Image of women in television advertising

Abstract

Our purpose was to determine whether the manner in which women are portrayed in television advertisements has undergone significant change during the past 15 years. Replicating the 1972 study by Dominick and Rauch, a content analysis was performed on 1,480 commercials. Commercials were coded for product advertised, gender of the voice‐over announcer, gender of the on‐camera product representative, setting, age, and occupation of the characters. Women were found to be portrayed in a wider range of occupations and appeared more frequently in settings outside the home than in 1972. Product type, voice‐over announcer, on‐camera product representative, and age categories remained unchanged.