How are the advertising and marketing set products analysed for media language and representation, and how does context shape older and newer campaigns?
Set products: advertising and marketing (including Score hair cream, Maybelline, Kiss of the Vampire, Galaxy and This Girl Can). Media language and representation across older and newer campaigns, including gender representation and the use of context.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to the advertising and marketing set products, including Score, Maybelline, Kiss of the Vampire, Galaxy and This Girl Can. Covers media language and representation across older and newer campaigns, gender representation, and the use of social and historical context, with the exam skills Component 01 Section B rewards.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
Have a quick question? Jump to the Q&A page
Jump to a section
What this dot point is asking
Component 01 Section B studies advertising and marketing set products through media language and representation. OCR's set list spans older and newer campaigns (for example Score hair cream, Maybelline, Kiss of the Vampire, Galaxy and This Girl Can), which makes gender representation and historical context central. Confirm the exact set products with OCR for your series.
The answer
The set products and why they are paired
Knowing each campaign's product, period and angle lets you compare them: Score (dated masculinity, objectification), Maybelline (contemporary cosmetics), Kiss of the Vampire (film marketing, genre and gender codes), Galaxy (chocolate, indulgence), This Girl Can (empowerment, challenging objectification).
Media language and persuasion
Read the advert's media language: image, layout, typography, colour and language. Find the connotations and the persuasive techniques:
- Aspiration: linking the product to a desirable lifestyle or identity.
- The slogan as anchorage: fixing a preferred meaning (Barthes).
- Myth: repeated connotations making "this product equals this lifestyle" feel natural (Barthes).
Adverts are dense, deliberate texts, so close semiotic analysis pays off.
Representation, especially gender
Analyse how the campaign represents gender and other groups:
- van Zoonen: is a woman objectified, framed through the male gaze, reinforcing patriarchal ideology?
- Gauntlett: does the advert offer diverse representations and identities the audience can draw on?
- Countertype: does it challenge an expected stereotype (This Girl Can deliberately challenges objectification and promotes female empowerment)?
Then judge: does the advert reinforce or challenge the dominant view of gender?
Using social and historical context
The decisive skill is context. An older advert encodes the gender norms and attitudes of its period (which can look dated or offensive now), while a newer campaign reflects shifted attitudes. Comparing an older and a newer advert reveals change in representation and media language, tied to social and historical context.
Examples in context
A strong answer reads the signs closely, applies representation theory, and ties the representation to its social and historical context, comparing older and newer campaigns where the question allows.
Try this
Q1. Explain how an advert uses anchorage to fix a preferred meaning. [4 marks]
- What the marker wants. The slogan or caption (written code) narrowing the polysemy of the image to one preferred reading (Barthes, AO1 and AO2).
Q2. Analyse how one advertising set product represents gender, using a feminist theory. [10 marks]
- Cue. Read the signs, apply van Zoonen (objectification, male gaze) or note a countertype, tie to context, and judge reinforcement versus challenge (AO2).
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR H409/01 202215 marksAnalyse how an advertising set product uses media language to construct a representation of gender. [15]Show worked answer →
An Analyse question (AO1 and AO2), marked by levels of response. The marker rewards close analysis of the signs plus representation theory.
Method. Read the advert's media language (image, layout, typography, colour, language) and state the connotations that construct a gendered representation.
Develop. Apply van Zoonen or Gauntlett and consider the social and historical context: an older advert encodes the gender norms of its time; a newer one may challenge them. The top band judges whether the advert reinforces or challenges patriarchal ideology.
OCR H409/01 202320 marksDiscuss the extent to which the advertising set products reflect the social context of their time. Refer to the set products you have studied. [20]Show worked answer →
An extended essay (AO1 and AO2), shown at the 20-mark cap, marked by levels of response.
For. Compare an older advert (which encodes the gender norms and attitudes of its period) with a newer campaign (which reflects shifted attitudes, for example a campaign challenging stereotypes), tying media language and representation to context.
Against. Universal persuasive codes (semiotics, aspiration) work across periods, and audiences decode adverts differently (Hall), so context shapes but does not wholly determine meaning.
Judgement. The adverts strongly reflect their social context, especially in gender representation, but persuasive codes and audience readings complicate it. A judgement grounded in the set products reaches the top band.
Related dot points
- Set products: news and online media (The Guardian and the Daily Mail). Comparative study across print, websites and social media, covering media language, representation, industry (ownership, funding, regulation) and audience, in their political contexts.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to the news set products, The Guardian and the Daily Mail. Covers the comparative study across print, websites and social media, applying media language, representation, industry and audience, in their political contexts, with the exam skills Component 01 Section A rewards.
- Set products: music video (one text from List A and one from List B) and magazines (including GQ, Vogue and Adbusters). Media language and representation across the forms, including genre, gender, identity and the alternative magazine as a challenge to the mainstream.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to the music video and magazine set products, including the List A and List B videos and GQ, Vogue and Adbusters. Covers media language and representation across the forms, genre, gender, identity and the alternative magazine, with the exam skills Component 01 Section B rewards.
- Representation: feminist theory. Liesbet van Zoonen (gender as constructed, the objectification of women, the male gaze) and bell hooks (feminism as a political struggle against patriarchy, intersectionality of race, class and gender).
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to gender and feminist theory. Covers Liesbet van Zoonen (gender as constructed, objectification, the male gaze) and bell hooks (feminism as political struggle, intersectionality of race, class and gender), with the application skills the representation essays reward.
- Media contexts: social and cultural contexts. How the values, attitudes, social groups and cultural moment of a product's time of production and reception shape its media language, representations and meaning.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to social and cultural contexts. Covers how the values, attitudes, social groups and cultural moment of a product's time shape its media language, representations and meaning, and how products are read differently across contexts, with the application skills the exam rewards.
- Media language: semiotics (Roland Barthes). Denotation and connotation, signs and signifiers, codes (the symbolic, technical and written codes) and the way repeated connotations harden into myth and ideology.
An OCR A-Level Media Studies guide to semiotics and Roland Barthes. Covers signs, signifiers and the signified, denotation and connotation, symbolic, technical and written codes, anchorage, and how repeated connotations become myth and ideology, with the analysis skills the media language questions reward.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR A Level Media Studies (H409) specification — OCR (2023)
- OCR AS, A Level and GCSE Media Studies new set products — OCR (2023)