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Gender portrayal of US children’s television commercials: 50s and 60s

Kara Chan

Hong Kong Baptist University

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gender role portrayal on television programs and advertising content as major source for children’s gender role socialization

Gender stereotyping existed in the portrayal of roles and activities of boys and girls

the location of the setting

the reward types

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Previous studies Studies of gender role stereotyping of

children commercials dated from 70s

Patterns: (70s to early 90s)

Research on gender portrayal:

male dominance in number and in voice- over; authoritative role in product endorsement; in outdoor setting; more cuts, loud music and active playing

females in home setting; more fades and dissolves, soft music and quiet play

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Historical perspectives

1950s: a decade in the development of marketing to children

1968: Action for Children’s Television group lobby on restriction of host selling

1975s: the National Advertising Review Board developed a self-regulatory checklist for gender portrayal

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Content Analysis

Chulay and Francis (1974): TV ads orienting girls to accept traditional feminine roles, as a wife, a mother, or a sex object

Seiter (1993): boys’ toy commercials depicted conflict, pursuit and competition; girls’ doll commercials focused on care of family members, clothing and home-making

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Kline and Pentecost (1990): play groupings: play with same sex play styles: girls interacted with; boys identified with linguistic theme: scripts for boys’ ads emphasized power, control, domination; scripts for girls’ ads emphasized motherhood, relationship, glamour and attention to physical appearance

Dominance of male voice-over: myth of male voice more authoritative

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Research question How were males and females portrayed

in children commercials in the 50s and 60s?

How does the gender portrayal differ with those found in the 70s to 90s

Method: Content analysis of TVC

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Sample

N=341, unduplicated

13 tapes of kids commercials in the Television Commercial Archive, Video Resources New York (tapes 2,4,6,8,10,12)

Included toys, breakfast cereals and snacks commercials

Convenient sample

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Two levels of coding Each commercial, code: Product category, product gender-type, sex composition, sex of voice-over, location of setting and reward type

Each central character (a child, adult, or cartoon human character appears most), up to two, code:

Sex, age, role, activity, whether he/she is authoritative 1/10 of sample coded by a second coder, inter-coder reliability ranged from 0.9 to

1

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Table 1. Sample profile (N=341)

Product Category No. Percent

ToysCharacter toys and dollsSnacks/food and drinkPersonal hygiene & toiletriesClothing and shoesStationeriesHousehold goods and applianceOthers*

12853

12712

533

10

37.515.537.2

3.5

1.50.90.9

2.9

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Product gender type

• 82 (24%) for boys

• 48 (14%) for girls

• 211 (61%) for both

• For neutral ads, 94 features both sexes, 90 features males only

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Ad orientation: trend

38

28

38

32

58

35

41

50

12

11

15

2

14

19

13

15

51

61

48

66

27

46

46

34

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

1987

1982

1974

1974

1973

1973

1971

50-60s

M char F char M& F

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Voice-over

• 69% use male voice(s)

• 6% use female voice(s)

• 24% no voice over

• 1% use male and female voices

• Commercials for gender-neutral products used male v-o or no v-o

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Voice-over: trend

55

56

90

79

69

45

44

10

21

31

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

1993

1982

1975

1973

50-60s

M F or none

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Central characters

307 out of 341commercials with CC

Altogether 593 CC coded

402 male CC (68%), 191 female CC (32%)

63 (11%) authoritative figures, (14%) male authoritative figure, 5% female authoritative figure

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Central characters: trend

56

61

64

63

68

63

68

44

39

36

37

32

37

32

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

1993

1987

1982

1981

1975

1974

50-60s

M F

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location

• All commercials: mainly home and outdoor

• Commercials for girls: mainly home and studio

• Commercials for boys: mainly studio and outdoor

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Reward type

• Mainly pleasure and practical

• Commercials for girls: pleasure (94%)

• Commercials for boys: pleasure (56%) and practical (40%)

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Discussion 50s-60s: Strong male dominance in terms of ad

orientation and composition of characters

50s-80s: male to female characters ratio kept at 2:1, more balanced in the early 90s

commercials in the 50s and 60s were gender-stereotyped

The slow in change of the gender-stereotype images Implication for advertisers: be more sensitive to the

gender portrayal

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Further research

A greater sample allowed to generalize the findings to all children’s TV commercials from the era

Interviewing advertisers and creative personnel

reasons for the change or lack of change in their gender-role orientation

their perceived gender roles of children