portrayal of men and women in television advertisements

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2010, 51, 216–236 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00772.x

Personality and Social Sciences

The portrayal of men and women in television advertisements:

An updated review of 30 studies published since 2000

ADRIAN FURNHAM and STEPHANIE PALTZER

University College London, UK

Furnham, A. & Paltzer, S. (2010). The portrayal of men and women in television advertisements: An updated review of 30 studies published since

2000.

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology , 51 , 216–236.

In 1999, Furnham and Mak published a review of 14 content-analytic studies of sex roles stereotyping in television commercials. All these studies were based on the McArthur and Resko (1975) content categories. This paper updates that review considering 30 studies in over 20 countries published between

2000 and 2008. Studies were from Australasia, Austria, Bulgaria, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Poland,

Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. They examined over 8,000 advertisements. National and cultural differences in gender stereotypes are also considered in the light of this data. The popularity of, and the problems associated with, the research paradigm are considered.

Key words : Sex roles, television, advertisements, commercials.

Professor Adrian Furnham, Department of Psychology, UCL, 26 Bedford Way, WC1 0AP London, UK. Tel: +44 207 679 5395; fax: +44 436 4276; e-mail: ucjtsaf@ucl.ac.uk

INTRODUCTION

Concern with how people are portrayed in the media has existed since the beginning of all popular media, particularly the electronic media. Various groups have been particularly concerned about how people from different age, ethnic, gender and professional groups are shown in possibly unrepresentative or stereotypical roles (Bollinger, 2008; Hazell & Clarke, 2007; Nina-Pazarzi

& Tsangaris, 2008).

Perhaps the area that has attracted most research attention has been the portrayal of men and women in television commercials

(Kaufman, 1999). Although there were a number of early studies it was not until the late 1970s that good empirical studies, primarily content analytic studies, began to emerge (Dominick & Rauch,

1972; O’Donnell & O’Donnell, 1978; Schneider & Schneider,

1979). Various researchers began to review these studies at various points (Bretl & Cantor, 1988; Lovdal, 1989). Further, some have even attempted updates of studies in particular countries

(First, 1998).

One study done over 30 years ago was to inspire many researchers to replicate it. McArthur and Resko (1975) published a study analyzing American television commercials of the time.

What the study did do so successfully was suggest a number of coding categories for the central role person (being either male or female) in the commercial. For instance, one way how the actor established his/her credibility: was it as an authority, expert or scientist, or as a happy and contented user? The coding categories devised for the content analysis in this paper formed the basis of nearly all subsequent research and this modest study has 70 citations since its publication to the present day.

Not long after the study was published the essential methodology of the study was replicated in other countries (Manstead &

McCulloch, 1981). Soon thereafter researchers were doing crosscultural comparisons (Gilly, 1988), all using the original coding scheme or minor modifications of it.

By the end of the millennium 14 essentially replicative studies had been published looking at sex-stereotyping in television commercials in 11 countries. These formed the basis of the review by Furnham and Mak (1999) which is already a highly cited paper. This paper extends that review looking at studies published over the next decade, since the start of the millennium. Indeed rather than slow down there has been an acceleration of studies in this area using the same or very similar methodology.

Part of the fascination of the research is to do cross-cultural, as well as, across-time comparisons. Based on a range of theoretically inspired differences, most researchers hypothesize which, what and why gender-role stereotypes should exist in the data set they examine and why they should be either similar to, or different from, studies done in different countries.

However, Furnham and Mak (1999) pointed out three problems with comparing the results from different countries or indeed the same country over time. The first was channel equivalence based on funding, viewing figures, target audience, and philosophy.

Most countries have a range of different local and international channels and the question is whether they are in any way equivalent in different studies. This begs the question as to whether different commercial channels would have advertisements for different products that would portray gender differently. Certainly different channels are aimed at different audiences and therefore may advertise different products. But it remains unclear as to whether there tend to be cross-channel national differences in the way gender is portrayed.

The second involves commercial sample equivalence . Commercials change as a function of time-of-day, product-specificity and legal constraints. Products aimed at school children versus homemakers versus sports people are inevitably very different. Thus cross-national or cross-temporal differences could easily be a function of non-channel, or non-product, equivalence rather than an actual difference. Unless some attempt is made to ensure

Ó 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2010 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600

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Scand J Psychol 51 (2010) reasonable equivalence particularly in terms of product, comparisons are essentially meaningless. Third, there is the issue of content-equivalence . Inevitably researchers have altered, extended and modified McArthur and Resko’s original categories. This is both to be expected and welcomed but leads to problems of comparison. Indeed it is a testament to the original coding scheme that the categories have changed so little. Some studies use only select categories (Nassif & Gunter, 2008) while others have added categories (Furnham & Saar, 2005). Some additional categories include verbal issues like humor (Furnham, Gunter & Walsh,

1998).

Furnham and Mak (1999) found evidence of cross- similarity in terms of stereotyping on such categories as credibility, age and argument-made while others like location showed much greater variety. By and large, sex-role stereotyping was more prevalent the more traditional the country in terms of social and religious values.

Since the turn of the millennium researchers in countries as diverse as Serbia, Singapore, and Spain have continued this tradition. Some have content-analyzed as many as 878 local commercials (Kim & Lowry, 2005) while others have looked at as few as

48 (Furnham & Saar, 2005). Usually numbers are around 100–

200 non-overlapping advertisements. Most examined commercials on just one channel, others have looked at as many as six (Uray &

Burnaz, 2003). Most have examined evening prime-time television while others have sampled from different times of day

(Skoric & Furnham, 2002).

This paper attempts a comprehensive and critical review of the area. The paper compares the data from 30 studies published in

2000–8. Sometimes different studies from the same countries (i.e.

Japan and Spain) are reported, which allows for internal comparison. The appendix tables show in detail where there are differences on the content categories.

In order to bring some sort of classification to this data the studies analyzed were classified under five continents. It may be possible, albeit crudely, to classify the continents thus; America,

Europe and Australasia are essentially first world, continents dominated by individualistic values and sensitive to sexual inequality

(Schwartz, 1991). Asia has a wider variety of countries most of which are second world economically and have collectivistic values (Hofstede, 1980). African countries on the other hand tend to be third world and conservative in the way the sexes are treated.

The various categories will be considered one at a time and some inferences and comparisons made.

TV commercial sex roles stereotyping 217 as Japan with 68% of males and 32% of females as voice-overs.

Most studies since then have found results similar with male characters being voice-overs around 70% of the time and female characters only around 30% of the time. However, the most recent study in Korea, in 2005, found 20.5% of male characters and

9.8% of female characters as voice-overs, while there is still a difference between the two; this is a much lower figure for both, especially males.

Europe: There is still a trend for mode of presentation in Europe as well, however, it is not as prominent as in Asia. Males are still more likely to be voice-overs, but there is not such a large difference between males and females, although the difference is still significant. Ahlstrand (2007) found similar results in Austria to those in Asia with 70.6% of males and 22.9% of females as voice-overs. Ibroscheva (2007) found unusual results with only

21.6% of males but 0% of females doing voice-overs. Skoric and

Furnham (2002) found high prevalence of voice-overs for both sexes in Serbia, with 81% of males and 71.4% of females doing them. Studies in Turkey (Uray & Burnaz, 2003) and Poland found that advertisements were much more equal between males and females for voice-over. Uray and Burnaz (2003) show only a small difference between males (58.8%) and females (52.6%).

There seems evidence of an east-west split with fewer sex differences in the east.

Australasia: In New Zealand (Furnham & Farragher, 2000), women are a little more likely than males to be presented visually

(47.4 vs. 41.2%).

Africa: In Mauritius, approximately two-thirds of females

(67.9%) are presented visually while 47.1% of males are presented in this context. In South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002), a larger difference in portrayal exists where 52.1% of males were voice-overs while only 2.6% of females have provided voice-overs.

There seems general agreement across all cultures that men are generally more likely to provide voice-overs and females continue to be presented visually more often than men. Often women’s voices are used for clarity (speaking clock, public announcements) so it is not for this reason that men are more likely to be chosen for ‘‘speaking roles’’. It is young, attractive women that appear more often in advertisements with mature men doing the authoritative voice over.

RESULTS

Mode of presentation

This refers to whether the actors are seen or heard or both.

Asia: There is a clear trend in countries in Asia regarding mode of presentation. Throughout all studies that looked at mode of presentation in Asia, men were more likely to be voice-overs while women were presented visually. Through the years the results have remained relatively stable. Bresnahan, Inoue, Liu, and Nishida (2001) found Malaysia and Taiwan to have the same results with 81% of males and 19% of females being voice-overs, as well

End comments

This refers to the presence or absence of final summary comments at the end of the advertisements.

Europe: There were no significant results found in either Serbia or Turkey. Poland (Furnham & Saar, 2005) showed a significant difference where 42.1% of men presented an end comment while

80.6% of women did not.

Asia: In Hong Kong (Furnham & Chan, 2003) English advertisements, women were more likely to make end comments than men

(76.7 vs. 68.6%) while end comments were present in 100% of

Chinese Hong Kong advertisements, with both male and female

Ó 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2010 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

218 A. Furnham and S. Paltzer central figures. However, Japan found men more likely to make end comments (55%) than women (40%).

Australasia: In New Zealand, most central figures did not make end comments, 80% of men did not make an end comment but women were still less likely to make an end comment, with comments absent 94.7% of the time.

Africa: Both studies in South Africa and Mauritius showed the majority of central figures, both males and females, presenting end comments. However, there was a difference between men and women. For men, the figure was around 80% for both studies, while it was lower for females at around 60%.

End comments do not seem particularly sex-linked despite the evidence of the recency effect. That is, there is considerable evidence from experimental psychology that order of presentation of material effects memory for that material (Furnham, 1986). However, the fact the advertisements are so short (often being under one minute long) and containing so little that is very informative that less attention is paid to the end comment.

Scand J Psychol 51 (2010)

Africa: Furnham and Spencer-Bowdage (2002) found a large difference between men and women in South Africa. Women were seen 82.1% of the time as a user, compared to 29.2% of men.

Men were also most likely to be an authority (41.7%), while women were rarely seen as the authority (7.1%).

America: Milner and Collins (2000) found nearly equal difference for men with 49.2% as a product user and 50.8% as authority while women (64.1%) were more likely to be the user than an authority (35.7%).

Overall these results suggest that generally, other than three studies across the world, in most countries analyzed, women were by far more likely to be a user of the product advertised and men far more likely to be portrayed as an authority. This does vary as a function of product category where the advertised product is clearly aimed at one gender or the other. Nevertheless both women’s products and gender neutral products seem often to have males portrayed as wise, scientists or knowledgeable experts and females as happy, grateful and contented users of those products.

Credibility

This seems a most important dimension to the advertisements, namely the credibility, and equally the credulity, of male and female users and experts in advertisements.

Europe: Most countries in Europe have shown women primarily as the user of the product advertised. In Sweden (Milner & Collins, 2000), 80% of women were portrayed as the user. Poland and Bulgaria also showed similar results with around 80% of females in each study as product users. However, men in each of these studies (Poland, Bulgaria, and Sweden) are equally as likely to either be an authority or a product user. For example, 42.9% of men are portrayed as the user while 38.1% of men are portrayed as an authority figure. Surprisingly, Russia (Milner & Collins,

2000) was the only study to show men (92.9%) more often than women as the user (90%).

Asia: In Singapore (Lee, 2003), men were actually more likely to be the product user in both daytime (85.6%) and primetime

(54.5%) advertisements when compared to women (33.3% for daytime and 45.7% for primetime). Hong Kong (Furnham &

Chan, 2003) showed a much larger proportion of women as an authority figure (73.3%/48.3%) than most other countries in Asia.

Other studies such as the one in Korea (Kim & Lowry, 2005) found smaller differences between men and women with regard to credibility when compared to other areas of the world. As an authority figure, 26.2% of men and 14.2% of women were portrayed in this role.

Australasia: New Zealand (Furnham & Farragher, 2000) portrayed men and women relatively equally as the authority (19.6% of males vs. 15.8% of females) and males (74.5%) were actually portrayed more often than women (63.2%) as the product user. In

Australasia (Milner and Higgs, 2004), the same was seen in authority (52.6% of males vs. 47.4% of females) yet women

(64.1%) were more commonly portrayed as the product user than men (49.2%).

Role

This focuses on whether the central figure is more in a professional and advisory or a dependent consumer role.

Europe: Bulgarian and Polish data suggested a large difference in autonomous and dependent/familial roles between men and women. In Bulgaria (Ibroscheva, 2007), 83.8% of males were in the autonomous role while 45.6% of females were in dependent roles. Poland (Furnham & Saar, 2005) showed 57.9% of males in autonomous roles and 48.4% of females in familial roles. Most other countries (Austria, Serbia, Spain, and Turkey) did not find very significant differences between men and women in specific roles. Serbia actually had a high proportion of both men (91.9%) and women (85.7%) in the role of interviewer/narrator.

Asia: In both English and Chinese advertisements in Hong

Kong (Furnham & Chan, 2003) women (30% and 37.9%) were shown a higher proportion of the time in a ‘‘professional/other’’ type of role, when compared to men (19.6% and 9.1%). All other studies showed more men in autonomous roles such as interviewer/narrator and professional and women in more dependent roles. In Japan (Furnham & Imadzu, 2002), 56.8% of females were in dependent roles while 42% of men were an interviewer/narrator. In Singapore (Lee, 2003) only 5.7% of women were professionals, compared to 36.4% of men, and the majority of women (65.7%) portrayed were celebrities, almost double that of men (36.4%).

Australasia: In New Zealand (Furnham & Farragher, 2000)

70.5% of men were portrayed in an autonomous role while 42.1% of women were portrayed in familial roles.

Africa: Females in South Africa and Mauritius were most often portrayed in a dependent role (60.7% in Mauritius and 78.6% in

South Africa). Men were most often in an interviewer/narrator role (around 50% in both studies). While men (35.3%) were commonly portrayed in professional roles in Mauritius, women were not portrayed in this role at all.



Over the years the role categories have expanded to try and encompass all those of the people in the advertisements. While the studies had different categories for role, the majority of studies agreed with one another in the type of role men and women held in advertisements. The autonomous or interviewer/narrator/professional role was typically a role that men had in advertisements while women were often in the dependent purchaser, customer role. Some studies, however, (such as Turkey) divided the roles up into even more categories (i.e. sex object). This may be evidence of researchers trying to pick up more subtle nuances in the advertisements they content analyze. While this may be very helpful it does mean that it is more difficult to compare and contrast studies of sex role on television.

TV commercial sex roles stereotyping 219 age category with 49.4% of males and 63.6% of females in this age group. For men there is not a large difference between young and middle-aged since 42.1% of men are in the middle-aged group, yet only 30.8% of women are in this group (half of the amount in the young group).

Interestingly only one study, done in Australasia, has shown males and females similar to one another in terms of age category.

Even though they still have a large proportion of ‘‘young’’ central figures, they have a much more equal proportion of central figures between genders (between 50 and 60% each). Two studies grouped middle-aged and old together, Bulgaria and Korea. This presents a problem for between study comparisons because age judgments have to be estimated. Further the terms young (under

30) or old (over 50) may be seen as inaccurate, insensitive or even derogatory. Again, age of the actor is no doubt related to the product or service being advertised. However, in keeping with the sexual stereotype of the young attractive consumer and the wise avuncular expert there remains strong evidence and age differences in the central role of television advertisement characters.

Age

The issue of age and agism has emerged recently in Western societies with large aging populations. Sensitivity to how age is portrayed has appeared more widely. Usually researchers group the central character into three groups: under 30 years, 31–50, and over 50 but this does change from study to study and what label is given to each group.

Europe: All content analytic studies from Europe showed significant differences between age groups. Women were most commonly in the youngest age group. In Russia (Milner & Collins,

2000), 81.6% of females were young (four times the amount of women who were middle-aged). This was also seen in Turkey,

Sweden, Poland, Bulgaria, and Austria where at least 60% of women in each study were young and at least double the amount of women in any other age group. In Austria (Ahlstrand, 2007),

64.1% of men were middle-aged, double the amount of women in the age group. In both Serbia and Russia, there were no men or women representing the old age group, while most other countries showed around 5% of the sample in that group.

Asia: Again, women are always seen most often in the young age group. This number is usually at least 50% of advertisements with women, with only Furnham and Chan (2003) finding 33.3% of women in this age group in English advertisements in Hong

Kong. All studies showed men in the middle-aged group at least

50% of the time as well. The highest was also seen in English advertisements in Hong Kong with 84.3%.

Australasia: In New Zealand (Furnham & Farragher, 2000) women were more commonly portrayed as young (55.3%) while men were often portrayed as middle-aged (56.9%). Milner and Higgs (2004) found a higher proportion of women (39.3%) than men

(22.7%) in the middle-aged group which was not seen in any other studies. However, this was still not as high of a percentage for either males or females as the young group (over 50% for both).

Africa: South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002) found

70.4% of women (more than three times the amount of women in the middle-aged group) and 47.8% of men in the young age group.

America: The highest proportion of both males and females in the

United States (Milner & Collins, 2000) is seen in the youngest

Argument

This category refers to the central issue of the rationale for the advertisements: the argument, implicit or explicit as to why the consumer should select and purchase the brand of product or service.

Europe: In Poland (Furnham & Saar, 2005), the majority of males (42.1%) and females (67.7%) did not present an argument.

When it was presented they were more likely to present both factual and opinion arguments. Turkey (Uray & Burnaz, 2003) showed similar results in that 60.7% of women and 56.2% of men did not present an argument. In Serbia (Skoric & Furnham, 2002),

67.6% of men presented factual arguments while 57.1% of women presented ‘‘opinion arguments’’. Surprisingly, men in Serbia were more likely than women to be depicted with social/selfenhancement rewards (13.5 vs. 3.3%). Serbia was also the only

European country where men were depicted with more practical rewards than women (48.6 vs. 32.2%).

Asia: Studies in Asia found different results from one another.

Furnham and Imadzu (2002) found that men (40%) in Japan were more likely than women (26.5%) to offer a factual argument while the majority of women (30.9%) offered an opinion argument. In

Chinese advertisements in Hong Kong (Furnham & Chan, 2003), women were just as likely to give a factual (51.7%) versus opinion (48.3%) argument but men (65.9%) were more likely to give an opinion argument.

Australasia: Furnham and Farragher (2000) found in New Zealand that it is most common not to make an argument at all, with both males (62.7%) and females (86.8%). Men were more likely than women to offer any sort of argument.

Africa: In South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002) men were more likely to offer a factual argument (39.6%) while women (78.6%) are more likely to not make an argument at all. In

Mauritius (Furnham & Hussain, 2009) men were just as likely to offer a factual or opinion argument but women (60.7%) were more likely to offer an opinion argument.


220 A. Furnham and S. Paltzer

In all the studies that had the option of ‘‘none’’ for argument type, women were more likely than men to not even present an argument (reason) for choosing the product. This suggests that women, in such advertisements as those for body products and clothing, are more likely to only be shown as ‘‘models’’ than men are. There were only nine studies that analyzed argument type in the advertisements. Across countries, factual arguments are most commonly presented by men. Six of the nine studies showed males with higher proportions of factual arguments, two showed about the same proportion between men and women, and only one study of Chinese advertisements in Hong Kong found the opposite with females presenting a higher proportion of factual arguments than men. There was a difference, however, when it came to ‘‘opinion’’ arguments. This is not so much an argument as to give a person opinion that is favorable to the brand.

Of the nine studies; five of them found that men had a higher proportion of opinion arguments, one found that men and women showed the same proportion, and three found that women presented more opinion-based arguments. Studies in Mauritius,

Serbia, and Japan found that women presented more opinion arguments while studies in New Zealand, Poland, South Africa,

Turkey, and Hong Kong found that men present a higher proportion than women.

Reward type

This category speaks to the way in which the advertisement provides a specific portrayal of what sort of rewards are to be obtained from purchasing that brand.

Europe: The most common reward type for women in Poland was social/self-enhancement (37.7%), almost nearly double the amount of men portrayed with this reward type. The same was seen in Turkey with 44.4% of women and only 16.1% of men with social/self-enhancement rewards. In Serbia, women were most portrayed with practical rewards (65.8%) while men were portrayed with pleasure rewards (45.9%).

Asia: In Hong Kong, women were more likely to be associated with practical rewards (33.3% for English and 41.4% for Chinese) than men (23.5 for English and 29.5% for Chinese). Men were only more likely to be associated with pleasure rewards in Chinese advertisements (56.8%). In Japan (Furnham & Imadzu,

2002), women were depicted with social/self-enhancement rewards more than men (30.97 vs. 23.5%).

Australasia: In New Zealand, there was not a difference seen in any categories of reward type. Men and women were as likely to be associated with practical (13.7 vs. 13.2%) and pleasurable

(29.4 vs. 31.6%) rewards.

Africa: Furnham and Spencer-Bowdage (2002) showed that women in South Africa were portrayed more with social/selfenhancement rewards (53.6%) while men were portrayed most with practical rewards (29.2%). In Mauritius (Furnham & Hussain, 2009), women were most often associated with practical rewards (46.4%) while men were most associated with pleasurable rewards (70.6%, more than double the 28.6% of women with pleasurable rewards).


Results suggest that more often, the reward type that women advertised was under the category of ‘‘social/self enhancement.’’

This speaks to the fulfilling of self-esteem needs. The idea is that the product brings benefits to the way people feel more confident when having the product or using the service. Further, others recognize this brings social rewards of acceptance and recognition.

This was found in seven of the ten studies. Only two studies were similar for both males and females and only Bulgaria presented males advertising social/self enhancement reward more than women. It is generally equal between male and female central figures for pleasure reward type; however, there are a few studies that have found differences between proportions of males and females where the reward type is pleasure.

Product type

This presents a particular problem for researchers as the number of products and services advertised is very great indeed. Content analyses have to try to find categories which may be very broad or narrow. Further legislation, cultural tradition and availability means that there are large differences in what is advertised, when, and to whom. It is possible to very crudely devise products broadly aimed at women, those aimed at men and those neutral.

Europe: The only significant difference in Spain (Valls-Fernandez

& Martinez-Vicente, 2007) was seen in body products with women shown more (41.9%) than men (25.1%). Royo-Vela,

Aldas-Manzano, Kuster & Vila, 2008) also did not find significant results in most categories. Body products were also seen three times as much with women (31.4%) as with men (12.0%) in Austria. Results in Bulgaria show that men were more commonly seen with ‘‘away (not used at home)’’ products (16.2 vs. 3.3%). Uray and Burnaz’s (2003) results revealed that women were twice as likely to advertise body products (30.4 vs. 15.1%), while men were almost twice as likely to advertise food products (17.1 vs.

8.9%). In Serbia, women were much more frequently portrayed with home products (20%) than men (1.3%). In Poland, like the rest of Europe, men were often advertising food products (36.8%) when compared to women (22.6%), while women were three times more likely to be shown with body products (29%) than men (10.5%).

Asia: In Japan (Furnham & Imadzu, 2002), the only difference was seen in the home category where 19.35% of women and 9% of men advertised home products. Men and women were just as likely to advertise body products and it was the most common product advertised for both sex (28% of males and 30.97% of females). There was a difference between English and Chinese advertisements in Hong Kong. In English advertisements, men were equally likely to advertise body products (7.8 vs. 6.7%) while in Chinese advertisements women advertised body products more than double that of men (24.1 vs. 11.4%). Men were less likely to advertise food products (9.8 vs. 16.7%) in English but were more likely to advertise them in Chinese (52.3 vs. 41.4%).

In Singapore, there were no men that advertised domestic products and there were also no women who advertised auto/sport products, compared to 18.2% of men. In daytime advertisements in Singapore, 14% of men advertised body products, but 0% did


Scand J Psychol 51 (2010) so in primetime advertisements, compared to around 25% of women which remained steady.

Africa: In South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002),

42.9% of females advertised body products, more than four times that of men (10.4%). Men were three times more likely to advertise financial and other services (29.2 vs. 10.7%). In Mauritius, the difference was even higher for services with 41.2% of men and 0% of women. Women advertised home and body products over 50% of the time while men advertised these products less than 6% of the time, with zero body product advertisements. A new category, finance and real estate, was also advertised by

17.6% of men and 0% of women.

Australasia: Men were more likely to advertise auto/sport products (21.6%) when compared to women (0%) and women were more likely to advertise body products (23.7 vs. 13.7%). However, food was the most common product advertised by both men and women (31.4 and 31.6%).

America: Bresnahan et al.

(2001) found the most common products advertised by men were food (32%) while women advertised health (27%) products the most.

The most prominent gender difference in type of product advertised with the central characters as either male or female came in the ‘‘body’’ category. Most studies had at least a 15% difference between males and females. There was only one study done that did not find a difference between men and women and that was done in Hong Kong.

Many studies added different types of products making comparisons difficult, yet it is possible to conclude the self-evident point: that the sex of the central role of the character reflects the genderlinked nature of the product. The body, home and food products have more females while car, sport and alcohol products have more males in the central role.

TV commercial sex roles stereotyping 221 vs. 4.52% in Japan and 11.4 vs. 3.4% in China). In both English and Chinese advertisements in Hong Kong, 0% of women were shown with a mostly male background while 20–25% of men were shown in this type of background.

Australasia: The study in New Zealand showed women most with a male background (28.9%) and also were more likely than men to have a mixed background (18.4 vs. 9.8%). Men were also more likely than women to be seen in a female background (17.6

vs. 5.3%).

Africa: In Mauritius, men were most commonly seen in a male background (29.4%) while 0% of women were portrayed in a male background. There were no men shown with a background of children while 17.9% of women had children in the background. In South Africa, the opposite was found with male background, 28.6% of females were presented with a male background, compared to only 6.3% of males.

The majority of central characters, around 40–50%, in most studies still were not shown with anyone in the background.

There is large variation in whether male and female central figures are shown with either mostly male or female background characters. However, there was a clear distinction with regard to children in the advertisement background. Men were rarely shown with children in the background and two studies from

Mauritius and Poland did not find any advertisements that showed the male central figure with children while women were shown 10–20% of the time with children in the background.

Background

This refers to the social and physical setting of the advertisement.

It nearly always refers to the other (often non-speaking) people in the background being predominantly males, females or children.

Europe: In Poland, no men were shown with children in the background, compared to 9.7% of women. There were only 7.1% of men but 20.9% of women with children backgrounds in Serbia as well. Other types of backgrounds showed different results depending on the country. With mixed backgrounds, males were more likely to be depicted in them in Poland (36.8 vs. 22.6%) while, in

Serbia, females were more likely to be depicted with a mixed background (40 vs. 24.35%). In Turkey, males were more likely to be seen with male backgrounds (41.1 vs. 17.9%). The opposite was found in Poland where more females (9.7%) than males (0%) were depicted with a male background.

Asia: In Korea, men were seen more often in mixed (17.5%) and mostly male (29.4%) backgrounds, while women were seen more with mostly children backgrounds (14.8 vs. 4.1%). Studies in

Japan and Hong Kong (Chinese only) actually found men more likely to be seen with children in the background than women (7

Location

Location refers much more specifically to the physical environment in which the advertisement is shot. This can be a home and work setting, outside pursuing leisure activities, etc.

Europe: In Serbia and Austria there were not any significant differences. However, in Serbia, both males (87.8%) and females

(82.9%) were presented in ‘‘leisure settings’’. This was a much higher proportion than all other studies. The largest difference in

Europe occurred in Poland where 41.9% of women were in private residences while 52.6% of men were in leisure settings. In

Spain (Valls-Fernandez & Martinez-Vicente, 2007), most men

(49.5%) were in occupational settings, compared to 30% of women. Bulgaria presented a similar pattern with more males in occupational settings (24.3 vs. 10%) and more females in private residence settings.

Asia: There was no significant difference in Taiwan, yet in

Malaysia and Japan (Bresnahan et al ., 2001), there was approximately double the amount of women in private residences than men (27 vs. 13% in Malaysia and 41 vs. 23% in Japan). A large proportion of men and women were shown in leisure settings in

Hong Kong, between 70 and 80% in both English and Chinese advertisements, while women were shown more in occupational settings in Chinese advertisements (17.2 vs. 0%). In Korea, men were also shown more in private residences than women were

(37.2 vs. 21.3%). The study in Singapore found an effect of time.

During the daytime, men were more likely to be seen in private


222 A. Furnham and S. Paltzer residences (42.9 vs. 16.6%) while during primetime this reverses

(0% of males and 28.6% of females).

Australasia: In Australasia, the most common location for men was outdoors (37.8%) while private residence (i.e. home) was the most common for females (32.8%). In New Zealand women are also seen more in private residence than men (34.2 vs. 15.7%).

Both men and women are most commonly seen in leisure settings but the proportion is higher for males (54.9 vs. 44.7%).

Africa: In one study in South Africa (Milner, 2005), there were not significant differences between males and females. However, in another study in South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage,

2002), women were portrayed more in private residences than men (21.4 vs. 6.3%). The largest difference was seen in Mauritius where 60.7% of women were seen in private residences while

41.2% of men were portrayed in an occupational setting, compared to 0% of women. Men were also more likely than women to be portrayed in occupational settings in Ghana (17.7 vs. 3.3%) and Kenya (25.9 vs. 18.8%) (Milner, 2005). The majority of men in Ghana were portrayed in outdoors settings (46.8%), compared to 24.6% of women.

America: In the United States (Bresnahan et al ., 2001), women are shown double the amount of time as men in private residence

(27 vs. 13%) while men are shown more often than women outdoors (29 vs. 18%).

Most studies in countries showed women in a private residence

(the home) setting approximately one-third of the time, while some studies found women in private residence settings in up to

60% of the advertisements analyzed. It seems that men, as the central character, were shown much less in private residences except in a few studies in Singapore and Korea where approximately 40% of the men were shown in private residences. This suggests possible differences in culture that has an effect on whether men and women are shown in a household setting since both of these studies are done in similar cultures. Studies in Hong

Kong and Taiwan also showed a much smaller difference between men and women in the proportion of time shown in private residences.

DISCUSSION

It is perhaps rare to see one content analytic system and method endure for so long to be replicated so widely particularly as this is

‘‘expensive’’ research in terms of data gathering and analysis.

This may be seen as a comment on the parsimoniousness of the content analytic categories or the fact that television advertisements are fairly universal in content and invariant over time.

However, this has allowed for essential, albeit somewhat crude, comparisons of studies for over 30 years.

This discussion will consider four things: first, the durability and change in television advertising and more specifically content categories used in this research; second, cultural specificity and universalism in the research findings; third , patterns of change over time and fourth, the theoretical framework that guides this research.

It is apparent from the Appendix that while there remains considerable overlap in the coding categories used in the studies,

Scand J Psychol 51 (2010) there is also variability. Comparing many studies to the original

McArthur and Resko (1975) paper it seems that subsequent researchers have tended to do three things: add categories, split categories and very occasionally, drop categories. In the original paper there were eight content analytic categories. Very few have been dropped (one example is punishments threatened or incurred for not using the product). Many researchers have added considerably to the different sub-categories. Thus age of the central figure and end comment have been added.

However, what is perhaps most noticeable is how many more distinctions have been made within content category. This has occurred particularly for credibility and reward type. Thus the categories have slowly evolved rather than radically changed, which is testimony to comprehensiveness of the original study (McArthur & Resko, 1975). It has also meant that it has been possible to do various comparative reviews such as that of Furnham and Mak

(1999) and this study.

One criticism of this research, however, is the rather limited imagination shown by researchers in what other issues they may have considered. One issue is humor while another is sex . There is now considerable interest from media psychologists of the effect of sex and violence in television advertising. Bushman and

Bonacci (2002) have shown that attempts to include sex and violence in advertising and programming to make products and brands more ‘‘attention grabbing’’ and memorable does not work.

This work has been confirmed by Parker and Furnham (2007) who have found that ‘‘sexual’’ advertisements were no better recalled than ‘‘non-sexual’’ advertisements for similar products.

Research has also focused on the efficacy of using humor in advertisements which is fairly widespread (Furnham et al.

, 1998).

It is apparent that there are various types of humor in television advertisements such as visual versus verbal humor, aggressive versus sexual humor as well as the use of irony or role reversal to make situations funny. It is perhaps surprising, then, that these content analytic studies do not seem to have categories referring to the use of humor, sex or violence.

Another perhaps more serious issue is the problem or product category or type. It is quite clear that there are universal patterns in how advertisers would choose to advertise products like soap or beer; fast foods or cars. Further, many products are clearly sexrelated in the sense that they are more frequently bought by males and females. Some studies have looked exclusively at certain types of products. Thus Aronovsky and Furnham (2008) looked specifically at advertisements for food products in Britain. They found similar sex differences in daytime and evening commercials with very clear and stereotypic differences in role, age, product appeal and end product. They argued that their results revealed advertisers’ awareness of a day-time female audience which reflected a greater proportion of non-stereotypic female depictions. They noted that it would be particularly interesting to look at portrayals in fast food and confectionary products. Furnham and Li (2008) looked at food and beverage advertisements aired in Hong Kong. They found more evidence for sex role stereotypes in Western-made as opposed to Chinese-made advertisements but overall relatively little evidence of sex-role stereotypes. Certainly examining sex role stereotypes for advertisements for very specific categories of products or services seems the way to proceed in this area.



Advertisements have changed over time with technology and fashion. In some countries they tend to be getting shorter with the use of many more animated techniques. Equally some products tend to be advertised less, either because they have been constrained or banned (alcohol, tobacco, children’s toys), while new electronic gadgets, like mobile phones, have been invented (Furnham, 2004). For researchers to capture changes and subtleties in advertising it seems necessary to revisit and revise the established content analytic categories. While some would of necessity endure it seems sensible to add others which reflect changes in the genre.

Changes in media consumption has greatly affected the number and type, but perhaps not so much the content of television advertisements.

Equally, although many advertisements contain surprisingly little speech few researchers have analyzed it to see if the person in the central role differs in their type of language and speech as a function of their gender. This may include an analysis of accent, as well as vocabulary, pace of speech, etc. The use of language and speech has been much more carefully scrutinized in written

(newspaper, magazine, billboard and flyer) advertisements than on television. Indeed it is noticeable how visual all the content analytic categories are. A good example of this was the Japanese study by Arima (2003) who included a category called ‘‘Angle of

Camera’’ and another called ‘‘Camera Work’’.

Thus it would seem that although this research has continued, indeed accelerated, for over 30 years there has been relatively little imaginative growth in the content categories that reflect the more subtle and contemporary aspects of television advertisements.

Over 20 years ago researchers started looking at sex-role stereotyping in TV advertisements as a function of time of day (Harris

& Stobart; 1986; Livingstone & Green, 1986). The central idea was that the size and composition of the audience changed throughout the day and that advertisements reflected that difference. This was not only related to the product and who it was aimed at (i.e. children, men, housewives) but how the advertisement was conceived, particularly if it appealed to a wide range of people (especially foods, soft drinks, etc.).

Researchers have worried about channel equivalence when doing this sort of work (Furnham & Mak, 1999). However, it may be just as interesting to do more research on within country channel differences showing how similar products are very differently portrayed on different channels. Most studies have attempted to examine advertisements on major national channels whose market share is declining along with television viewing in younger people.

Perhaps the most striking feature of all this work is the comparative absence of theoretical frameworks and equally of hypothesis testing. Many researchers do a content analysis of a country’s television, e.g. Bulgaria (Ibroscheva, 2007), Spain (Valls-Fernandez

& Martinez-Vicente, 2007), Singapore (Lee, 2003) or Turkey

(Uray & Burnaz, 2003) and although they may derive and test various hypotheses about sex role differences in certain categories they rarely provide a cultural framework.

While it is interesting to see this research it is rarely theory driven. There are exceptions. Hence Milner (2005) uses Hofstede’s

(1998) theory of culture difference to test gender role stereotyping in three African countries. Milner and Collins (2000) continued


TV commercial sex roles stereotyping 223 this research comparing four countries (Sweden, Russia, the USA and Japan) which were placed on a masculine-feminine continuum derived from Hofstede’s theory. Interestingly, many of their theory-derived hypotheses were not supported. However, most do little but compare countries (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002) or update studies (Bartsch, Burnett, Diller & Rankin-Williams,

2000).

A theoretical framework would allow for much better research and hypothesis testing. This would allow, for instance, for the assertion that in terms of the content categories there would be universal similarities in how the different genders were represented in advertisements while in other categories there would be specific and predictable differences . Thus, for instance, it may be possible to argue that there would be near universal gender role differences in credibility and age but fewer in reward and product type. To be parsimonious, however, the theoretical framework would have to account for social and economic difference between cultures. Indeed, anthropological theories may be particularly fecund for this sort of research.

The results of this content analysis reflect these issues. Most studies are descriptive rather than hypotheses testing. However, it is possible to group countries on certain categories and then do a content analysis. These studies were grouped by continent but it could be done by other variables like Hofstede’s masculinity versus femininity dimensions. Thus, one could contrast advertisements from highly masculine countries like Japan and Austria with those described as much more feminine like Sweden and

Thailand. Although this was done in a preliminary analysis no clear patterns emerged. Indeed, there appear to be more evidence of universalism than culture specificity in this area.

It is no doubt the growth of television in many countries and concern with its short- and long-term effects that have led researchers to continue to do comparative studies of gender representations. Thus in a typical cross-cultural study Kim and Lowry

(2005) note that in Korea television commercials are a ‘‘lagging social indicator’’ because although the role of women has changed dramatically in that society, television images portrayed in advertisements do not reflect the current situation. There are no doubt over 50 that have drawn inspiration from early studies like that of

McArthur and Resko (1975). They have looked at cross-national differences, changes over time, time of day and channel differences. There seems to be a decline in gender-role stereotyping in

Western countries but this is restricted to certain categories. This difference in credibility, role and age seems to be declining but that for product type is not.

What the research area still lacks is the development of more subtle coding categories as well as theoretical frameworks to make specific predictions about cultural or temporal differences and even to make predictors about future developments. Future research should also look at how television has changed over the years.

Perhaps the most obvious change has been the growth of channels available in most countries as well as relative ease through satellite connections to receive ‘‘foreign’’ television from other countries. This has fragmented the national audience and seen the growth of very specific channels specializing in everything from news to sport, and weather to classical films. Most of these are commercial and are liberally interspersed with advertisements.


The question is how advertisements differ as a function of channel. This is no doubt a past function of the size and demography of the audience which would no doubt relate to products advertised. However, it remains of interest how sex-roles are portrayed perhaps on channels clearly aimed at quite different audiences such as shopping and cooking channels versus science, history or geography channels.

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Milner, L. & Higgs, B. (2004). Gender sex-role portrayals in international television advertising over time: The Australasian experience.

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Sex Roles , 58 , 752–760.*

Nina-Pazarzi, E. & Tsangaris, M. (2008). Constructing women’s image in TV Commercials: The Greek case.

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TV commercials.

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Applied Cognitive Psychology , 21 , 1217–1228.

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Sex Roles , 58 , 379–390.*

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Advances in Experimental Social Psychology , 2 , 1–65.

Schneider, K. C. & Schneider, S. B. (1979). Trends in sex roles in television commercials.

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TV commercial sex roles stereotyping 225

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Received 6 May 2009, accepted 8 July 2009


226 A. Furnham and S. Paltzer Scand J Psychol 51 (2010)

APPENDIX: THE DATA FROM THE DIFFERENT STUDIES

New Zealand,

2000

(Furnham &

Farragher)

M

( N = 51)

F

( N = 38)

Sweden,

2000

(Milner &

Collins)

M Various countries

Attributes


Voice-over

Visual/others

Visual silence

Visual voice

Visual/music

Credibility

User

Authority/other

User and authority

Neither

Other

Role

Autonomous

Dependent

Interviewer/narrator

Professional/other

Celebrity

Other/unknown

Familial

Age

Young

Middle-aged

Old

Middle-aged and old

Argument

Factual/scientific

Opinion/nonscientific

Other

Opinion/none

None

Reward type

Social approval

Social/self-enhancement

Practical

Pleasure

Product benefits

Financial

Other/none

Product type

Body

Home

Food

Domestic

Auto/sports

Services

Other

Background

Mostly female

Mostly male

Mixed

Mostly Children

None

41.2

58.8

74.5

19.6

5.9

70.5

13.7

23.5

62.7

5.9

13.7

29.4

5.9

45.1

13.7

17.6

19.6

9.8

13.7

39.2

31.4

5.9

21.6

5.9

21.6

4.0

25.5

39.2

56.9

3.9

47.4

52.6

63.2

15.8

21.0

50.0

10.5

13.2

31.6

2.6

42.1

23.7

5.3

28.9

18.4

15.8

31.6

31.6

7.9

0.0

5.3

31.6

7.9

42.1

55.3

39.5

5.3

5.3

7.9

86.8

54.2

45.8

35.1

50.5

14.4

F

80.0

20.0

77.9

20.3

1.9

Russia,

2000

(Milner &

Collins)

M F

United States,

2000

(Milner &

Collins)

M F

Japan,

2000

(Milner &

Collins)

M F

92.9

7.1

90.0

10.0

49.2

50.8

64.1

35.7

79.4

20.6

95.2

4.8

62.8

37.3

0.0

81.6

18.4

0.0

49.4

42.1

8.5

63.6

30.8

5.6

46.2

39.4

14.4

70.9

26.5

2.6



APPENDIX: Continued.


New Zealand,

2000

(Furnham &

Farragher)

M

( N = 51)

F

( N = 38)

Sweden,

2000

(Milner &

Collins)

Russia,

2000

(Milner &

Collins)

United

States, 2000

(Milner &

Collins)

Japan,

2000

(Milner &

Collins)

Various countries

End comments

Present

Absent

Setting

Private residence

Occupational setting

Outdoors

Leisure/unknown

Social

Office

Store

Fictional

Other

19.6

80.4

15.7

21.6

54.9

7.8

5.3

94.7

34.2

15.8

44.7

5.3

M F M F M F M F

Malaysia, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

M F

Taiwan, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

M F

United States, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

M F

Japan, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

M F

South Africa, 2002

(Furnham &

Spencer-Bowdage)

M F

( N = 52) ( N = 39) ( N = 98) ( N = 115) ( N = 59) ( N = 72) ( N = 137) ( N = 179) ( N = 48) ( N = 28)

Attributes


Voice-over

Visual/others

Visual silence

Visual voice

Visual/music

Credibility

User

Authority/other

User and authority

Neither

Other

Role

Autonomous

Dependent


Professional/other

Celebrity

Other/unknown

Familial

Spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend

Parent

Presenter

Office worker

Fiance(e)

Homemaker

Decorative

Sex object

81.0

19.0

81.0

19.0

69.0

31.0

68.0

32.0

52.1

27.1

20.8

29.2

41.7

29.2

31.3

50.0

6.3

12.5

2.6

64.3

32.1

82.1

7.1

10.7

78.6

3.6

10.7

7.1


228 A. Furnham and S. Paltzer Scand J Psychol 51 (2010)


Malaysia, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

Taiwan, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

United States, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

Japan, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue, Liu,

& Nishida)

South Africa, 2002

(Furnham &

Spencer-Bowdage)

M F M F M F M F M F

( N = 52) ( N = 39) ( N = 98) ( N = 115) ( N = 59) ( N = 72) ( N = 137) ( N = 179) ( N = 48) ( N = 28)

Age

Young

Middle-aged

Old

Middle-aged and old

Argument

Factual/scientific


Other

Opinion/none

None

Reward type

Social approval


Practical

Pleasure

Product benefits

Financial

Other/none

Product type

Body

Home

Food

Domestic

Auto/sports

Services

Other

Away (not used at home)

Home and away

Restaurant/retail

Alcohol/tobacco

Finance/real estate

Slimming

Baby care

Health

Technical

Non-technical

Toiletries

Electronics

Vehicles

Clothing and accessories

Cleaning products

Transport

Leisure/culture

Telecommunications

Organizations

Media

Technology

Background

Mostly female

Mostly male

Mixed

Mostly children

None

End comments

Present

Absent

2.0

6.0

33.0

8.0

10.0

2.0

17.0

6.0

10.0

3.0

3.0

15.0

8.0

15.0

2.0

15.0

0.0

8.0

0.0

8.0

8.0

0.0

6.0

8.0

37.0

14.0

5.0

1.0

2.0

4.0

1.0

0.0

4.0

25.0

17.0

27.0

6.0

2.0

0.0

2.0

1.0

1.0

3.0

2.0

3.0

2.0

32.0

17.0

19.0

7.0

2.0

12.0

3.0

3.0

13.0

4.0

19.0

7.0

4.0

7.0

10.0

27.0

2.0

4.1

6.0

15.0

9.0

18.0

1.0

12.0

3.0

7.0

3.0

16.0

1.0

9.0

17.0

21.0

19.0

9.0

2.0

7.0

1.0

4.0

2.0

14.0

3.0

1.0

47.8

30.4

21.7

39.6

20.8

39.6

16.7

29.2

20.8

33.3

10.4

8.3

25.0

29.2

12.5

12.5

14.6

6.3

8.3

4.2

66.7

75.0

25.0

70.4

22.2

7.4

14.3

7.1

78.6

53.6

14.3

28.6

3.6

42.9

0.0

25.0

10.7

7.1

0.0

7.1

28.6

14.3

7.1

42.9

60.7

39.3


Scand J Psychol 51 (2010) TV commercial sex roles stereotyping 229


Malaysia, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

Taiwan, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

United States, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue,

Liu, & Nishida)

F M F M F

( N = 39) ( N = 98) ( N = 115) ( N = 59) ( N = 72)

M

( N = 52)

Setting

Private residence 15.0

Occupational setting 13.0

Outdoors

Leisure/unknown

29.0

Social

Office

Store

Fictional

Other 43.0

26.0

10.0

13.0

51.0

21.0

3.0

29.0

47.0

21.0

0.0

29.0

50.0

13.0

15.0

29.0

43.0

27.0

3.0

18.0

52.0

23.0

2.0

33.0

42.0

Japan, 2001

(Bresnahan, Inoue, Liu,

& Nishida)

M F

( N = 137) ( N = 179)

South Africa, 2002

(Furnham &

Spencer-Bowdage)

M F

( N = 48) ( N = 28)

41.0

2.0

28.0

29.0

6.3

12.5

18.8

0.0

62.5

21.4

7.1

10.7

0.0

60.7

Serbia, 2002 Turkey, 2003

Attributes


Voice-over

Visual/others

Visual silence

Visual voice

Visual/music

Credibility

User

Authority/other

User and authority

Neither

Other

Role

Autonomous

Dependent


Professional/other

Celebrity

Other/unknown

Familial


Parent

Presenter

Office worker

Fiance(e)

Homemaker

Decorative

Sex object

Age

Young

Middle-aged

Old

Middle-aged and old

81.0

19.0

10.8

89.2

0.0

91.9

8.1

12.2

87.8

0.0

(Skoric & Furnham)

M F

( N = 74) ( N = 35)

71.4

28.6

17.1

82.9

5.7

85.7

8.6

34.3

65.7

0.0

(Uray & Burnaz)

M F

(46.5%) (53.5%)

47.9

52.1

53.4

13.7

29.5

3.4

11.3

15.5

26.8

2.1

6.3

9.9

2.8

24.6

0.7

45.2

45.2

9.6

47.6

52.4

74.4

3.6

16.1

6.0

12.8

3.7

18.3

0.6

6.1

11.0

11.6

28.7

7.3

60.1

33.9

6.0

67.0

6.5

26.5

0.0

19.5

45.5

35.0

19.5

42.0

19.5

19.0

41.5

55.0

3.5

Japan, 2002

(Furnham & Imazdu)

M F

( N = 200) ( N = 155)

Hong Kong,

2003 - English

(Furnham &

Chan)

M F

(63%) (36%)

Hong Kong, 2003 -

Chinese

(Furnham & Chan)

M F

(60.3%) (39.7%)

34.19

16.77

47.1

1.94

46.45

27.74

25.81

56.77

20.0

13.55

9.68

76.13

22.58

1.29

60.8

39.2

19.6

80.4

9.8

70.6

19.6

13.7

84.3

2.0

26.7

73.3

26.7

73.3

10.0

60.0

30.0

33.3

66.7

0.0

68.2

31.8

25.0

75.0

15.9

75.0

9.1

36.4

61.4

2.3

24.1

75.9

51.7

48.3

20.7

41.4

37.9

79.3

17.2

3.4






Argument

Factual/scientific


Other

Opinion/none

None

Reward type

Social approval


Practical

Pleasure

Product benefits

Financial

Other/none

Product type

Body

Home

Food

Domestic

Auto/sports

Services

Other


Home and away

Restaurant/retail

Alcohol/tobacco

Finance/real estate

Slimming

Baby care

Health

Technical

Non-technical

Toiletries

Electronics

Vehicles


Cleaning products

Transport

Leisure/culture

Telecommunications

Organizations

Media

Technology

Background

Mostly female

Mostly male

Mixed

Mostly Children

None

End comments

Present

Absent

Setting

Private residence


Outdoors

Leisure/unknown

67.6

32.4

17.6

36.5

45.9

16.2

1.3

17.6

2.7

62.2

79.7

20.3

5.4

6.8

87.8

2.7

10.8

24.3

4.1

58.1

(Skoric & Furnham)

M

( N = 74)

F

( N = 35)

42.9

57.1

17.1

65.8

17.1

20.0

20.0

8.6

0.0

51.4

77.1

22.9

5.7

11.4

82.9

0.0

2.9

40.0

5.7

51.4

(Uray & Burnaz)

M

(46.5%)

F

(53.5%)

15.1

28.8

15.1

23.3

17.1

13.0

11.0

4.8

56.2

4.6

16.1

16.1

26.4

26.4

10.3

15.8

10.0

41.4

41.4

7.1

93.8

6.2

30.8

37.7

18.5

20.8

17.9

22.4

17.9

38.8

20.9

96.4

3.6

57.7

16.7

30.4

27.4

8.9

4.2

6.0

5.4

60.7

7.3

44.4

18.5

9.7

13.7

6.5

36.0

28.0

9.0

22.0

40.0

22.5

29.0

8.5

5.5

23.5

6.5

28.5

15.5

8.5

2.5

8.0

6.5

55.0

45.0

21.5

7.5

17.0

8.5

12.5

22.0

7.0

50.0

Japan, 2002

(Furnham & Imazdu)

M

( N = 200)

F

( N = 155)

Hong Kong,

2003 - English

(Furnham &

Chan)

M

(63%)

F

(36%)

Hong Kong, 2003 -

Chinese

(Furnham & Chan)

M

(60.3%)

F

(39.7%)

26.45

30.97

20.0

22.58

2.58

30.97

7.1

27.74

31.61

30.97

19.35

18.71

11.61

8.39

2.58

6.45

1.94

14.19

4.52

18.71

4.52

58.06

40.0

60.0

33.55

3.23

20.0

43.1

56.9

5.9

23.5

25.5

45.1

7.8

0.0

9.8

82.4

7.8

21.6

39.2

9.8

21.6

68.6

31.4

9.8

11.8

78.4

40.0

60.0

0.0

33.3

26.7

40.0

6.7

6.7

16.7

70.0

40.0

0.0

40.0

13.3

6.7

76.7

23.3

16.7

3.3

80.0

43.1

65.9

13.6

29.5

56.8

0.0

11.4

4.5

52.3

31.8

0.0

25.0

29.5

11.4

34.1

100

0

11.4

0.0

88.6

51.7

48.3

20.7

41.4

37.9

0.0

24.1

10.3

41.4

24.1

100

0

13.8

17.2

69.0

44.8

0.0

34.5

3.4

17.2






(Skoric & Furnham)

M

( N = 74)

F

( N = 35)

(Uray & Burnaz)

M

(46.5%)

F

(53.5%)

Japan, 2002

(Furnham & Imazdu)

M

( N = 200)

F

( N = 155)

Hong Kong, 2003

- English

(Furnham &

Chan)

M

(63%)

F

(36%)

Hong Kong, 2003 -

Chinese

(Furnham & Chan)

M

(60.3%)

F

(39.7%)

Social

Office

Store

Fictional

Other

13.0

8.9

9.6

4.2

11.9

9.5

54.0

43.23

Singapore, 2003 Singapore, 2003 Mauritius, 2009

Attributes


Voice-over

Visual/others

Visual silence

Visual voice

Visual/music

Credibility

User

Authority/other

User and authority

Neither

Other

Role

Autonomous

Dependent


Professional/other

Celebrity

Other/unknown

Familial


Parent

Presenter

Office worker

Fiance(e)

Homemaker

Decorative

Sex object

Age

Young

Middle-aged

Old

Middle-aged and old

Argument

Factual/scientific


Other

Opinion/none

None

75.0

85.6

14.3

0.0

14.3

28.6

28.6

28.6

0.0

(Lee) – daytime

M

( N = 7)

F

( N = 12)

25.0

33.3

58.3

8.3

0.0

75.0

8.3

0.0

8.3

71.9

54.5

0.0

0.0

45.5

36.4

36.4

27.3

0.0

0.0

0.0

(Lee) - prime time

M

( N = 11)

F

( N = 35)

(Furnham & Hussain)

M

( N = 17)

F

( N = 28)

28.1

45.7

2.9

37.1

14.3

5.7

65.7

2.9

8.6

5.7

11.4

52.9

47.1

29.4

70.6

11.8

52.9

35.3

41.2

47.1

11.8

32.1

67.9

67.9

32.1

60.7

42.9

0.0

17.9

60.7

21.4

Australasia,

2004

(Milner &

Higgs)

M F

38.2

52.6

61.8

47.4

51.3

22.7

26.1

59.0

39.3

1.6

Kenya,

2005

(Milner)

M F





Singapore, 2003

Reward type

Social approval


Practical

Pleasure

Product benefits

Financial

Other/none

Product type

Body

Home

Food

Domestic

Auto/sports

Services

Other


Home and Away

Restaurant/retail

Alcohol/tobacco

Finance/real estate

Slimming

Baby care

Health

Technical

Non-technical

Toiletries

Electronics

Vehicles


Cleaning products

Transport

Leisure/culture

Telecommunications

Organizations

Media

Technology

Background

Mostly female

Mostly male

Mixed

Mostly children

None

End comments

Present

Absent

Setting

Private residence


Outdoors

Leisure/unknown

Social

Office

Store

Fictional

Other

14.3

14.3

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

71.4

42.9

14.3

0.0

42.9

(Lee) – daytime

M

( N = 7)

F

( N = 12)

25.0

8.3

8.3

8.3

8.3

8.3

33.3

16.6

0.0

16.6

66.7

18.2

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

36.4

0.0

18.2

9.0

0.0

54.5

9.0

36.4

Singapore, 2003

(Lee) - prime time

M

( N = 11)

F

( N = 35)

Mauritius, 2009

(Furnham & Hussain)

M

( N = 17)

F

( N = 28)

Australasia,

2004

(Milner &

Higgs)

M F

28.6

25.7

5.7

0.0

8.6

0.0

5.7

2.9

2.9

5.7

28.6

11.4

5.7

54.2

11.8

17.6

70.6

0.0

5.9

29.4

5.9

41.2

17.6

5.9

29.4

23.5

0.0

41.2

82.4

17.6

11.8

41.2

47.1

25.0

46.4

28.6

10.7

42.9

46.4

0.0

0.0

0.0

32.1

0.0

14.3

17.9

35.7

60.7

39.3

60.7

0.0

39.3

20.2

7.6

37.8

3.4

31.1

32.8

4.9

13.1

13.1

36.1

Kenya, 2005

(Milner)

M

18.5

25.9

11.1

11.1

33.3

F

18.8

18.8

12.5

0.0

50.0




TV commercial sex roles stereotyping

Ghana,

2005

South

Africa,

2005 Korea, 2005 Poland, 2005

(Milner)

M F

(Milner)

M F

(Kim & Lowry)

M

( N = 469)

F

( N = 643)

Attributes


Voice-over

Visual/others

Visual silence

Visual voice

Visual/music

Credibility

User

Authority/other

User and authority

Neither

Other

Role

Autonomous

Dependent


Professional/other

Celebrity

Other/unknown

Familial


Parent

Presenter

Office worker

Fiance(e)

Homemaker

Decorative

Sex object

Age

Young

Middle-aged

Old

Middle-aged and old

Argument

Factual/scientific


Other

Opinion/none

None

Reward type

Social approval


Practical

Pleasure

Product benefits

Financial

Other/none

Product type

Body

Home

Food

Domestic

Auto/sports

Services

Other

20.5

79.5

26.2

27.3

27.1

3.4

20.9

17.7

3.2

0.4

23.9

59.5

9.8

90.2

14.2

11.5

13.4

3.7

33.9

13.1

12.1

12.3

48.2

41.2


33.3

47.6

19.0

42.9

38.1

19.0

57.9

31.6

21.1

31.5

26.3

21.1

10.5

21.1

36.8

(Furnham & Saar)

M

(42%)

F

(58%)

10.5

42.1

47.4

10.5

26.3

31.6

42.1

10.5

10.5

51.7

41.4

6.9

82.8

13.8

3.4

19.4

32.3

48.4

67.7

25.8

6.5

19.4

12.9

67.7

6.5

0.0

37.7

22.6

19.4

19.4

29.0

22.6

22.6

61.5

32.5

6

25.1

14.0

31.1

12

5.9

Spain, 2007

(Valls-Ferandez &

Martinez-Vicente)

M

(50.6%)

F

(49.4%)

71.6

21.5

6.9

41.9

10.4

29.3

5.4

5.6

233




Ghana,

2005

(Milner)

M F

South

Africa,

2005

(Milner)

M F

Korea, 2005

(Kim & Lowry)

M

( N = 469)

F

( N = 643)

Poland, 2005

(Furnham & Saar)

M

(42%)

F

(58%)

Spain, 2007

(Valls-Ferandez &

Martinez-Vicente)

M

(50.6%)

F

(49.4%)


Home and away

Restaurant/retail

Alcohol/tobacco

Finance/real estate

Slimming

Baby care

Health

Technical

Non-technical

Toiletries

Electronics

Vehicles


Cleaning products

Transport

Leisure/culture

Telecommunications

Organizations

Media

Technology

Background

Mostly female

Mostly male

Mixed

Mostly children

None

End comments

Present

Absent

Setting

Private residence


Outdoors

Leisure/unknown

Social

Office

Store

Fictional

Other

12.9

17.7

46.8

1.6

21.0

19.7

3.3

24.6

3.3

49.2

35.5

4.8

33.9

12.9

12.9

Bulgaria, 2007 (Ibroscheva)

M ( N = 37) F ( N = 90)

Attributes


Voice-over

Visual/others

Visual silence

Visual voice

Visual/music

Credibility

User

21.6

29.7

48.6

45.9

0.0

66.7

33.3

78.9

41.4

3.4

34.5

44.8

55.2

9.6

17.5

29.4

4.1

39.4

37.2

14.7

39.7

7.2

29.9

70.1

9.0

5.3

20.2

14.8

50.7

21.3

4.4

33.1

9.8

15.8

0.0

36.8

0.0

47.4

42.1

57.9

5.3

21.1

52.6

12.9

9.7

22.6

9.7

45.2

19.4

80.6

41.9

6.5

25.8

9.5

30.4

49.5

7.4

6.5

46.5

30.0

8.8

10.3

10.3

Austria, 2007 (Ahlstrand)

M ( N = 117) F ( N = 86)

21.1

25.8

12.7

14.7

Spain, 2008 (Royo-Vela, Aldas-

Manzano, Kuster & Vila)

M ( N = 179) F ( N = 213)

70.6

22.9





Reward type

Social approval


Practical

Pleasure

Product benefits

Financial

Other/none

Product type

Body

Home

Food

Domestic

Auto/sports

Services

Other


Home and away

Restaurant/retail

Alcohol/tobacco

Finance/real estate

Slimming

Baby care

Health

Technical

Non-technical

Toiletries

Electronics

Vehicles

Authority/other

User and authority

Neither

Other

Role

Autonomous

Dependent


Professional/other

Celebrity

Other/unknown

Familial


Parent

Presenter

Office worker

Fiance(e)

Homemaker

Decorative

Sex object

Age

Young

Middle-aged

Old

Middle-aged and old

Argument

Factual/scientific


Other

Opinion/none

None

62.2

37.8

13.5

48.6

18.9

18.9

59.5

16.2

24.3


M ( N = 37) F ( N = 90)

45.9

10.0

8.1

83.8

2.7

11.1

30.0

45.6


M ( N = 117) F ( N = 86)



M ( N = 179) F ( N = 213)

13.5

24.4

16.2

12.8

2.6

46.2

17.9

4.3

5.8

15.1

7.0

38.4

25.6

8.1

17.9

6.1

24.5

11.2

9.5

7.3

10.6

8.4

4.5

11.2

4.2

31.7

7.9

13.1

4.7

4.7

7.5

15.0

81.1

18.9

3.3

32.2

30.0

34.4

65.5

3.3

31.1

27.4

64.1

8.55

12.0

4.3

12.8

4.3

42.7

4.3

6.0

13.7

61.6

31.4

7.0

31.4

5.8

26.7

1.2

18.6

4.7

7.0

4.7

22.9

10.1

3.9

6.1

21.0

13.0

4.7

17.3





M ( N = 37) F ( N = 90)


Cleaning products

Transport

Leisure/culture

Telecommunications

Organizations

Media

Technology

Background

Mostly female

Mostly male

Mixed

Mostly children

None

End comments

Present

Absent

Setting

Private residence


Outdoors

Leisure/unknown

Social

Office

Store

Fictional

Other

21.6

24.3

45.9

8.1

36.7

10.0

48.9

4.4


M ( N = 117) F ( N = 86)

23.1

8.5

35.9

32.5

27.9

11.6

33.7

26.7




M ( N = 179) F ( N = 213)

3.9

5.6

11.7

3.4

10.1

22.3

3.3

13.6

5.6

2.8

3.3

15.4


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Personality and Social Sciences

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