Stereotypes In Advertisements Research Articles

Representation of Gender Stereotypes in Advertisements: A Content Analysis of Facebook and Instagram Advertisements

In the dynamic realm of the digital landscape, the examination of gender stereotypes' influence on online advertising becomes imperative. This study addresses the backdrop of the expanding influence of social media platforms. The research aims to evaluate the prevalence of gender stereotypes in advertisements on these platforms, categorize these stereotypes, and investigate potential variations in their portrayal of men and women. A meticulous content analysis wasundertaken, systematically examining advertisements across five diverse categories in Pakistan published between September 2022 and September 2023. Employing a coding sheet for data collection, followed by rigorous statistical analysis, our research affirms the pervasive presence of gender stereotypes, particularly in categories such as negative portrayals and traditional gender roles. However, it is crucial to acknowledge study limitations,encompassing platform specificity, sample size constraints, and potential cultural nuances, emphasizing the need for future research to foster a more comprehensive understanding of this issue.

The Concept of Femvertising as an Innovative Advertising Appeal

The concept of femvertising expresses an advertising understanding that highlights women's talents, focuses advertising themes on pro-women messages, and opposes stereotypes in advertisements featuring women. This concept has been developed in response to the increasing criticism and sensitivity about the sexist presentation of the female image in advertisements and is designed to emphasize the empowerment and/or strength of women. Although this advertising narrative, which involves challenging this situation instead of reproducing stereotypical representations of women, has become increasingly common. The concept of Femvertising, which has been discussed since 2014, expands its scope in advertising practices as an advertising attraction. This approach paves the way for the questioning and revaluation of social stereotypes against women, however itis criticized by various groups, mainly by feminists. The basis claim of these criticisms is that these advertisements contain a false defence of feminism. In this respect, femvertising advertisements continue the capitalist pressure on the female body through advertisements and expand the social roles and responsibilities of women by adding new ones. This study has discussed the concept of femvertising qualitatively with its practices. The study focuses on the advertisements of an international jewellery company that produces handmade jewellery with the case study technique. It aims to develop a new perspective on femvertising ads through content and ideology dimensions, and it is among the pioneering studies the literature. In addition, future research aiming to measure the effects of femvertising as an advertising appeal on consumer perception, brand image and purchase intention aims to be a guide.

Female Image in Advertising in The Eva Magazine and Eva.Bg in 2020 – A Comparative Analysis

The objective of the present study is an analysis of gender stereotypes in advertisements in the Eva magazine and eva.bg, in 2020. For this purpose, the content analysis method is used to analyze a systematic random sample of over 500 advertisements, both print and online. Observation is made about the differences between the femlale image in print and in online advertising in the same media. The results indicate that women are generally portrayed in a stereotypical way, supporting the notion that sexism is prevalent in advertisements. Results provide evidence of gender role stereotypes. Portrayal of women varies considerably – from “decorative” female images; through polarizing depictions of women in “dependent” or “non-traditional” roles; to portrayals of women as housewives or equal to men. The comparison of results with those of other researches shows that female image stereotypes in advertising are very similar to the previous ones described by Goffman and Kang. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Effects of gender reactions to stereotype advertisements – Case study in Bulgaria

This investigation has two aims: to establish the presence of stereotypes in advertisements offered in Bulgaria and to identify which stereotypes achieve positive and negative effects on consumers of both genders. Taking into account Eisend's theoretical formulation of gender roles in advertising (2019), as well as research on the cross-gender effects of stereotypes in advertising according to the most recent studies of Akestam et al. (2021), the author examines the influence achieved through three of the components – trait descriptors, physical characteristics and role behaviors. The results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) show that according to trait descriptors for women, as well as role behavior for men, the highest influence was achieved in the investigated advertisements. When measuring cross-gender influences, no statistically significant differences were found between men and women in the influence of advertising containing images of the same gender. Conducted Student-Fischer’s T-tests evidenced influence achieved for advertisements with male and female images, as well as with female product images. This study can serve organizations offering products and services in Bulgaria, and its originality is expressed in the mixed consumer reactions found.

Identifying Different Types of Gender Stereotypes Displayed by Social Media

Since the early 2000s, social media became popular. In fact, what viewers see on social media is subtly influencing their minds. Especially in 2020, during the pandemic, social media are more likely to replace face-to-face communication. This paper’s purpose is to identify different types of gender stereotypes displayed by social media. Studying this topic has more possibilities to help us understand social media better, by recognizing its limitations and raising public awareness of gender stereotypes displayed by social media. In this way, it is possible to alleviate the problem of gender stereotypes displayed by social media in the future. This paper begins with “gender stereotypes” “advertisement” “comment” “picture” and “social media” as the keywords, articles from 2000 to the present were searched on Google Scholar. After screening, a total of 19 articles were included in the inverse analysis range of this paper. As a result, there are three types of gender stereotypes displayed on social media in general: Gender stereotypes in advertisements, Gender stereotypes in comments, and Gender stereotypes in pictures videos.

Gender and Working Roles in Television Commercials: A Comparison between Japanese and Thai Television Commercials

Abstract The research objective is to examine the similarities and differences of gender and working roles in Japanese and Thai television commercials. The research methodology focuses on content analysis. Seven hundred and sixty advertisements shown during 2016 in Japan and Thailand were analyzed. As a result, this comparative content analysis suggests a possible reversal from traditional patterns in the literature. Though the proportion of working women in Thailand is higher than the proportion in Japan, the proportions of working women in Japanese and Thai television commercials are insignificantly different. Moreover, this research result reveals the new appearance of non-stereotypical gender images in terms of the type of gender and working roles in commercials in these two Asian nations. These research findings support the supposition of a decrease in gender stereotyping in advertisements and suggest progress in stereotyped portrayals in advertising.

Consumer attitude towards gender stereotyping in television advertisements

This research work has examined the attitudinal difference between men and women towards the various dimensions of gender stereotypes used by advertisers to visualize women in Television advertisements. The societal categorization of gender as male and female with specific behavioral traits, domestic roles and occupational roles attached to each category, it is being posited that purchase and use of certain products and services are congruent with the traits and roles attached to the gender. Hence advertisements as a vehicle for dissemination of product/service related information capitalize on the gender stereotypes. Through the employment of gender stereotypes in advertisements it is believed that individuals will easily identify themselves with the character roles and this identification will help them to remember, recollect the advertisement and its product information resulting in positive attitude formation and conversion in to purchase. By reason of the above, this work has explored the attitudinal difference between men and women towards gender stereotyping in Television advertisements. The stereotypical dimensions used are role, age group, product category and advertisement back ground. The sample size is 196 with equal number of male and female respondents with all the respondents as graduates. The collected data was analyzed by the statistical methods of Correlation and Pair wise Comparison in One Way Anova using SPSS 23. The results have confirmed attitudinal difference between men and women towards gender stereotyping in Television advertisements and attitude formation was found to be high among women in comparison with men.

Polysemic Interpretations: Examining How Women with Visual Impairments Incorporate, Resist, and Subvert Advertising Content

This article takes a feminist disability studies approach to the analysis of the responses of women with visual impairments to representations of blindness, disability, and gender in advertising. Empirical data gathered via semi-structured interviews with women who are visually impaired (N = 5) enhances existing understandings of oppressed audiences’ polysemic interpretations of advertisements. The research findings reveal participants’ subversion of stereotypical approaches to visual impairments, ocularcentrism, and gendered constructions of blindness, which are found in advertisements (N = 3) produced post-2000 in the United Kingdom and United States. Participants highlighted subtle stereotyping in advertisements through exploring the intersecting nature of disability and gender identities. Advertisements were used by participants as prompts for reasserting their affirmative senses of self and as a means of critiquing sociocultural attitudes toward women with visual impairments. Recommendations for future research and practice in relation to advertising polysemy and the representation of disabled women in advertising are provided.

An Analysis of the Socio-legal Framework Around Objectification of Women in India

Objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. Sexual objectification is one of the biggest reasons why we live in a world flooded with sexualized images of women who are presented to be immaculate goddesses, which every girl aspires to emulate leading to mental health issues, loss of self-esteem, exploitation and harassment. Sexual objectification constitutes of two dimensions within itself, firstly, treating women as mere objects and secondly, dehumanizing, i.e. when women are considered to be mindless entities and their internal virtues are completely forgotten about. The current legal frameworks around the world take a limited view of the problem and deal with certain aspects of the problem while ignoring others. This study tries to holistically analyse the problems from a victim standpoint and does a cross cultural analysis with a special focus on laws in India and a brief overview about the laws in other countries like Belgium, France, Finland, Greece, Norway, South Africa, Spain, United States of America, United Kingdom, Nicaragua to identify areas where the legal frameworks need to be strengthened in order to prevent women from being objectified. It was noticed that most of these countries did not have a peculiar law against objectification. However, most of the western countries focus on protecting women against gender stereotypes in advertisements. This was also followed by a 22-pointer gap analysis on the Indian existing laws. Furthermore, the primary research encompassed a deliberation with a panel of socio-legal experts, whose ideas and suggestions have in turn been included in the paper. The research paper ends with recommendations which were devised after a lot of brainstorming.

Gender stereotypes in advertisements for male politicians: longitudinal evidence from Greece

The present study employs a longitudinal approach in order to investigate the use of gender stereotypes in print political advertisements for male candidates for parliamentary seats in Greece. For the purpose of the research, a sample of 863 advertisements from 20 daily national and local Greek newspapers issued between 1993 and 2009 was content analysed. The results of the study indicate that the predominant gender stereotypes in political advertising throughout the period in question were those of the successful and the dynamic male politician. The study revealed, however, that a definite change in the predominant stereotypes took place over the course of the period, there being a gradual shift towards the presentation of gender egalitarian, male figures. While in commercial advertising gender stereotypes have been extensively examined, there is a dearth of research on their manifestation in political advertising.

Gender stereotyping in Indian advertisements

Even as the world is changing, stereotyping of gender in media, especially advertisements, does not seem to have changed that much. It is true that advertisements have adapted themselves to portraying the changing social reality like depicting women in different roles. This change has become subtler, even as such advertisements harp on complex issues such as women's empowerment and gender equality. The present study did a content analysis of current television advertisements to determine the trends in gender role stereotyping. This study was conducted to find out the extent and nature of stereotyping advertisements on two Hindi channels in the year 2015. Using the visual theory-cognitive theory as basis, the study analysed the phenomenon of gender role stereotyping in advertisements. The study concludes that gender stereotypes persist in the Indian television commercial scenario to a large extent. However, a shift was observed towards portraying women in a positive role.

Stereotypical or just typical: how do US practitioners view the role and function of gender stereotypes in advertisements?

There is a long and diverse literature on gender stereotypes in advertising; however, US practitioners’ perspectives on the role and function of stereotypes in advertising remain unknown. Understanding professionals’ views on whether and how stereotypes communicate is important for anyone who believes it beneficial to reduce future stereotypical representations. Using qualitative interviews with 42 practitioners, this study detailed seven themes concerning professionals’ perceptions of the role and function of stereotypes in advertising, including beliefs that stereotypes are based in truth, are attractive to audiences, communicate quickly, simplify processing, prevent distraction, prevent thinking, and are the obvious solution. Practitioners felt stereotypes were used most appropriately when they were subverted or challenged in advertising messages. Stereotypes were most inappropriate when they reinforced negative perceptions. Four factors believed to drive the use of stereotypes in advertising are discussed.

It's Just a Joke: Reactions to and Justifications for Gender Role Stereotypes in Advertisements

It's Just a Joke: Reactions to and Justifications for Gender Role Stereotypes in Advertisements

Examining the intersection of race and gender in video game advertising

Women and racial/ethnic minorities account for a growing percentage of video game players in the USA. The economic future of the video game industry may, in part, depend on the industry's ability to adapt marketing efforts to appeal to the growing female and racial/ethnic markets. Contrary to these efforts, however, is advertisers' reliance on stereotypes in advertisements to quickly establish a common understanding and wide appeal to a mass audience. This study investigates how race and gender intersect in the stereotypical character depictions used to market video games to consumers. A systematic content analysis was carried out of 383 US magazine advertisements of console, mobile, and PC video games. Stereotyping and intersectionality literatures were used as theoretical guides for this research. Findings reveal that the marketing of video games in the USA upholds some longstanding media stereotypes of minorities and women, including that of the White male hero, submissive sexualized female, Asian ninja, and deviant Black male. The potential social and economic implications of the video game industry's reliance on character stereotypes for the marketing of video games are discussed.

Visuele genderstereotypering in reclame

Visual gender stereotypes in advertising. An experimental study on the effectiveness of implicit stereotypes in print advertisements Visual gender stereotypes in advertising. An experimental study on the effectiveness of implicit stereotypes in print advertisements In the 20th century, women became more powerful and climbed into professional and managerial jobs. These changes incited equality between men and women. This (r)evolution is also reflected in advertisements as various studies show that gender stereotyping (i.e., male dominance and female subordination) in advertisements has decreased. However, although women are no longer simply and solely depicted in the private sphere and in housewife roles, subtle and implicit gender stereotypes in advertisements are still common. The current study therefore explores the affective (ad-likeability) reactions of average consumers to those implicit gender stereotypes. In particular, an experimental study with 315 participants shows that people do not differ consistently in their preferences for either an implicitly a-stereotypical or stereotypical portrayal. Moreover, no gender nor age-related differences were found in preferences for stereotypical versus a-stereotypical gender stereotypes.

Communality sells: The impact of perceivers' sexism on the evaluation of women's portrayals in advertisements

AbstractPortrayals of women in advertisements have a significant impact on the maintenance of gender stereotypes in society. Therefore, the present research investigates the effectiveness of communal and agentic female characters in advertisements as well as the question how evaluations of such characters are influenced by perceivers' sexist attitudes toward women. Results show that communal female advertising characters are evaluated more favorably than agentic ones and that these evaluations predict advertising effectiveness. Benevolent sexism predicts more positive evaluations of communal female advertising characters (studies 1 and 2). Moreover, hostile sexism predicts less positive evaluations of agentic female advertising characters when it is assessed under time pressure (Study 2). Implications of these findings for the perpetuation of gender stereotypes in advertisements and in society are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Gender roles in advertising

This study discusses and provides a measure for the degree of stereotyping in advertisements. Applying this measure, the study shows to what degree gender stereotypes in advertising differ between public and private TV channels in Germany. The results show that gender stereotyping in advertising still prevails despite the change in the roles of men and women over the years. Contrary to their public mission, public TV channels do not show fewer gender stereotypes in advertisements compared to private TV channels. The degree of stereotyping as related to different stereotyping components differs significantly between these two types of channel. Gender stereotypes on private channels refer to role behaviour and physical characteristics and, thus, function as a means to sell a product. On the other hand, advertisements on public channels stereotype gender in terms of occupational status, and therefore interfere with the major goal of gender equality policy.

Gender Role Stereotyping in Advertisements on Three Radio Stations: Does Musical Genre Make a Difference?

The portrayal of women and men in radio advertisements on three different channels representing various music genres was examined. This study aimed to replicate the work of Furnham and Thomson who analyzed radio advertisements in Britain which updated a previous study by Furnham and Schofield. Some 111 radio advertisements were content analyzed. Using McArthur and Resko's coding scheme, central figures were coded for: credibility, role, argument, reward, product and narrator. Males were over-represented in radio advertisements (72% of all central characters). Males were significantly more likely to be shown as authorities on products rather than as users; females were portrayed more often than males in dependent roles; and males were most often in the neutral narrator capacity compared to females. We expected to observe more gender stereotyping on the oldies channel than the rock or hip hop stations. Males were significantly more likely to use scientific arguments to sell products on the oldies station compared to females. Likewise, females were more likely to be depicted in a dependent role on this station than were males. Our findings generally replicate those of Furnham and Thomson; however, we did not find gender differences with regard to the perceived reward of using a product or the type of product being sold. We agree with Furnham and Thomson that changes in gender stereotyping on this type of media may lag behind those for television advertisements.

Older Consumer Responses to Marketing Stimuli: The Power of Subjective Age

ABSTRACT Subjective age has been an important construct in studies of older consumers. The present study builds upon previous research by providing theory-based consumer behavior consequences of subjective age. Using both empirical and humanistic designs, the study examines the influence of subjective age on various old age–appropriate consumer behaviors, interest in age-segmented stimuli (senior discounts), and responses to old-age stereotypes in advertisements. The study findings suggest implications for theory and practice. Directions for future research are also suggested.

Attitudes Towards Gender Portrayal in Advertising: An Australian Perspective

This study examines community attitudes of Australians towards gender portrayal in advertising. Despite some well-publicised cases involving sexually provocative billboards, we find that gender portrayal in advertising is not of major concern to many Australians. We also examined the relationship between attitudes to gender portrayal and Arnott's (1972) Female Autonomy Inventory, a measure of feminist consciousness. Ford and LaTour (1996) tested a model of attitudes toward gender portrayal in advertising that found an unambiguous relationship between attitudes to female autonomy and the perceived offensiveness of the portrayal of women in advertisements. Our study, in contrast, suggests that the relationship is more complex. While one group of high female autonomy respondents (that we labeled "Feminist Pessimists") rated the offensiveness of the portrayal of women in advertising very highly, another high female autonomy group (labeled "Feminist Optimists") did not. Hence regulatory bodies may treat complaints on stereotyping in advertisements from these groups in different ways and advertisers may modify their messages for maximum effect. Differences in the findings between this study and Ford and LaTour's are discussed.