quality street

• Quality Street


  Sweet tin made by Mackintosh, originally created in 1936 inspired by the name of a play by J.M Barrie

  
• Quality Street in the 1930s


  • Only the wealthy could afford chocolate boxes, creator Harold Mackintosh aimed to sell them at a more reasonable cost to appeal to working families
• Quality Street in the 1950s


  • Society was in a post-rationing period where luxuries were once again becoming an acceptable part of grocery shopping
• Regency era of British history


  Period of elegance with regard to Fine Art and Architecture, Britain went through significant social and cultural development between 1811 and 1837
• Similarities between Regency era and 1950s England

  Both periods saw developments in technology, fashion and architecture, accompanied by a population boom
• 1950s "high culture"

  • 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", supporting drastic change as entertainment and arts became more accessible and affordable
• Structure and design of the advert

  • Anchorage of the gold frame - connotations of a halo effect around the man and the product
  • Typical triangular geometric composition of the poster to help secondary anchorage of the product
  • Product takes central framing
• Typography

  • Strong, forming the bottom third of the poster, the strong purple colour stands out to draw the consumers' eyes to the name
• Design

  • Hand-drawn, artistic nature, with a rich colour palette of primary and secondary colours, links to the post-war consumerist culture
• Persuasive language techniques

  • Alliteration, emotive language and superlatives, indicative of a well-read educated audience; further enhanced by the bold, serif font styles connoting richness
• Connotations of the female characters being dressed similarly to the sweets that are shown close-up on the bottom third of the poster

  Inference of a dilemma can be investigated at two levels: male 'hero' choosing between two 'damsels in distress' (Propp's theory), females choosing the chocolate

  
• Costume and dress of male character

  • Indicating the formal nature of his dilemma, connotations of a higher class and richer society
• Patriarchal narrative, which is part of a range of similar adverts of this time
• Miss Sweetly and Major Quality


  Part of the brand Identity of the product since 1936, symbolic of the Regency era of British history referenced by the dress codes
• The advert is part of a campaign from this time that uses a similar design, the brand identity of Major Quality and Miss Sweetly goes back to the origin of the product in the 1930s
• Gender roles in the 1950s

  • Remarkably different to the present day, the imagery is very aspirational of a higher class which links to the post-war era in Britain, the product was symbolic of elegance and aspiration
• The image suggests a male dominated society with regards to 'choice'


  The male character anchors the audience's eyes to the product which has significant phallic symbolism
• Dress code of the male character


  • Relates to the modern working businessman who may be the 'provider' of the brand
• Stereotypes of the female characters

  • Their need for chocolate, a common and very traditional stereotype, and their subservient body language to the dominant man
• Sense of manipulation with the women distracting the man through romance to access the 'prize' that is the product in the gentleman's lap


  This advert could be seen to be representative of the way in which society was moving at this time
• Historical representations of the Regency characters

  • Show typical strong feminine colours, and the showing of flesh for Miss Sweetly, and the formal uniform dress of Major Quality signify importance and power in their own relationship
• Target audience of the advert

  • Young to middle aged adults (25–40), the target audience could see themselves in the characters in the main section of the advert