Contemporary women′s evaluation of female role portrayals in advertising

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.With increasing social awareness of the portrayal of women in today's advertising, this study uses an upscale female sample to extend previous research on women's perceptions of their role portrayals in these media. The results indicate that serious disenchantment with the perceived portrayal of women still exists for this important group of consumers. Various attitudinal, company image, and purchase intention responses were measured in addition to salient demographic and role orientation variables.

Good Guys : A Cultural Semiotic Study of the Print Advertising of the Oil Industry (1900-2000)

“…These advertisements again confirm the observations of Coutney & Wernick (1971), Wagner & Banos (1973) Venkatesan & Losco (1975) Sullivan & O'Connor (1988), Ford et al (1991), Wolin (2003) and Mager & Helgeson (2010) who all witness the predominantly domestic roles portrayed by women in advertisements. As Lysonski (1985) has pointed out, there seems to be cultural lag between the stereotypes portrayed in advertisements and social reality.…”

“…Similar observations were made by Demarest & Garner (1992). Ford et al (1991) have also pointed out how traditional female stereotypes, particularly those relating women and domesticity, continued well into the 1980s. Steven Lysonski's (1985) investigation of gender role portrayals in British magazines between 1976 and 1983 found that shifts had been minor.…”

The Construction of Beauty in Malay Magazine Advertisements

“…Frequently, they are not shown as active, but rather, as more passive figures who react to the initiatives of others, usually males (Berger, 1999). However, such observations which reside in the existing literature in the scholarship are often confined to advertisements in the American and European context (Ford, LaTour and Lundstrom, 1991;Rhode, 1995). While there may be scarce literature which looks at the portrayal of women in the Asian context, more often than not, it is a rather stereotyping thought of analysis which looks only at Asians who are of yellow skin -typically those who are Chinese, Japanese or Korean (Hung and Li, 2006;Siu and Au, 1997).…”

“…Women, in particular, are often portrayed as sexual objects in advertisements (Berger, 1999;Ford, LaTour and Lundstrom, 1991;Stankiewicz and Rosselli, 2008). Relationally, the conventional beauty is typically a women's main attribute of attraction (Ingham, 1995;Johnston and Taylor, 2008;Ong and Seah, 2001).…”

Perception of Sex Appeal in Print Advertising by Young Female Anglo-Saxon and Second Generation Asian-Islamic British

“…The reactions to expanded use of sex appeal have ranged from outcries of dismay and disgust to claims that its use is merely reflective of the times or of cultural change. Some argue that it might even have a negative impact on the image of the advertiser (Ford et al 1993), while past research provides mixed results on its ability to influence the attitude towards the brand, the advertisement and the purchase intention (Severn et al 1990, De Pelsmacker andGuens 1996). Specific groups, defined by elements such as gender or age, respond more positively to sex appeal than others (Wise et al 1974, De Pelsmacker and Guens 1996, Maciejewski 2004.…”