Sex Roles
Volume 37, Numbers 1-2, 91-99, DOI: 10.1023/A:1025692804434

A Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of Children's Television Advertisements

Adrian Furnham, Staci Abramsky and Barrie Gunter

View Related Documents

Abstract

Two sets of television advertisements were video-recorded from weekend children's television in London and New York and were coded by two white women in terms of their gender-role portrayals. The advertised products covered by this analysis included snack and fast food, toys and breakfast cereal. Each advertisement was coded according to nine criteria including the ethnicity and gender of the people appearing, gender of central figure and of any ldquovoice overrdquo in the commercial, presence or absence of music, and other sales-related content. In general, males were more numerous than females in both American and British advertisements. There were more similarities than differences between the two national markets in terms of the nature of gender-role portrayals, with males generally occupying more central and authoritative positions. Only two analyses yielded significant differences. Girls outnumbered boys in American commercials, but the opposite was true of British commercials. Hispanic males were present in American commercials but not in British commercials.

Fulltext Preview

Image of the first page of the fulltext document