Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Promotion
Gender Roles Project
Medias Portrayal of Women in Advertising
Intro
Advertising is one of the most significant ways that a business can have an impact on
people in our commercialized society. All advertisements seek to satisfy consumers wants and
needs in any way they see fit. However, this is often at the expense of men and womens
integrity. Since print advertising began stereotypical gender roles have been further developed
with each ad a person is exposed to, both negatively and positively. For this project, our group
focused primarily on the portrayal of women in advertising. This was achieved by conducting
secondary research on gender roles in advertising and conducting primary research by videotaping a one-hour segment of prime time television to investigate the quantities and qualities of
advertising, as well as the gender roles found within the commercials we observe. Then, we offer
conclusions as to potential long-run ramifications that the trends in gender roles that our research
found will have on American culture.
advertising or media in general. (Froelich) Could it be because women at age 35 are not at their
sexiest?
As a testimony to the media becoming more concentrated with risqu images, the Journal
of Advertising Research states young women have become more forgiving of companies that
portray females offensively, realizing that this type of advertising is as common and normal as
celebrity endorsements (Zimmerman). However, commonality and acceptance does not
necessarily make these types of advertisements morally right. GoDaddy has moved away from
risqu ads in the last two years because of the growing number of women using their service.
Chief Marketing officer of GoDaddy Ms. Rechterman says We are for the entrepreneur, we are
for women, concluding that the company who so famously used risqu ads felt the need to
proclaim that women are valued for more than their sexuality (Elliott).
Jean Kilbourne, an accomplished lecturer on women in advertising states Ads sell more
than products. They sell values. (Killing Us Softly) Values like the importance of appearance.
Advertising often shows women to have the flawless body and face, inherently pushing that
standard to both men and women exposed to the ads. Kilbourne addresses the frequent use of
advertisers piecing together female figures and faces who do not exist in real life as well as
altering those that do. Alongside this comes the emphasis of individual body parts, especially
breasts. Advertisings push on the value of perfection contributed to the number of cosmetic
procedures performed on women. These have risen from 2.1 million in 1997 to 11.7 million in
2007. Kilbourne also states that receiving breast implants moves a women from a subject to
being an object by adding or subtracting what is naturally a part of a human for the benefit of
image. (Killing Us Softly).
This objectifying of women continues into Michelob and Budweiser turning women into
a beer bottles, while Heineken turns a woman into a keg of beer. The same type of adding or
subtracting a womens body for the benefit of an image. Advertisements like this dehumanize
women. When a person is demoted to an object, the rate of violence naturally rises. Advertisers
often make light of sexual violence of women in order to promote their product (Green).
However, there are two sides to this statement. Educated women have recognized, even those
where women are objectified, do not reflect reality, but instead are using creativity to sell a
product (Zimmerman). Although ads such as Fetish perfume featuring copy that reads He can
smell your scent as you shake your head no screams morally wrong to many viewers
(Sociological Images).
43.3 minutes
16.7 minutes
25.2 seconds
Number of Commercials
40 commercials
Maximum/minimum length
60 seconds/ 2 seconds
72.2%
We looked how the commercials we viewed during the hour of prime time related to our
secondary research. These where our results:
Women portrayed as housewives
2/40 commercials
8/40 commercials
8/40 commercials
was only one period of time when it was just over ten minutes and that was when New Girl
was ending and The Mindy Project was starting. The majority of the commercials were either
30 seconds long. A smaller portion were 15 seconds and 60 seconds. And there were only 3
commercials that were a length not mentioned.
When looking for gender roles portrayed in this set of commercials, some had people and
some didnt. When the number of commercials that women portrayed as sexual objects or fitting
the ideal body type portrayed seem low, we had to take into consideration that many of the
commercials aired during this hour didnt even feature people. Revlon was the first commercial
with a prominent women role, and the women in the ad were portrayed as sexual objects. All of
the women in the Revlon ad were the stereotypical beautiful woman. Any interaction the
women had with men in the Revlon commercial was focused around seduction. It was a makeup
commercial targeting women viewers. This exact commercial was aired twice in the 60 minute
segment of prime time. When women were featured as sexual objects they were always fitting
the ideal body type.
Android's be together not the same commercial portrayed roles of men and women very
well. The women in this Android ad were real and portrayed as strong, athletic, and on the
same level as the men in the ad. We think the Android commercial took a big step away from the
traditional gender roles seen in advertising- they really evened up the playing field between men
and women and didnt portray gender superiority in this specific ad.
In the Degree womens deodorant commercial several races of women are portrayed but
they all have the same body type, tall and very skinny). We saw this in almost all of the women
in the commercials that aired during this slot- regardless of who the ad was targeted ad. In the
Fuji water commercials there arent any people, but a young girls voice is used to get a powerful
message to the audience. The Yoplait yogurt commercial also didnt display any women but a
strong woman's voice was used. In Time Warner Cables commercial the women bring the man
sitting on the couch a snack, fitting traditional stereotypes in that commercial. In the Nutella
commercial, the women eating it is in a business suit implying that she is a working business
woman- taking a step away from the housewife stereotype. All of the other women in the Nutella
commercial are also out and about and not falling into the typical women image. They have
curly red hair, glasses, and aren't stick thin. Several of the commercials in this segment featured
working women, I would say either an equal amount or more than portrayed as housewives. So
at least in this one hour segment we saw a transition away from that gender roll.
We noticed that all of the car/truck commercials featured during this time slot only
featured men and that they were predominantly targeted towards men. There was one car
commercial for BMW that showed a women driving, the dad as the passenger and an annoying
old granny in the back. The husband and wife appear to be equal in this ad, it is rare to see the
women driving an entire family. The Taco Bell commercial portrayed this ideal man but then
said you didnt have to be any of those things to be a real man you just needed to eat their steak
flatbread sandwich- pretty much mocking all those stereotypical things that make a real man
(abs, big trucks, girls, lifting). The only commercial that featured a celebrity was the Lincoln
commercial with Matthew McConaughey.
We compared how women were portray in the Revlon commercial versus the Bare
Minerals. Like we mentioned above, the women in the Revlon ad were portrayed as sexual
objects. The ad was very seductive- focusing mostly on the lips. In the Revlon ad women were
interacting with men, like makeup would get them any men. In the Bare Minerals commercial
they focused on the entire face and more empowering concepts towards women.
Conclusion
As we saw in the commercials during prime time, advertisements seek to satisfy
consumers wants and needs. These companies are attempting this in any way they see fit and
there are certainly times when they are coming at the cost of womens integrity. Stereotypes we
mentioned are still vividly evident but some companies have taken positive steps away from
these stereotypes. We saw an example of this step away from classical stereotypes in the Android
commercial. Women are still being portrayed as housewives, sexual objects and with the ideal
body. We gained insight to how genders are being portrayed first through secondary research,
followed by primary research, and finally discussion. We have concluded that steps are being
taken away from harsh stereotypes but they are still very much present in current advertising.
Bibliography
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Froelich, Paula. "Advertising's Untapped Market: Single Women." Newsweek Global 162.9
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Kilbourne, Jean. "What Else Does Sex Sell?." International Journal Of Advertising 24.1 (2005):
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"Newswire ." What Time Is Really Primetime? N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
Zimmerman, Amanda, and John Dahlberg. "The Sexual Objectification Of Women In
Advertising: A Contemporary Cultural Perspective." Journal Of Advertising Research
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