Sex-Role Stereotyping in Television Commercials: A Review and Comparison of Fourteen Studies Done on Five Continents Over 25 Years - Statistical Data Included

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  Sept, 1999  by Adrian Furnham,  Twiggy Mak

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Nevertheless, it is interesting and important to look for patterns in the data available. There is probably no such thing as a typical commercial. They differ in length enormously from country to country, from 5 to over 300 sec. They may or may not have actors in scenes or voice-overs, and they usually, but not always, mention the product's name and usually describe its benefits.

This study focuses on the portrayal of gender roles in television commercials in different countries, comparing current research studies with a watershed study done over 25 years ago. It attempts a comprehensive review of all content analytic studies that followed the basic categories set out by McArthur and Resko (1975) 25 years ago (Lanis & Covell, 1995; Leppard et aL, 1993; Moore, 1992). This review attempts a comprehensive international analysis of all recent studies following the McArthur and Resko (1975) coding scheme in an attempt to look for both trends and cross-national differences and similarities in sex-role portrayal in television advertisements.

METHOD

The criteria for selecting a study were the following. First, using Psychological Abstracts and Psychlit, an attempt was made to find all television advertisement content analyses based predominantly on the McArthur and Resko (1975) system published in psychology and communication journals. In the original paper eight characteristics of the central figure were coded: sex, basis for credibility, role, location, arguments given on behalf of a product, rewards offered or repeated for using a product, punishments threatened or incurred for not using a product, and type of product advertised. Coding reliabilities among three coders varied from 66% agreement to 91% agreement. Next it was decided to restrict studies to the best studies from each country (number of advertisements coded), including if there were more than one. According to these criteria there were two from the United States and two from Great Britain. Another criterion was to obtain studies of comparable quality and method from as many different countries as possible to represent work done in Africa, America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Fourteen studies were selected for analysis.

Coding procedures of the different studies vary, thus only similar attributes and categories were chosen for comparison. A careful review of the 14 different studies selected suggested that five coding categories had to be reanalyzed or collapsed into the following categories.

1. Role

Autonomous: worker, professional, celebrity, and interviewer/narrator.

2. Location

Outdoor: includes restaurant/bars, business school, and outdoors away from home.

3. Age

In some studies, those younger than 35 years old are considered young, while 35-65 is middle-aged, and over 65 years old is old.

4. Argument

Scientific: arguments contained or purported to contain factual evidence concerning the product.

Nonscientific: consists simply of opinions or testimonials in favor of the product.