Quality Street Advert Analysis

Structure and design of this advert has many obvious hidden messages:

• The gold frame implies of a halo effect around the man holding the product that might exaggerate how the product makes one feel. To dig deeper and to support this assumption, it also shows that the man might feel like he is in heaven since he's getting attention from two lovely ladies. Also since the man and the product take the central framing might also distract the audience, who are watching the advert, from other hidden messages.
•  The Typography is strong, forming the bottom third of the poster, and the strong purple colour stands out to draw the consumers’ eyes to the name.
• Hand-drawn, artistic nature of the design, with a rich colour palette of primary and secondary colours, links to the post-war consumerist culture.
• Persuasive language techniques such as alliteration, emotive language and superlatives are all 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. 
• The colour red can be associated with romance and sexuality: Red dress/tie, red lipstick, red chocolate packaging and a red captain suit in the painting behind. The more attention is paid to this advert, it can be implied that the 3 main flavors of the chocolate is chosen out of 18 of different flavours. The first flavour that is represented is the 'chocolate strawberry cup'. The combination of Strawberries and Chocolate would support the idea of romance in this Advert.
• The women have two stereotypes being relied upon in the advert: firstly, that of their need for chocolate, a common and very traditional stereotype that still exists today, and secondly their subservient body language to the dominant man. The implication is that to be successful you will need to be romantically led by a man.
• Inference of a dilemma can be investigated at two levels: male ‘hero’ choosing between two ‘damsels in distress’, females choosing the chocolate. 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. Consider intertextuality.
• The characters in the gold frame are part of the brand Identity of the product since 1936.
•  The characters are symbolic of the Regency era of British history referenced by the dress codes of the characters in the goldframed picture at the back of the advert. 
• The two female characters appear to be of a lower class than the man in the suit, and the man in the suit is of a lower class than the two characters in the gold frame. The item that brings all these classes together is the product in the centre of the image.
• The image suggests a male dominated society with regards to ‘choice’ – he is in control of the product and is centrally framed. The male character anchors the audience’s eyes to the product which has significant phallic symbolism
• There is also a secondary and deeper analysis here – a 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.