A content analysis of gender-role stereotypes in television advertisements in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study examines the portrayal of female and male central characters in a sample of television advertisements in Hong Kong. The main research objective seeks to discover whether sex-role stereotypes exist in the present television commercials or not. Two hundred and eighty-seven advertisements were analyzed with six attributes: mode of presentation, credibility basis, role, location, age and economic status. It was found that men and women were depicted differently. Gender-role stereotypes were found among the six coding categories. The present study found that voice-overs were dominated by men while women were more likely to be presented visually. Females were associated more frequently with dependent roles and appeared more often at home. Moreover, female central figures were younger and more likely to have no economic status. On the other hand, these findings were compared with similar foreign and local studies of television advertisements. Moreover, the comparisons between gender-role stereotypes of different advertisement categories were made. Clear patterns were found among all 11 categories. Men were more likely to be voice-overs, they appeared in office more frequently, and they were associated more often with economic status. Women, on the other hand, were often depicted as having a dependent role at home. Most of them were younger and did on-screen central figures. Moreover, they were more likely to be users and always with an unidentified economic status.