1 / 20

Gender portrayal of US children ’ s television commercials: 50s and 60s

Gender portrayal of US children ’ s television commercials: 50s and 60s. Kara Chan Hong Kong Baptist University. gender role portrayal on television programs and advertising content as major source for children’s gender role socialization Gender stereotyping existed in

yon
Download Presentation

Gender portrayal of US children ’ s television commercials: 50s and 60s

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Gender portrayal of US children’s television commercials: 50s and 60s • Kara Chan • Hong Kong Baptist University conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  2. gender role portrayal on television programs and advertising content as major source for children’s gender role socialization • Gender stereotyping existed in the portrayal of roles and activities of boys and girls the location of the setting the reward types conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  3. Previous studies • Studies of gender role stereotyping of children commercials dated from 70s • Patterns: (70s to early 90s) • Research on gender portrayal: male dominance in number and in voice- over; authoritative role in product endorsement; in outdoor setting; more cuts, loud music and active playing females in home setting; more fades and dissolves, soft music and quiet play conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  4. Historical perspectives • 1950s: a decade in the development of marketing to children • 1968: Action for Children’s Television group lobby on restriction of host selling • 1975s: the National Advertising Review Board developed a self-regulatory checklist for gender portrayal conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  5. Content Analysis • Chulay and Francis (1974): TV ads orienting girls to accept traditional feminine roles, as a wife, a mother, or a sex object • Seiter (1993): boys’ toy commercials depicted conflict, pursuit and competition; girls’ doll commercials focused on care of family members, clothing and home-making conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  6. Kline and Pentecost (1990): play groupings: play with same sex play styles: girls interacted with; boys identified with linguistic theme: scripts for boys’ ads emphasized power, control, domination; scripts for girls’ ads emphasized motherhood, relationship, glamour and attention to physical appearance • Dominance of male voice-over: myth of male voice more authoritative conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  7. Research question • How were males and females portrayed in children commercials in the 50s and 60s? • How does the gender portrayal differ with those found in the 70s to 90s • Method: Content analysis of TVC conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  8. Sample • N=341, unduplicated • 13 tapes of kids commercials in the Television Commercial Archive, Video Resources New York (tapes 2,4,6,8,10,12) • Included toys, breakfast cereals and snacks commercials • Convenient sample conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  9. Two levels of coding • Each commercial, code: Product category, product gender-type, sex composition, sex of voice-over, location of setting and reward type • Each central character (a child, adult, or cartoon human character appears most), up to two, code: Sex, age, role, activity, whether he/she is authoritative • 1/10 of sample coded by a second coder, • inter-coder reliability ranged from 0.9 to 1 conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  10. Product Category No. Percent Toys Character toys and dolls Snacks/food and drink Personal hygiene & toiletries Clothing and shoes Stationeries Household goods and appliance Others* 128 53 127 12 5 3 3 10 37.5 15.5 37.2 3.5 1.5 0.9 0.9 2.9 Table 1. Sample profile (N=341) conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  11. Product gender type • 82 (24%) for boys • 48 (14%) for girls • 211 (61%) for both • For neutral ads, 94 features both sexes, 90 features males only conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  12. Ad orientation: trend conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  13. Voice-over • 69% use male voice(s) • 6% use female voice(s) • 24% no voice over • 1% use male and female voices • Commercials for gender-neutral products used male v-o or no v-o conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  14. Voice-over: trend conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  15. Central characters • 307 out of 341commercials with CC • Altogether 593 CC coded • 402 male CC (68%), 191 female CC (32%) • 63 (11%) authoritative figures, (14%) male authoritative figure, 5% female authoritative figure conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  16. Central characters: trend conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  17. location • All commercials: mainly home and outdoor • Commercials for girls: mainly home and studio • Commercials for boys: mainly studio and outdoor conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  18. Reward type • Mainly pleasure and practical • Commercials for girls: pleasure (94%) • Commercials for boys: pleasure (56%) and practical (40%) conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  19. Discussion • 50s-60s: Strong male dominance in terms of ad orientation and composition of characters • 50s-80s: male to female characters ratio kept at 2:1, more balanced in the early 90s • commercials in the 50s and 60s were gender-stereotyped • The slow in change of the gender-stereotype images • Implication for advertisers: be more sensitive to the gender portrayal conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

  20. Further research • A greater sample allowed to generalize the findings to all children’s TV commercials from the era • Interviewing advertisers and creative personnel reasons for the change or lack of change in their gender-role orientation their perceived gender roles of children conferen\2002\AAA_gender5060

More Related