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Cinema Adverts

A collection of adverts including Christmas greetings and the Entertainments Tax

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Description

Questions & Activities

Questions

  • Make a list of all the Christmas 'signifiers' (the Christmassy things that are shown to represent Christmas, e.g. candles, presents) you can see in the first advert. Are these the same things we would expect to see in a Christmas advert today?
  • Do you think the first two adverts show us an idealised version of Christmas for Scottish viewers? Why/why not?
  • What do you make of the different ways men and women are represented in the animated advert? Would this advert still be appropriate for today's audience? Why/why not?
  • What kind of adverts do we see in cinemas today? Do we still see adverts from cinema management addressed to the customers?

Activities

Watch the Christmas scenes from the film 'It's a Wonderful Life' (Frank Capra, 1946). Can you spot some similarities in the way Christmas is represented in this film compared to some of the adverts?

Create your own Christmas greeting to cinema patrons. What does the 'perfect' Christmas look like today?

Research the British Entertainments Tax. Why was it created and what were the benefits? What happened to make people start campaigning to end it?

Go to the cinema and make notes on the type of adverts shown before films today. How do they look and sound different from the adverts in the 1960s?

Clip Details

Record Id 007-000-006-005-C
Resource Rights Holder Third Party Copyright Holder licensed by National Library of Scotland
Project Ref 1103
Date c.1960 - 1969
Genre Advertisement
School Subject History, Media Studies, Social Studies, Gender Studies
Subject Matter Literacy, Advertising, Christmas, Cinemas, Santa, Traditions
Event Christmas
Clip Length 4:20
Film Length 4:20
References National Library of Scotland.