DISSONANCE OF ADVERTISING AND REALITY:Content analysis of women in Television commercial advertising on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)

This paper investigates the portrayal of women in IRIB television commercials and compares their depiction to notions of everyday life.. The research consisted of systematically collecting commercials from IRIB television broadcast at two different periods of time and then analyzing them quantitatively and qualitatively. The results are compared against demographic statistics for the country and a survey of residents in Tehran. This research finds that while women have a major presence on IRIB television programs and in advertising on non-televised media, women are strangely and significantly absent from IRIB television commercials. When women do appear, they are portrayed in traditional and stereotypical roles such as wife and mother. Men appear more frequently and are portrayed in positions of power. Statistics show that women have made gains in workplace, and people in Tehran see women as modern, dynamic, and cosmopolitan.This research is indicative of a key question in media and feminist studies, whether advertising reflects or creates reality. While we see the salience of a number of theories, we suggest that the dissonance between the outmoded depiction of women in IRIB commercials versus reality is the result of long-standing advertising subsidy regime for state supported industries and firms