A longitudinal analysis of the changing roles of gender in advertising: a content analysis of Super Bowl commercials

Although the prevalence of gender stereotypes in advertising is well established, relatively little research has examined gender stereotypes in the context of Super Bowl that is arguably the most important event in US television advertising. This study systematically examines gender representations across various product categories in Super Bowl commercials over a 20-year period (1990–2009). Our findings detect and discuss shifts in the cultural notions of gender constructed in advertising messages targeting the largest and the most demographically diverse audience in US television. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.     

Gender Roles and Humor in Advertising: The Occurrence of Stereotyping in Humorous and Nonhumorous Advertising and Its Consequences for Advertising Effectiveness

The advertising literature includes extensive research on the occurrence and effects of gender-role portrayals in advertising. None of these studies has examined the ways in which humor affects depictions and the advertising effectiveness of these portrayals. This article reports the results of content-analytic and experimental studies that investigate the occurrence and effectiveness of gender stereotyping in humorous and nonhumorous advertising. The findings from these studies are in line with the assumptions of information processing theories. They indicate that the way women and men are stereotyped in advertising is dependent on humor; in particular, traditional male stereotypes are more prevalent in humorous ads, whereas traditional female stereotypes are more prevalent in nonhumorous ads. With respect to the influence of these stereotypes, humor improves consumers’ attitudes, particularly if nontraditional stereotyping is utilized instead of traditional stereotyping. Furthermore, humor in stereotyped advertising influences women more than men. Women evaluate gender portrayals more favorably and as more credible in humorous ads than in nonhumorous ads, particularly when nontraditional stereotyping instead of traditional stereotypes are used. These findings provide implications for gender-role and humor research in advertising and for practitioners who wish to increase the effectiveness of ads that use stereotypes.     

Caring for her: the influence of presumed influence on female consumers’ attitudes towards advertising featuring gender-stereotyped portrayals

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how presumed influence on others affects women's evaluations of advertising featuring gender stereotypes. Previous research has largely overlooked the social context of the reactions to gender stereotypes. Addressing that gap, this study draws on the influence of presumed influence model to proposed that female consumers believe that other women are negatively affected by advertising that contains gender-stereotyped portrayals. This perception is hypothesized to influence ad and brand attitudes as consumers ‘punish’ the brand for hurting others. The results of two experimental studies featuring stereotyped and non-stereotyped advertising portrayals indicate that the hypothesis holds for two types of stereotype components (physical characteristics and role behaviour). This new theoretical perspective to the literature on gender stereotypes in advertising, one that helps to explain why many women dislike gender stereotypes in advertising even though those stereotypes often have limited impact on them personally.     

Super returns to Super Bowl ads?

This paper uses a natural experiment—the Super Bowl—to study the causal effect of advertising on demand for movies. Identification of the causal effect rests on two points: 1) Super Bowl ads are purchased before advertisers know which teams will play; 2) home cities of the teams that are playing will have proportionally more viewers than viewers in other cities. We find that the movies in our sample experience on average incremental opening weekend ticket sales of about $8.4 million from a $3 million Super Bowl advertisement.     

Gender portrayals revisited: searching for explicit and implicit stereotypes in Cypriot magazine advertisements

The study pursues a line of inquiry into contemporary gender stereotypes drawn from print advertisements in Cyprus. The investigation of implicit modes of stereotyping suggested by Goffman across explicit gender roles yield novel and interesting insights that broaden existing knowledge on male and female advertising depictions. Through a content analysis of 3.729 characters, the study reveals the existence of gender clichés in Cypriot magazine advertisements. Neither male nor female evolving roles are adequately reflected in advertisements, as men tend to be portrayed in traditional masculine stereotypes while women lean towards decorative portrayals. Implicit stereotyping is more likely to suggest the subordination and lower status of women compared to men. The study indicates that advertising in Cyprus reinforces the diffusion of hostile sexism by the underrepresentation of professional women and their commonplace portrayal in body revealing attires. At the same time, the high proportion of women's implicit subordination signifies benevolent sexism. The distorted representation of both genders raises key public policy concerns, as diminishing portrayals hold sway upon men's and women's psychological well-being and professional development.     

A longitudinal content analysis of gender role portrayal in Belgian television advertising

This study explores gender role portrayal in advertisements broadcasted on Belgian commercial television. We gathered a sample of 493 commercials (featuring 907 characters) randomly selected out of two periods (January 2002–April 2003, n = 250 and January 2009–April 2010, n = 243) from a database containing all advertisements broadcasted on Belgian commercial television. A content analysis was carried out using a coding scheme based on existing literature. Content categories included gender of the characters, gender roles (i.e. parental, housekeeping and professional expert) and sexual objectification. Hypotheses predicted that men and women would be represented differently in television advertising, and that these differences would reflect traditional gender stereotypes. Moreover, due to regulatory changes, we hypothesize that these differences should decrease over time. Results are largely in accordance with the existing literature. Women tend to be depicted as younger and are portrayed more often within dependent roles as caregiving parent, housewife or as sexual objects than men. A longitudinal analysis of role portrayal changes across two periods within and between genders indicates little change in gender role portrayals in Belgian television advertising between 2002–2003 and 2009–2010. Despite social and regulatory changes, gender stereotypes in advertising seem to persist over time.     

Advertising “like a girl”: Toward a better understanding of “femvertising” and its effects

This paper investigates the impact of femvertising (female empowerment advertising). More specifically, it hypothesizes that femvertising (vs. traditional portrayals of females in advertising) will reduce ad reactance among a female target audience, and that this in turn will enhance ad and brand attitudes. The results of three experimental studies indicate that this is indeed the case, and that the results hold across print and digital media, for five different product categories, and for femvertising focusing on challenging female stereotypes in terms of physical characteristics as well as the roles and occupations used to portray women in advertising. Although previous studies of the effects of female portrayals tend to focus on social comparison and self‐identity, the current paper considers the role of psychological reactance to (more or less) stereotypical portrayals in explaining these effects. The results suggest that marketers have much to gain from adapting a more proactive and mindful approach to the female portrayals they use in their ads.     

Super Bowl ad likeability: Enduring and emerging predictors

US advertisers love the Super Bowl because it reaches a huge and highly receptive audience. One metric that Super Bowl advertisers watch closely is ad likeability as this is correlated with sales success. Tomkovick, Yelkur, and Christians (2001, Journal of Marketing Communications 7: 89–108) studied ad likeability for Super Bowl ads in the 1990s. In this paper, we replicate and extend their research using USA Today's measurement of Super Bowl ad likeability in the decade of the 2000s as our dependent variable of interest. Our findings on 438 Super Bowl ads show that humor, animals, and product category were enduring predictors of ad likeability. Product information and the presence of children in Super Bowl ads were found to be emerging predictors of ad likeability. Most notably, the amount of product information provided in Super Bowl commercials was inversely related to ad likeability. Implications for advertisers are presented, as are conclusions, study limitations and directions for future research.     

Exploring international cosmetics advertising in Japan

The Japanese cosmetics market is the second largest in the world and in 2003 was valued at approximately 1.9 trillion yen. The sector is also the largest consumer of advertising in Japan (receipts exceeding 35m yen in 2003). Despite its size and significance, research in this area is somewhat scant. To bridge the gap, our research reports the findings of an investigation designed to explore the impact of cosmetics advertising on female Japanese consumers. Our findings reveal that despite their frequent usage in ads, celebrities fail to influence purchase decisions. Specific reference groups, including experts, friends, and female family members have varying degrees of influence. However, the sample of female Japanese respondents appears to be unconvinced when such reference sources are adopted in advertising. There was some preference for western brands and music, but not models. Magazines represent the most suitable media for influencing Japanese women, while TV is less effective - despite its relatively high cost.     

Information content of Super Bowl commercials 2001–2009

Using Resnik and Stern's (1997) method, this study examines the information content of the ads embedded in the telecasts of the largest sporting event in the United States, Super Bowl. The findings of a content analysis of over 400 Super Bowl ads aired from 2001 to 2009 show that each ad contained on an average two informational cues, which are as much informative as other television ads in the United States. The packaging or shape, quality, and performance cues are the three most frequently used informational cues. In addition, think products appeared to contain a more diverse set of informational cues compared to feel products. Practical and theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Gender stereotypes in television advertising in the Middle East: Time for marketers and advertisers to step up

Gender stereotypes, which are particularly harmful to women, have historically been prevalent in advertising, prompting some governments and brands to regulate conventional gender portrayals. This study examines current gender portrayals in television advertising in the Middle East, and specifically in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), because of the increasing importance accorded to women’s empowerment in some of these countries. Building on similar studies elsewhere, we analyze the content of 111 distinct television advertisements aired over a week by a major TV channel in the region. Our analysis reveals that while depictions of certain aspects, such as role (familial/nonfamilial) and location (home/occupational setting), gently nudged traditional stereotypes by portraying women in nonfamilial roles and in occupational settings, depictions of background (female/male/children) and product type further reinforced traditional stereotypes. Based on these findings, we offer specific recommendations to marketers and advertisers in the region.     

Advertising visuals in global brands’ local websites: a six-country comparison

The visual strategies employed in top global brands’ local advertising websites were compared between two groups of nations: the Western group, consisting of the US, UK and Germany; and the Eastern group, consisting of Japan, Korea and China. The results of a content analysis of 253 web ads show a clear pattern of differences in the role of visuals (literal vs symbolic), the use and role of celebrity models, the use of photographs vs illustrations, and the frequency of product portrayals between two groups. Ads from high-context nations tend to rely on symbolic visuals, celebrity models featured as characters, mixed use of photographs and illustrations, and indirect portrayals of advertised products. Ads from low-context nations are found to be the opposite, reaffirming the association between Hallx2019;s information contextuality and advertising visual strategies. The findings imply that the idea of employing advertising visuals that reflect the communication styles of a particular national market appears to be a promising strategy to effectively reach consumers around the world. With this in mind, multinational advertisers might prefer to implement differentiated ad visual strategies in web advertising for Western and Eastern markets.     

Attitudes toward ads portraying women in decorative roles and female competition: an evolutionary psychology perspective

The portrayal of women in advertising is a prolific research topic and extant studies have emphasized the negative attitudes of female consumers toward stereotypic depictions of women in advertising in general. However, empirical evidence regarding female consumers’ responses to specific ads depicting women in decorative roles is scarce and conflicting. Drawing on the principles of evolutionary psychology, the present paper proposes that women's attitudes toward such ads are underlied by the evolved context-sensitive mechanism of intrasexual competition. Relevant hypotheses are tested through two experimental studies. The findings indicate that decorative portrayals in advertising elicit more favorable attitudes when female consumers compete through a self-promotion strategy with regard to a competitor derogation one. Additionally, the temporal orientation of self-referencing during ad processing emerges as a moderator of the influence of the motivational state elicited by the medium context on attitudes.     

Gender stereotypes in advertising: a review of current research

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the historical context of gender stereotypes in advertising and then examine the scholarship related to gender stereotypes. Gender portrayals in advertising have been examined extensively in the last five decades and still remain an important topic. Changing role structure in the family and in the labor force has brought significant variation in both male and female roles and subsequently how it is reflected in advertising. It has been noted that there is a culture lag. Sexes for a long period of time were depicted in advertising in more traditional roles. Women were presented in an inferior manner relative to their potential and capabilities, while at the same the data indicated a shift towards more positive role portrayals. The changing role of men is the area that has seen the greatest interest in the past few years. Men are depicted in advertising in ‘softer’ roles, while interacting with their children. Men are also shown in more egalitarian roles. The paper finally attempts to outline the future research direction of gender portrayals in advertising. First, research should focus on examining gender portrayals in online platforms, and find ways to modify current coding schemes to digital formats. Second, companies and the media are beginning to pay attention to a once largely ignored segment the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) consumer. Third, recent advertising has focused on the ‘empowered’ women called femvertising.     

Progressive Yet Traditional

Historically, women have had low participation in technological fields, and this has been reflected through negative portrayals of women in technology advertisements. As producers of e-commerce, women have made significant advances, in many cases approaching and even exceeding men. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine whether e-commerce advertisements continue to reflect negative stereotypical sex differences in relation to technology. Understanding these patterns is critical, as negative portrayals may propagate harmful stereotypes to men and women; in addition, women exposed to these ads may view them disapprovingly and develop negative attitudes toward the brands. To examine this, a content analysis of e-commerce ads in magazines was conducted. Results illustrate that, compared to past studies, ads for e-commerce products and services portray women more equitably.     

Reviewers,Advertising Regulation and Self-Regulation Special Issue

The growing concern over violence in the media has led to vast amounts of research examining the effects of violent media on viewers. An important subset of this research looks at how humor affects this relationship. While research has considered this subset in television programming, almost no research has explored this in the context of advertising. This paper builds on the little research that exists by examining the effects of combining humor and violence, as well as the theoretical approaches that underlie these effects. A content analysis is conducted to identify the prevalence of violence, humor, and the combination of these elements in a longitudinal sample of Super Bowl commercials (2005, 2007, and 2009). Further, we investigate the relationship between the joint occurrence of humor and violence in ads and ad popularity. We conclude that violent acts are rampant in these commercials and that many acts are camouflaged by the simultaneous presence of humor, especially in the most popular ads.     

The Practicality of Super Bowl Advertising for New Products and Companies

Abstract

Companies that advertise during the Super Bowl can reach 40 million U.S. households with a 30-second commercial spot, but the cost can exceed $2 million. This research examines Nielsen television ratings and expenses for related commercial spots and suggests that the Super Bowl is not always the best site for introducing new companies or products to the marketplace. ANOVA test results indicate that younger companies may better affect purchase decisions by advertising more frequently during less expensive programming slots.     

Sexual Issues: The Analysis of Female Role Portrayal Preferences in Taiwanese Print Ads

For a long time, female endorsers in advertising have been doing product information promotion in the market. However, with more and more highly educated women participating in the labor force, the conception of feminist depictions in advertising have become a perplexing issue. The traditional female role portrayals or stereotypes of the past are not able to totally reflect the expectations, behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of contemporary women. The author collected print ads as data from three types of the highest circulation magazines: foreign women’s magazines (Chinese edition), domestic women’s magazines, and domestic management magazines subscribed to in Taiwan to investigate what were the favorite feminine patterns and feminist depictions in a traditionally masculine society. The results showed classical beauty and girl-next-door images were “acceptable” gender-role behavior exposed highly in domestic magazines, which might contribute to conservative Confucian beliefs. On the other hand, being trendy was a significantly high preference for contemporary feminist depictions in foreign women's magazines; it might be considered as being due to the increased educational level of women and female labor participation rate in the work place as well as upgrading of social status.     

Should I say it in English? Exploring language effects on print advertising among Latin American bilinguals

ABSTRACT

Despite the extensive research conducted on language standardization in advertising across several countries, little attention has been given to the use of English versus Spanish and code-switching when advertising to Latin American bilingual consumers. We propose that stereotypes about English speakers and code-switching have potential to help determine which language is most effective in print advertising. The results of experiments conducted in Chile, Ecuador, and Mexico show that the effects of language-related stereotypes on the persuasiveness of English ads vary across different countries. In the case of Chile, English may be persuasively superior, depending on the favourableness of the stereotype of individuals that code-switch. Differently, print ads in English are functionally equivalent, in terms of ad attitudes, to Spanish and code-switching ads in Mexico, and superior in Ecuador, regardless of the favourability of the language-related stereotypes. Suggestions for advertising practice and future research are offered.