The fashion engagement grid: understanding men's responses to fashion advertising

This study examines how men who are interested in fashion interpret fashion advertisements. Data are garnered from interviews with adult men who regularly read fashion magazines and buy fashion clothing. Findings reveal that men process fashion advertisements through the same five modes as women. The current study also demonstrates that men's responses to fashion advertisements can be categorized through the Fashion Engagement Grid which examines men's characterizations of and motivations for fashion behavior. This study expands theoretical understandings of gender in advertising research and recommends advertising elements to attract male consumers.     

When will larger‐sized female models in advertisements be viewed positively? The moderating effects of instructional frame,gender, and need for cognition

A variety of negative consequences for girls and women have been associated with women's and men's viewing unrealistic portrayals of women in advertising. However, research on the positive consequences of presenting larger‐sized women in advertisements, and the conditions under which they are effective, has been lacking. The present research examined such positive effects and found that larger‐sized female models in ads were rated as more attractive when an instructional frame activated nontraditional beliefs (a new women's magazine that features larger‐sized models) than when it activated traditional beliefs (a traditional women's magazine). These effects were more pronounced for women than for men, and particularly for women who scored higher in their need for cognition. The degree to which women generated positive thoughts about themselves in response to the ads tended to correspond with their ratings of increased attractiveness of the models in the ads. Implications of findings for using positive larger‐sized female models in ads are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Differential Effects of Chinese Women's Sexual Self-Schema on Responses to Sex Appeal in Advertising

Despite the increased use of sex appeal in advertising, little is known about the influence of individual personality differences on responses to sexual information. This study examines the effects of the “sexual self-schema” personality trait on Chinese women's responses to advertisements using sex appeal. Regardless of the type of sexual information used, attitudes toward these advertisements mediate the effect of sexual self-schema on the purchase intentions of women with lower sexual self-schema while this mediating effect was not observed in women with higher sexual self-schema. The theoretical and practical implications of sex appeal in advertising for Chinese women are discussed.     

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.     

Idealized images of the male body in advertising: a reader‐response exploration

This study used an interpretative methodology for exploring men's reactions to the representation of male bodies in advertising, particularly when men are portrayed in a sexual or naked pose and complemented past studies by investigating whether or not men felt that they were being objectified or exploited in advertising in the same manner as critical and feminist literature has suggested in relation to women. The extent to which men felt that the representation of idealized male images in advertising had an adverse effect on their self‐image and self‐esteem is discussed. Emergent interpretive themes include homophobia, gender stereotyping and the legitimization of the exploitation and use of sexuality in marketing. The implication for brands is explored.     

Understanding How Goal‐striving,Goal Orientation,and Shame Influence Self‐perceptions after Exposure to Models in Advertising

Marketers frequently use advertisements featuring thin models to promote the goal of self‐improvement to consumers. However, many of these appeals lead to detrimental effects on the self‐perceptions of the females who view them. This paper integrates components of goal‐striving theory and social comparison theory to explain consumer response to these advertisements and investigates how goal attainability may mitigate the negative effects of these ads. Additionally, this work investigates how a promotion‐focus goal orientation moderates the effects of the goal‐striving process and provides evidence of the mediating effects of shame. Finally, this work addresses a gap in the literature by examining how the interplay of model size and goal attainability impacts male consumers’ self‐perceptions. Study 1 reveals that high levels of perceived goal attainability mitigate the negative effects of exposure to thin models on self‐perceptions for females. Study 2 demonstrates that a high promotion‐focus goal orientation can lead to more favorable self‐perceptions for female participants exposed to a thin model with attainable goals, but it does not isolate participants from feelings of shame, which mediates the effects of goal attainability on self‐perceptions. Study 3 reveals similar findings for male consumers, but notably finds that shame does not play a significant role in understanding the comparison process for male consumers, suggesting key differences in the comparison processes between sexes.     

A Hong Kong view of offensive advertising

Considerable research has been conducted on offensive advertising in Western countries. However, not much is known about consumers' views of offensive advertising in an Asian context. This research, which was conducted in Hong Kong, aimed at identifying what product/service advertisements consumers find offensive, what executional styles consumers find offensive, consumers' tolerance of offensive advertisements in different media and the effects of offensive advertisements on consumers' purchase intentions. The results from a survey of 200 consumers showed that chat-line services and funeral services were considered the most offensive products or services to be advertised. When looking at the manner of advertising, sexist themes, indecent language and nudity were found to be the major reasons for the respondents finding advertisements offensive. In general, direct mail was considered to be a medium that prompts lower tolerance by consumers to potentially offensive advertisements while men and women's magazines were considered to be media that prompt higher tolerance to potentially offensive advertisements. Finally, it was found that levels of advertising offensiveness had an effect on purchase intentions.     

The differential roles of verbs,nouns, and adjectives in English and Chinese messages among bilingual consumers

Different word categories have distinct impacts on consumers' perceptions of a good or a service. Through 3 studies, this article tests the use of verbs, nouns, and adjectives among bilingual consumers. Study 1 examines word category use among bilinguals who speak both English and Chinese through an open-ended questionnaire. Study 2 measures the participants' reactions toward advertisements which are composed of different word categories. In Study 3, two experiments test the word category effect in the service domain. The findings indicate that: (1) to describe a good or a service, bilinguals prefer adjectives and nouns in general, while using more verbs in Chinese contexts; (2) English advertisements are perceived as more informative than Chinese ones, and noun-composed advertisements are perceived as more informative than the ones with verbs or adjectives; (3) the interaction effect of language and word category on purchase intentions is true for both advertisements and services; specifically, noun-composed messages are more efficient in affecting bilinguals' purchase decisions in Chinese contexts, while adjective-composed advertisements work better in English contexts; and (4) in the service domain, the interaction of language and word category has an impact on positive word-of-mouth and website use experience satisfaction. Conceptual and managerial implications are provided.     

The Role of Commodified Celebrities in Children’s Moral Development: The Case of David Beckham

This paper presents an existentialist interpretation of the identity constituting meanings that middle‐class men and women ascribe to their bodies and their related motivations to engage in consumption activities that seek to transform their embodied selves. We begin by describing the relevance of the existential conceptualization of the embodied self to the postmodern condition of consumer culture. We apply this existential perspective to discern three dialectically structured themes drawn from phenomenological interviews with men and women across a broad age range. One emergent and unexpected finding is the extent to which these men and women expressed a constellation of common body image anxieties, thematic meanings, and self‐critical, objectifying interpretations of their bodies. Based on these findings and historical considerations, we propose that men's embodied selves are, like women's, fully inscribed in the patriarchal discourses that circulate throughout postmodern consumer culture. However, men occupy a distinct social space and, accordingly, we argue that their embodied selves are uniquely situated in a cultural model of hegemonic masculinity. We conclude that the postmodern ideal of the plastic, transformable body has become a resonant cultural metaphor through which middle‐class consumers enact their identity projects of creating a desired embodied self.     

It's Not Black and White: Advertising and Race in Cultural Context

ABSTRACT

Studies in the United States have found that matching an advertising model's race to the target audience is an effective marketing strategy. However, race is a cultural construct and little research has been conducted on race and advertising effectiveness outside of the United States. This study, conducted with female consumers in Brazil, found that advertisements were not more effective when the subject and the model were of the same race. To better understand the psychological processes triggered by race, this study explored two related but distinct conditions of identification: similarity and liking. It found that in conditions of boundary permeability between groups, liking is more important than similarity in determining advertising effectiveness in the target sample. A general model is proposed.     

Culture,cognitive style and consumer response to informational vs. transformational advertising among East Asians: Evidence from the PRC

Existing literature suggests that people's cognitive styles vary significantly across nations and cultures, and that East Asians emphasize holistic information processing and are more receptive to transformational advertising than people in the West. Yet, both theoretical rationale and empirical evidence of the effect of cognitive style on consumers' advertising responses are lacking. This study proposes a congruency-activation model and adopts a three by two experimental design to examine Chinese consumers' attitude towards different advertisements. The results indicate that Chinese consumers prefer transformational and integrated ads to informational ads under both low and high involvement conditions. Protocol analysis shows that Chinese consumers engage in more affective processing than cognitive thoughts. Thus, marketers should consider the effect of the cognitive style of indigenous consumers when devising international advertising strategies.     

Consumer attitudes towards the quality of domestic and imported apparel and footwear*

Due to increased imports and increasingly competitive consumer markets, this study was undertaken to determine consumers' quality images of Canada and the major countries from which men's, women's and children's clothing, and men's and women's footwear were imported. A self-completed mail survey of 635 members of a consumer panel yielded demographic representation from English- and French-speaking men and women. The Fishbein-Rosenberg multi-attribute model was used to compute consumers' attitudes towards countries as producers of clothing and footwear. Consumers had high quality images of Canadian-, U.S.- and European-made clothing and footwear. The styling of Italian-made shoes and French-made clothing was perceived as superior to Canadian-made products. All consumers were critical of the products from low-wage countries, particularly consumers with higher education, income and employment status. Implications were drawn emphasizing the need for consumer research and marketing strategies.     

Social Comparison Goals and the Consumption of Advertising: Towards a More Contingent View of Young Women’s Consumption of Advertising

In this paper we use a small-scale exploratory study to challenge current interpretations of the potential effects of the portrayals of women in print advertising on young women’s self-esteem and body image. We examine how young women’s self-perception and self-esteem may be affected depending on their goal for social comparison: self-evaluation, self-improvement and self-enhancement. The results indicate that the goal for social comparison is an important moderating influence on how advertising images are interpreted and consumed. The findings confirm and extend earlier studies; and provide support for challenging prevalent views of women, firstly as passive consumers of advertising messages; secondly, as necessarily susceptible to negative self assessment in response to ideal images in advertising; and thirdly as pursuing only one goal in their consumption of advertising.     

Adolescent girls from a modern conservative culture: The impact of their social identity on their perception of brand symbolism

This paper examines the relationship between adolescent girls' self‐esteem, self‐monitoring, and social groups (i.e., susceptibility to peer influence and group identification/differentiation) on one hand, and their perception of brand symbolism on the other. There is particular interest accorded to adolescent girls living in a transitional society. A single model is proposed to test the hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling. The research findings reveal the existence of two categories of adolescents in a transitional society: modern and conservative. The former's perception of brand symbolism is found to be significantly influenced by their self‐esteem. The latter's, however, is affected by their self‐monitoring. Additionally, self‐monitoring has an indirect impact on both conservative and modern teenage girls' perception of brand symbolism via their susceptibility to peer influence and group identification. This latter was the only social group factor to have a direct effect on both groups' perception of brand symbolism. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Effects of functional green advertising on self and others

This study examines the effects of a functional green advertising promoting the environmental advantages of a product. It presents the results of three experiments designed to (a) explore consumers’ perceptions of a functional green ad's effects on themselves and others, (b) determine how those perceptions are influenced by consumer environmental concern, and (c) examine how individualism–collectivism relates to self–other effect perceptions. Findings indicate that (a) consumers believe that functional green advertising exerts a stronger influence on others’ purchase decisions than on their own purchase decisions; (b) the self–other difference is more salient among consumers with high environmental concern; (c) in the individualistic culture, the perceived effectiveness on self, not on others, predicts consumers’ support for the regulation of functional green ads, while this effect is reversed when consumers are in collectivistic cultures. The study's findings extend several lines of research, including the literature on green advertising and the third‐person effect.     

Promoting sustainability through social marketing: examples from New Zealand

This paper investigates the social marketing of sustainability in New Zealand and examines the usefulness of advertising campaigns to enlist and empower people, as both consumers and citizens, towards environmental care. It draws on discussions about ‘citizen‐consumer subjectivities’ and the model of the ‘political economic person’, which link sustainability and consumption through asserting people’s capacities as reflecting citizens. Printed advertisements by local and national government agencies about air pollution, fuel dependency and energy consumption are analysed to see whether advertising campaigns can operate on multiple levels for a range of audiences – desirable for broadening understanding of sustainable consumption and dealing with the complexity and experiential aspects of ‘doing’ sustainability. The advertisements analysed have an authoritative dimension that downplays this complexity and variability. The paper concludes that these advertisements do not go far enough to involve individuals in processes of co‐producing knowledge about sustainability, and to vest them with expertise in exercising sustainability in their daily lives. The implications are that advertising campaigns that engage with the complexity surrounding consumption in people’s modern lives, and with variability in meanings of sustainability, have the possibility of inciting citizen‐consumer political subjectivities.     

“Why Do Young Thai Women Desire White Skin?” Understanding Conscious and Nonconscious Motivations of Young Women in Bangkok

Skin whitening has been studied mainly using a postcolonial attitude analysis emphasizing conscious reasons behind skin bleaching. Studies dedicated to gaining a rich understanding of nonconscious motivations for skin whitening are scarce, especially in Asia. Therefore, two studies were conducted by using an innovative mix of research protocols to access to both conscious and nonconscious motivations. The studies were conducted among 92 female regular skin whitening users, aged 18–24 years, in Bangkok, Thailand. Study 1, among 42 women, used three‐combined qualitative research techniques of laddering, projective technique, and photo elicitation. Study 2 was conducted among 50 women to quantitatively test nonconscious motives implicitly associated with different white skin tones. The results revealed that motives are not linked to westernization. In a very competitive environment, light skin is seen as a strategic method to maintain men's loyalty, enhance self‐esteem, and guarantee career success. Managerial and methodological implications for marketers are discussed.     

Female consumers as agents of change for transforming the environmental sustainability landscape

Faith in others (FIO; governments and businesses) can be seen as society's predisposition to handle environmental problems. The article examines whether women, who undertake a large majority of household purchases, can influence change in consumption practices so as to contribute to sustainability initiatives. Understanding women's character in this manner is informative, it helps us to consider how a women's role as a household purchasing agent is an important nexus to environmental sustainability. The study found that FIO has an influence on women's purchasing decisions. The study provides additional support to strengthen women's role in environmental matters. Not all women were found to be sustainability‐minded. In the challenges faced by women with respect to their influence, evidence from this research suggests that if women have more faith in governments and businesses it would make them more eco‐savvy to act as agents of change for transforming the environmental sustainability landscape.