Examination of Gender-role Portrayals in Television Advertising across Seven Countries

This study examined the roles of cultural (Hofstede??s Masculinity value dimension??i.e., Gender of Nations), country-level (Gender-related Development Index), and execution-level (product type or gender of the typical user) factors in understanding gender-role portrayals in television advertising. Using content analysis methodology, we compared the gender and occupation of the prominent character and the gender of the voice-over across 2,608 television commercials in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States. Results of regression analyses revealed that cultural and country factors predicted the gender of the voice-over only whereas product type consistently conformed with the gender of the prominent character. Overall, males were featured in prominent visual and auditory roles, while females were still portrayed in stereotypical ways.     

Kindergarten Children's Gender-Role Expectations for Television Actors

This study examined four- and five-year-oldchildren's predictions concerning the sexof personscarrying out a variety of common activities andoccupations on television. The purpose of the study wasto investigate the possibility that young childrenmay have stereotyped beliefs and expectations which canbe applied in the course of television viewing.Preschoolers of European Australian background viewed short scenes establishing the need for avariety of activities and in each case were asked toindicate who would perform the activity: a man, a womanor both. The children's responses revealed strong gender stereotyped expectations, and these werestrongest in the case of masculine stereotypedactivities. With age, children were more likely to makestereotyped judgments about the ability of males andfemales to perform the activities. The children'sestimates of their own future competence in theactivities also indicated stereotypical beliefs, withthe older girls more likelyto rejectmasculineactivities. It is argued that children's preconceivedexpectations furnish an organizational basis for theirinterpretation of gender related information intelevision.     

Gender and Race Portrayals on Spanish-Language Television

318 randomly selected television ads from India (from 2004) in three different languages (English, Hindi, and Tamil) were content analyzed to examine both the frequency of appearance and prevalence of gender stereotypes. Results indicate that there are more male than female central characters and voiceovers in Indian ads; stereotypical differences were also found in the type of credibility used by men and women, and the nature of the products they advertised and settings that males and females appeared in. Female central characters tended to be younger than their male counterparts and were more likely to be portrayed in relationship roles. Similarities and differences in gender role portrayals found in Indian television ads and those from other nations are also discussed.     

Gender-Role Congruence and Self-Referencing as Determinants of Advertising Effectiveness

In an initial experiment, men and women with varied gender-role orientations evaluated gender-stereotyped and nonstereotyped advertisements for gendered products that are actually used by both sexes. Consistent with a gender-role congruence model of advertising effectiveness, traditional participants (masculine men; feminine women) responded more favorably to traditional (i.e., gender-stereotyped) than to nontraditional advertisements, whereas nontraditional participants (androgynous individuals; feminine men; masculine women) reacted somewhat more favorably to the nontraditional advertisements. Experiment 2 revealed that when encouraged to self reference, traditional participants became much more responsive to nontraditional advertisements, even more so than were the nontraditional participants. Practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Changing Patterns of Gender Portrayals in Portuguese Television Advertisements1

The purpose of this study was to identify patterns in Portuguese television advertisements and interpret changes in the portrayal of gender roles using data collected 7 years apart: 1996 and 2003. We grouped 11 attributes of the central figure displayed in 623 evening commercials using a k‐means cluster procedure. There were 4 distinct groups of advertisements that emerged, 2 of them characterizing a predominantly male central figure and the other 2 a female central figure. The overall increase in women portrayed in advertisements from 1996 (32.9%) to 2003 (40.8%) is reflected in a shift toward an increase of advertisements with a female central figure in the typically male “narrator” cluster. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Television Advertising Disclosures: An Empirical Assessment

Televised advertising disclosures are supposedly designed to supply consumers with important information for decision-making. From the perspective of models of information processing, however, these disclosures may well be improperly conceived and executed. Disclaimers presented in other media are also challenged, though television represents a special case because of consumers' inability to control the processing situation (e.g., to study the disclaimer at length if desired) and because of the extensive use of disclaimers in this medium. In this study, televised advertising disclosures are examined experimentally and found generally to be ineffective. Resultant suggestions for researchers and policy-makers are developed.     

Variations in the Gender-Stereotyped Content of Children's Television Cartoons Across Genres

This study examined the gender-stereotyped content of children's TV network cartoons across 4 genres: traditional adventure (e.g., "Spiderman"), nontraditional adventure (e.g., "Reboot"), educational/family (e.g., "Magic School Bus"), and comedy ("Animaniacs"). Acting negatively, showing physical aggression, and being a victim were significantly less likely in the educational/family genre cartoons than any of the other three genres. Demonstrating romantic behavior was significantly more likely in the traditional adventure and the comedy genres than the other genres. Male characters were represented in cartoons significantly more than were female characters, but only in the traditional adventure and the comedy genres. Male characters were more likely than were female characters to use physical aggression, but only in the traditional adventure genre. Behaviors that were relatively more likely among female characters across genres included showing fear, acting romantic, being polite, and acting supportive. Most of the significant differences were also associated with very large effect sizes.     

Television Commercials as a Lagging Social Indicator: Gender Role Stereotypes in Korean Television Advertising

Previous studies of mass media in many countries have confirmed that images of women are stereotypical and unrealistic, particularly in television advertising. This study was designed to analyze the representation of gender roles in Korean television advertising and to compare the results with previous studies conducted in other countries. A sample of 878 Korean television advertisements from the MBC network in 2001 was content analyzed. Findings indicate that women in Korean television advertising were portrayed as young (48.2%), as dependent (37.5%), and as nurturing children (12.1%); they were often depicted in the home (37.2%). These stereotypical images of women have been found in television advertising in many countries. Korean society has changed a great deal in recent decades, but the images we analyzed do not reflect the current situation. Therefore, television commercials are a lagging social indicator of role changes.     

Co-Constructions of Gender and Ethnicity in New Zealand Television Advertising

This paper reports key findings from a content analysis of gender and ethnic depictions in a sample of 2,120 New Zealand prime-time television advertisements screened in 2006. The study explored the following questions: With what product categories are male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters most commonly associated? What are the most common occupational roles of male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters? The results reveal highly stereotypical depictions of women and men within each ethnic category. White men dominated advertisements for foodstuffs, telecommunications and financial/corporate/legal services and were over-represented as professionals/white collar workers, while White women were over-represented in advertisements for household products, personal products, and medical products and featured predominantly as homemakers. Māori/Pasifika men were over-represented as athletes and service and sales workers. Non-White women featured prominently within multi-ethnic groups in advertisements for personal grooming products and most frequently featured as glamour models, while non-White men were over-represented as blue collar workers. Largely absent were Māori/Pasifika women and Asians of both genders, potentially exacerbating the multiple axes of subordination encountered by these groups in the New Zealand context.     

The Gender-Role Content of Children's Favorite Television Programs and Its Links to Their Gender-Related Perceptions

Two studies were conducted to (a) examine the gender-role stereotypical, counterstereotypical, and gender-neutral messages contained in a sample of first- and second-grade children's favorite television programs; and (b) to link the results of the content analysis to the children's gender-role values and interpersonal attraction to same- and opposite-gender television characters while the content analysis showed that there was a great deal of gender neutrality in the programs the children preferred. However, as predicted, male characters were still more likely than female characters to answer questions, boss or order others, show ingenuity, achieve a goal, and eat. The results of the survey showed that preference for stereotypical content predicted boys' valuing hard work and humor. In addition, for girls preference for male stereotypical and male counterstereotypical content negatively predicted interpersonal attraction to female characters, whereas preference for female counterstereotypical and gender-neutral content positively predicted interpersonal attraction to female characters. For boys preference for female counterstereotypical content positively predicted interpersonal attraction to male characters.     

Self-Enhancement Following Exposure to Idealized Body Portrayals in Ethnically Diverse Men: A Fantasy Effect of Advertising

Viewing idealized body portrayals of men and women in advertising is known to have negative effects on men’s self-esteem and body dissatisfaction, but little research investigates these effects across race/ethnicity. Racial minorities tend to idealize larger bodies than Whites and so might respond differently to advertising influences. We investigated whether exposure to idealized portrayals of male and female bodies in TV advertisements has different effects on men of different race/ethnicity. Additionally, we investigated whether implicit methods reveal different results than self-reports. One hundred and sixty Asian, Hispanic, and White American male undergraduates from a university in California (USA) were randomly assigned to watch TV advertisements portraying thin women, muscular men, or watched no ads. Their implicit self-esteem was measured using the Implicit Association Test, and a questionnaire assessed explicit self-esteem, actual-ideal body discrepancy, and perception of weight-related health-risks. Exposure to portrayals of muscular men decreased actual-ideal body discrepancy in all men. Exposure to portrayals of thin women increased men’s implicit but not explicit self-esteem in Asian and Hispanic men only. Both these findings are consistent with a self-enhancing role of exposure to idealized male and female bodies in advertising, which is often referred to as a “fantasy effect”. This study provides evidence that media exposure interacts with culturally local body ideals and so can produce varying effects in different racial/ethnic groups. This result could have important implications for interventions.     

Fifty Years of Advertising Images: Some Changing Perspectives on Role Portrayals Along with Enduring Consistencies

Content analysis is used to evaluate portrayals of women and men in United States magazine advertisements over a 50-year period, 1950 through 2000. We examine 7,912 portrayals of people in 3,212 advertisements from the time period and analyze changes in those advertisements relative to transitions in feminism and cultural trends. Magazines from representative categories provided the sample data. Over the period studied, magazine advertising showed a trend toward objective role portrayals of women fairly equal to men. This trend perhaps resulted from feminist??s positioning women in the public as well as the private sphere. Women were still subordinated to men in more subtle aspects of advertisements, measured by Goffman??s (1979) cultural positioning framework. Sexual exploitation of both sexes was noticed.     

Exposure to Television Portrayals of Latinos: The Implications of Aversive Racism and Social Identity Theory

Although research suggests that manifestations of blatant racism are on the decline, findings additionally demonstrate that subtle racism remains prevalent when contexts provide sufficient ambiguity for the expressions to go unnoticed. Notably, studies examining these outcomes have typically been confined to intergroup contexts, despite the fact that mediated contact may yield parallel responses. The present investigation examines this relationship by applying aversive racism and social identity theory assumptions to assess the influence of exposure to television depictions of Latinos, on White viewers’ judgments. Results cautiously reveal that racial identification and media ambiguity affect both viewers’ evaluations of target racial/ethnic out‐group members as well as in‐group esteem.     

Representation of Gender in South African Television Advertising: A Content Analysis

This paper examines how gender is represented in South African television advertising. It provides a foundation upon which changes in representation over time may be mapped; contributes toward a cross-national literature that considers differences in representation; and tentatively examines how representations intersect with other key social categories. A sample of 5,803 advertisements was collected during 2003 that included 1,633 primary visual actors and 2,350 narrators. These were analysed by means of content analysis. A coding scheme was developed that was partly based on existing research, including McArthur and Resko??s (1975) influential study, but also research within non-Western contexts. Content categories included attributes of the primary visual actor (i.e., age; portrayal; race; and social class) as well as advertisement attributes (i.e., actors; primary narrator; products; and setting). Hypotheses predicted that males and females would be represented differently in television advertisements and that these differences would reflect traditional hierarchical relations in society. Findings largely supported these hypotheses. Males were represented as dominant. They were of primary focus; appeared most frequently within the socially valued public-work arena; and were represented as occupying positions of greater social authority. Females were represented as subordinate. They were of secondary focus; appeared most frequently within the socially undervalued private-domestic arena; and were most often represented as occupying positions of social subordination. This subordination was reinforced through findings that imply their sexualisation. Interesting patterns also emerged in findings indicating possible change in representations of gender. The implications of findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.     

Gender-Role Cognition in Three-Year-Old Boys and Girls

Although the multidimensionality of gender roles has been well established, few researchers have investigated male and female roles separately. Because of the substantial differences in the ways male and female roles are portrayed in our culture, boys and girls may think and learn about these roles differently. The male role is more clearly defined, more highly valued, and more salient than the female role; thus, children's cognitions about these two roles may be expected to differ. The present study addressed the question of whether there is sex-typical variation in gender labeling, gender-role knowledge, and schematicity. Participants were 120 families; 15% were from minority ethnic groups, and 17% were single-parent families; 25% of the parents had a high school education or less. Results indicated that at 36 months of age, boys were less able to label gender and less knowledgeable about gender roles than were girls. Boys' knew more about male stereotypes than female stereotypes, whereas girls knew considerably more than boys about the female role and as much as boys about the male role. Boys and girls were found to be similar in gender schematicity. Traditionality of parental attitudes regarding child-rearing and maternal employment were not strongly related to children's gender cognition.     

Effects of Television Violence on Memory for Violent and Nonviolent Advertising

This study investigated the impact of television violence on memory for advertising, taking into account the possible role of viewer hostility arousal in this context. Experimental participants were exposed to advertising placed within a violent or a nonviolent film clip. One advertisement had 2 versions–violent and nonviolent–and was presented with 2 other nonviolent filler advertisements. Participants completed a mood questionnaire before and after being exposed to the television material, tested for memory for the embedded advertising and asked to rate the film clips and the advertisements using a set of evaluative scales. The nonviolent version of the target advertisement was less well remembered when placed in the violent film than in the nonviolent film, supporting Bushman and Bonacci (2002). In contrast, the violent version of the target advertisement was remembered much better than the nonviolent version when placed in the violent film sequence. Participants' hostility scores were higher only after watching the violent film, and associated with an impairment in the memory of the nonviolent advertisements, while enhancing the memory of the violent advertisement, thus providing some support for Bushman's (1998a) hostile-thought hypothesis.     

Always on My Mind: Exploring How Frequent,Recent, and Vivid Television Portrayals Are Used in the Formation of Social Reality Judgments

Prior research has found consistent support for the heuristic processing model of cultivation effects, which argues that cultivation effects can be explained by the availability heuristic. The present study represents an experimental test of the heuristic processing model and tests the impact of frequency, recency, and vividness on construct accessibility and social reality beliefs. 213 students participated in a 2 × 2 × 2 prolonged exposure experimental design varying the frequency of exposure to violent television programs, the level of vividness in the programs, and recency of exposure. Dependent measures were accessibility and social reality beliefs. Results showed that reaction times were largely unresponsive to the independent variables. Although there were no main effects for frequency on social reality beliefs, there was a significant interaction between frequency and vividness on beliefs: People watching vivid violent media gave higher estimates of the prevalence of crime and police immorality in the real world in the 3× viewing condition than those in the 1× viewing condition. In concluding, it is argued that this study has important implications for the heuristic processing model, cultivation theory, and research into vividness effects.     

The Perpetuation of Subtle Prejudice: Race and Gender Imagery in 1990s Television Advertising

Scholars have long argued that popular consumer culture is both producer and product of social inequality, but few detailed empirical studies have explored the ways that advertising imagery simultaneously constructs stereotypes of race and gender. This article reports on a content analysis of television commercials (n = 1699) aired on programs with high ratings for specific target audiences from 1992 to 1994. Characters in the television commercials enjoy more prominence and exercise more authority if they are White or men. Logistic regression analyses indicate that images of romantic and domestic fulfillment also differ by race and gender, with women and Whites disproportionately shown in family settings and in cross-sex interactions. In general, 1990s television commercials tend to portray White men as powerful, white women as sex objects, African American men as aggressive, and African American women as inconsequential. The authors suggest that these commercial images contribute to the perpetuation of subtle prejudice against African Americans by exaggerating cultural differences and denying positive emotions. Results are discussed in relation to the segmentation of media markets and possibilities for social change.