conferen\2002\AAA_gender50601 Gender portrayal of US children ’ s television commercials: 50s and 60s Kara Chan Hong Kong Baptist University

conferen\2002\AAA_gender50602  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_gender50603 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_gender50604 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_gender50605 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_gender50606  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_gender50607 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_gender50608 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_gender50609 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_gender Table 1. Sample profile (N=341) Product CategoryNo.Percent Toys Character toys and dolls Snacks/food and drink Personal hygiene & toiletries Clothing and shoes Stationeries Household goods and appliance Others*

conferen\2002\AAA_gender 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_gender Ad orientation: trend

conferen\2002\AAA_gender 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_gender Voice-over: trend

conferen\2002\AAA_gender 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_gender Central characters: trend

conferen\2002\AAA_gender location All commercials: mainly home and outdoor Commercials for girls: mainly home and studio Commercials for boys: mainly studio and outdoor

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

conferen\2002\AAA_gender 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_gender 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