Literature review: Gender effects in Advertising.

Prepared by Ali Mirza, Faizul Hasan, Muhammad Ali

Khwaja, Rabia Habib, Sheeraz Faseeh and Saad Mahmood. Institute of Business Administration, Karachi March 15, 2011 Trends in Advertising Masses are well aware that advertising does not portray men and women in realistic ways (Iris Mayne, 2000) rather it structures the gender images to match the expectation and fantasies of both (Craig 1997) Marketers try to try to associate feelings of pleasure stemming from fantasies and anxieties with the product itself (Craig 1997). Advertising is the most universal and prevailing channel of communication. Presently, we are used to advertising to such an extent that we hardly consider what we see. Thus advertisers and marketers try to be as much different from routine as they could. New and versatile ideas are presented and may get a nod of appreciation due to their uniqueness. Still many themes used are highly sexist and stereotypical image of men and women. Therefore, throughout this text these effects of gender based advertisement are summarized. Advertising The social responsibility The social groups that make up our society identify themselves through shared attitude, habits of consumption, the clothes they wear and their behavior (Goldman 1992) Gender, unlike a persons sex is a learned way of behaving in a society; sex is a biological fact and looks same throughout the world. But, when the same is related with social attitude and behavior it forms gender (Irene Mayne, 2000). It is subject to change depending upon the external factors. This creates both, ease and difficulty, in presenting the advertisements. Ease to particularly target the particular set of audience; those who receive the sales pitch are of particular age group and/or gender, creating a focus on the group. Difficulty arises in keeping up with the expectations of the same group over the period of time. One of the broadest classifications in demographics is based upon gender, male and female, masculine and feminine. This segregates the target audience but moreover exploits the tussle for domination and creating hype for competition amongst the both sexes. Unfortunately, this results in exploitation of womens role in advertisement. Marketers perform their activities differently when their targets are male, than they do when the targets are female and often consumer responses often differ on the basis if gender (1) Psychologists have become increasingly aware that physical appearance is a critical aspect of stereotyping. It is important for both male and female for example, beauty is attributed to women and strength with men Advertisers use their advantage to attack psychographics and create certain needs and wants according to the behavior and expectations of society;

these needs are then exploited by playing on their weaknesses such as beauty and lack of self confidence in women. The message is thus manipulated to influence the decision making process. The portrayed image of women nowadays is confined to a domestic personality or as an alluring object of sexual gratification (Pringle 1992; 150) Gender portrayal in Advertising Men and women are targeted according to their social beliefs and attitudes towards their self perception brought on by advertisers and society, enforcing them to adapt certain buying behaviors to influence purchasing decisions (5). These methods had negative impact on women than men, as women are more emotional as compared to men. Consequently, women are increasingly concerned over their physical appearance due to increasing pressure to look good created by these advertisements. The obsession with thinness and sleek body has increased; the gap between weight of an average women and the ideal one is widening slowly and gradually but surely. The text analyzes the methodology and effects of gender exploitation in advertisement, especially in this region, east and south East Asia. Some of the findings related to the region are discussed in detail, including one from Hong Kong (6) which concludes that females are portrayed as product users, as housewives and moms while men in roles of authority and this trend continues in other Asian countries too. As a matter of fact, in last decade the role of woman has changed dramatically, just from domestic personnel to career oriented women, but the fraction is very low and still portrayal of woman as career oriented professional is minimal. Advertising is a mirror of society and accurately reflects a cultures gender norms. In our region, where these cultural values are deeply embedded in our life, marketers should be very cautious about standardizing their marketing and promotional strategies and/or copying advertisements from west. Another research by MK Hogg and Jade Garrow (2) summarizes the finding of a focus group based on consumers/viewers states that female do consider a wide array of information, both available and concealed and would like to indulge into the details to an extent that they dont hesitate to assume or imagine the scenario to extent of fabricating a story. Whereas, men would focus on apparent and available information. Further, it states that the overall presentability and appearance of characters and environment has a heavy influence on female viewers; women usually categorize ads into different scenarios and each scenario is related with appearance of characters. The most interesting finding is the fact that the difference in information processing by males and females seemed to be eliminated when message characteristics were related to personal interest. The most significant findings are by (3) which explain the current gender roles, especially of women; the research explains that depiction of gender roles is important basis of market segmentation. Portrayals of gender role in advertising is seen by researchers as a form of transmitting cultural norms of a given society and as an important segmentation variable. Men are portrayed in independent roles and women in relational roles of housewives, mothers and domestic personnel; they often play a subservient role in our

society, a role which is well defined in cultural and sacred norms proving themselves to be morally virtuous and standing by their men in familial harmony. While men are considered as providers of economic security. Women are portrayed as an object of alluring consumers to the product as a happy satisfied equal partner in domestic environment. Another significant observation is the fact that women of this region in ads are shown as married woman since marriage is a valued tradition both culturally and religiously. Still they are depicted as dependent entity. In last ten years, the role of women has changed considerably, they are more active in professional and corporate environment and this has had an impact on advertisements too. Women are emerging as potential target markets for new products, ready to show their new found status in the society and their contribution is no more seen as sacrificing their personal preferences for the need of their families and kin groups. Still the appearance of an educated and career oriented woman is in western attire it is not completely western style, it is blended with eastern norms so none of the audience is offended. Whereas, men are shown in complete western attire to present an immaculate corporate image. The traditional family presented in ads portrays men as the central character with women and children highly dependent on them something highly expected and appreciated in the society. The articles conclude on point that no matter how western-inclined our socio-economic progress becomes it will be wrapped in eastern cultural norms. In another article, the female portrayal in physics magazine is shown (4) This study has created an interesting look at the advertisement images used throughout the years in the journal of Physics Today. Physicists are portrayed as men, pursuing their physics endeavors independently and establishing themselves as experts of the field. The article is based on a research conducted to identify how different gender roles are portrayed in the Ads of Physics today magazines. For years 1955, 1970, 1985 and 2000 and all the pictorial ads were taken out of 48 issues from these years. Women are severely underrepresented in the areas of Engineering and Physics; there was much less percentage of women in the ads as compared to men throughout these years. Qualitative analysis show what roles are depicted the images of men and women on ads in Physics today. Men were usually showed in roles of a hero, a nerd or men at work and play. While women were portrayed as science made simple, women at work and not at play, and mother nature. Womens roles have progressed and do include roles as scientists. However, their images are often passive and disappointing and cannot compete with the consistent notion of what a "real" physicist looks like. Conclusion: Advertising is a mirror to our societal norms and values. Majority of our advertisements portray women inappropriately, which is the appropriate reflection of our attitude towards women. In a male dominated society, we prefer women weak, dependent and as a support to out domestic system. Even the woman portrayed as professional, is an alluring figure to entice the consumers towards the product through the female models physical

appearance. Throughout the ads, they are not represented as intelligent and hardworking figure of society.

References:
1 - http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/dde0302.doc 2- Gender, identity and the consumption of advertising, Maria K Hogg and Jade Garrow,

3- Cross cultural analysis of gender roles: Indian and US advertisements, Durriya HZ Khairullah and Zahid Y Khairullah, School of Business, Saint Bonaventure University, NY 4 Evolution of gender roles portrayed in the advertisements of PHYSICS TODAY, Vicki L Plano Clark, Sep 2003 5 The inescapable images: Gender and advertising by Iris MAyne, Equal Opportunities International, Nov 2000 6 Women in advertising: A comparison of TV ads in China and Singapore , Wai Sum Siu-Hong Kong Baptist University and Alan Kai-ming Au, School of Business Administration, Hong Kong

Further Reading

1. Craig, S. (Ed). (1997). Men, Masculinity and the Media. California: Sage Publications,
Inc.

2. Emerald Insight (2006), Sex appeal advertising: gender differences in Chinese consumers responses, available at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1355-5855.htm 3. Emerald Insight (2006), Relating Hofstedes masculinity dimension to gender role portrayals in advertising, A cross-cultural comparison of web advertisements, available at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0265-1335.htm