Sex-role stereotyping in British television advertisements

The present study examined the portrayal of men and women in a sample of British television advertisements, with a view to establishing whether men and women were depicted differently, and if so in what respects. One hundred and seventy advertisements were analysed by classifying the following attributes of their adult central figures: sex, mode of presentation, relationship to product, role, location, arguments, rewards and product type. It was found that males and females were portrayed in markedly different ways, the most salient of which were that women were significantly more likely than men to be shown as product-users, to be shown in dependent roles, to be shown at home, to provide no arguments in favour of advertised products, and to appear in conjunction with domestic products. These findings are compared with those of a similar study of American television commercials, and are also considered in the context of other studies of sex-role stereotyping in the mass media. The implications of such findings for the development and maintenance of sex roles are discussed