Component 1 - Quality Street

Product Context

Product Context

• Created in 1936 to sell more reasonable cost to appeal to working families

• 1930s, chocolate → only affordable to wealthy people

• Post-rationing period (1950s) → luxuries, acceptable part of grocery shopping

• Creator Mackintosh → aimed to make QS more accessible to working families

Historical context

• Brand icons → Regency Era → elegance in Fine Art and Architecture

• Similar to 1950s in terms of social; cultural development

Social; cultural context

• supported drastic change in entertainment; arts accessibility; affordability

• Gold frame → halo effect around man; product

Language

• persuasive to audience

• Alliteration of “delicious dilemma” →make you more attractive if buying them

• “delightfully different” →memorable + connotes taste & variety in tin

• adjectives ‘delicious’ + ‘dilemma’ → chocolate being luxurious

Layout and design

• Purple logo → royalty and sophistication

• bright colours + high key lighting → positivity & fun

• rich colour palette → upper class

• serif font → formality

• gold frame → luxury, richness, power

Images

• Man in centre of frame (protagonist) wearing suit → dominance + wealth

• tin in middle of frames/repeated images of chocolate → informs demographic; encourages them to buy product

• two women are seen beside man kissing him →reinforces stereotypes of women being damsels in distress →them needing chocolate/man needing women (doesn’t relate to male gaze theory cause focus ain’t on bodies)

• Regency figures (woman wearing purple, man wearing soldier suit)→ period of culture and prosperity/ intertexual reference to other ads →connotes success