Communicating Aging in Taiwanese Television Commercials Yan Bing Zhang* Shu-Chin Lien** * University of Kansas, USA ** National Taiwan University of Arts 12/28/2008

Introduction  Aging in Advertising  Invisible/underrepresented/Stereotypical portrayals  Values in Chinese Television Advertising (Lin, 2001; Cheng, 1997; Cheng & Schweitzer, 1996; Chiou, 2002; Huang, 1995; Zhang & Harwood, 2004)  Utilitarian Values/Traditional Values/Modern Values  The current study  analyzed commercials (N = 1490, of which 271 featured older characters) shown on four prime time Taiwanese TV networks  examined whether the dominant value themes and the major product categories were associated with the presence of older characters.

Theoretical Significance  Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory (Abrams, Eveland & Giles, 2003; Harwood & Roy, 2005; Zhang et al., 2007)  Globalization and cultural imperialism perspectives  Media Effects Theories  Theories of Stereotyping

Research Questions  RQ 1: Are the cultural values presented in prime time Taiwanese television commercials associated with the presence of older character(s)?  RQ 2. Are the major product categories in prime time Taiwanese television commercials associated with the presence of older character(s)?

Method  Sample  Approximately 72 hours of television programming  1490 commercials  271 (i.e., 18.19%) featured older adults  Content analysis  Modified Zhang & Harwood (2004) value and product categories  12 value themes were applicable in this sample  12 product categories  Coder training  Reliability check

Results: Value Themes

Results: Product Categories

Conclusion and Discussion  Commercials featuring older adults promoted a limited number of products such as medicine, health supplements, and food/drinks  Health/life is the predominant value presented in commercials featuring older adults  Utilitarian values have a frequent presence across all commercials  While a group of traditional values such as family, education, and filial piety had a fair presence, modern values were not emphasized in the commercials featuring older adults  Values are chosen to serve sellers’ best interests – TV is a twisted mirror of societal values - a combined effect of the materialistic nature of advertising, product and target audience characteristics, and stereotypical views of aging existed in society

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