 'Quality street'" is in bold at the bottom left of the advert which shows who made this selection as well as what the product name is. These are both in a stylish typography which would catch the audiences eye. 

Overall, the adverts target audience is around 16-40 due to the younger people in the frame. It shows that the chocolates and toffees are tasty due to the alliteration of "delightfully different", this also shows that the product is unique. Therefore you shoulyd buy the product as it will be contrasting to any other brand.


More information

I am going to give more information on this advert however you can go to the link at the top for more


Product context

•  Quality Street sweet tin made by Mackintosh.
• Originally created in 1936, inspired by the name of a play by J.M Barrie.
•  In the 1930s, only the wealthy could afford chocolate boxes but the creator Harold Mackintosh aimed to sell them at a more reasonable cost to appeal to working families. By the 1950s, when this campaign started, society was in a post-rationing period where luxuries were once again becoming an acceptable part of grocery shopping

Historical context 

The icons of the Quality Street brand were two characters from the Regency era of British history. In the Regency era, Britain went through a period of elegance with regard to Fine Art and Architecture. The Regency era could also be compared to the 1950s for its significant social and cultural development. Between 1811 and 1837 the country was under the rule of Prince Regent and developments in technology (e.g. the steam-powered printing press), fashion and architecture were mirrored by a population boom. These similarities can be compared to England in the 1950s.

Social and cultural context

 The 1950s saw a change in “high culture”, a time where fine art, decadence and theatre that had previously only been accessed by the upper classes and those with money were now going to be made more affordable to the mass audience. The Conservative Party’s 1951 election campaign was spearheaded by the slogan “Set the People Free”, and this supported drastic change as entertainment and arts became more accessible and affordable.