Niklos Cousins
Dr. Lu Zheng
ADV3500
March 17, 2016
Review on Gender Role and Humor in Advertising
Gender Roles and Humor in Advertising: The Occurrence of Stereotyping in Humorous and Nonhumorous Advertising and Its Consequences for Advertising Effectiveness sheds light on the research done in regards to stereotypes and gender-role occurrence in advertising. The investigation of this study calls into account the effectiveness of humorous and non-humorous advertising with stereotypes and gender roles. The reaction from men and women are thought to be different when they are exposed to humorous advertisements as compared to non-humorous advertisements. The men are more prevalent in humorous stereotype advertisements. On the other hand, women were more prevalent in the non-humorous stereotype advertisements. The utilization of these non-traditional stereotyped advertisements that are humorous were effective in that they gave an improvement in the consumer’s attitude and mood. It appeared to be more effective than if it were attempted with tradition stereotyping.
The study found that women were more influenced by the humorous stereotyped advertisements than men. The reasoning behind this is because gender portrayals are more closely examined by women than by men. Since the 1950s, one of the most popular advertising topics has been gender-role stereotyping. It is a constant subject matter that is used in promoting items. The stereotypes used have a profound effect on societal values and can have great influence. This kind of influence can lead to positive but also negative effects. One main factor that is a big determinant of the effectiveness of the advertisement is the audience’s attitude. This can make the advertisement one that is very controversial or simply a fun, refreshing take on advertising.
Of all the previous studies that have been conducted, none of them have taken in account the humor aspect. Although humor seems to be a very prevalent aspect when creating a gender stereotyped advertisement, studies the humor’s effectiveness have not been investigated. However, the effectiveness of advertisements involving stereotypes have had many studies conducted. Gender role portrayals have been investigated as well and were conducted using content analyses. This study finally takes the humor and puts it into consideration.
The research objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of gender stereotypes that are placed in humorous and non-humorous advertisements. This will allow the researchers to determine whether or not the humor factor plays a large part in the effectiveness of the advertisement. The main questions that are sought in this study are, “Is gender stereotyping the same in humorous versus non-humorous ads? If not, how do humorous versus non-humorous ads differ with respect to stereotyping? Do humorous depictions of gender stereotyping in advertising influence advertising effectiveness, and does this influence depend on the gender of the audience members?” (Eisand 2014). Within this study, these questions should be able to be answered.
The results of this study are to report new findings that consider the effectiveness of these advertisements comparing humorous and non-humorous. This study has great significance in its findings. It revisits studies that have already been conducted. The difference in this study though, is that is takes an important factor into consideration, one that was forgotten in all previous studies conducted prior. This factor is a big determinant of the effectiveness of advertisements created using a gender stereotype focus in its message.
One of the key concepts presented in this study and one that is important to understand is gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes are beliefs that certain attributes, such as occupations or role behaviors, differentiate women and men (Ashmore and Del Boca 1981). This concept is one that needs to be understood thoroughly because there are many different variants of it. The advertisement creator needs to ensure that is respects both the masculine and feminine sides. They would not want to become unfavorable by one or the other because then the advertisement will not be successful.
A successful form of this type of advertising is seen in the use of non-traditional stereotypical depictions (Eisand 2014). This is because it is not in line with social norms. Instead, it defies them and has opposing depictions. For example, a commercial could involve a humorous storyline of a women coming home from a long day at work to her husband who has been home all day doing laundry and the dishes and taking care of the kids. In a majority of the cases, it would be the husband coming home from work and the wife doing all the household jobs. In-home depictions of men doing “women” things and women doing “men” things are amusing to many audiences and can result in very successful advertisements.
This study has led to some interesting research questions that can be taken a look at: Is gender stereotyping the same in humorous versus non-humorous ads? If not, how do humorous versus non-humorous ads differ with respect to stereotyping? Do humorous depictions of gender stereotyping in advertising influence advertising effectiveness, and does this influence depend on the gender of the audience members?” (Eisand 2014) Researchers came to a conclusion that integrating a humorous feeling to the advertisements made the consumers in a happier, more positive mood. This can point to the idea that humorous advertisements can be more effective than non-humorous.
Is there a difference in the way women and men are stereotyped between humorous and non-humorous advertising? (Eisand 2014). Many of the successful advertisements that women and men are stereotyped are in non-traditional forms. This was found to be more humorous and light-hearted. In traditional forms of this advertising, stereotyped representations of women and men could have been taken more serious can may have had a negative effect. It could have offended some of the consumers that are exposed to the advertisement. They might already have an issue with some of the stereotyped problems, and it that is pushed even more to try and represent or sell something, then that may lose the consumers interest.
The research method used in this study involved a stimulus and pretests. There were a total of four stimulus print advertisements that were used for the experiment. Two of the advertisements involved humorous and non humorous depictions. The other two involved traditional and non-traditional stereotyping. The researchers used an advertisement design used by a well-known brand, IKEA, and involved one of the couches that they offer for sale. A summary of what the four different stimulus print ads involve is as follows:
“The tested ads depict a couple in a living room. In each ad, one character is cleaning the room, whereas the other partner is relaxing. The stereotype manipulation was achieved by having either the woman cleaning and the man relaxing (traditional stereotypes) or the opposite phenomenon (nontraditional stereotyping). Humor was manipulated by providing different depictions of the cleaning behavior of the central figure in each ad and by adding a headline to each of the humorous ads. In the non-humorous condition, no headline was added and the character that cleans the room is depicted by holding a feather duster. In the humorous condition, the character that is cleaning the room is depicted with a vacuum cleaner. While she or he is vacuuming the room, she or he is lifting the couch on which the other character is relaxing. The headline for both humorous ads reads: “Life is brilliant—only your old furniture sucks?” (Eisand 2014).
There was a total of 196 participants in the study, which was conducted online. 67.9% of the participants were female with an average age of 25.7. There was an equal distribution in the four different advertisement depictions so even though the sample sizes of each gender was unequal the findings were not effected. The participants were exposed to all four advertisements and then reported their attitudes to each on scales. To ensure the manipulations, the participants in the study were given the same questions in the end as they did in the pretest in order to see if the attitudes had changed after being exposed to the advertisement.
After the tests were conclude, the results were compiled. “We found that a main effect of the humorous as on the participants’ perceptions of the humorousness of the ad that they viewed, indicating that the attempts to introduce humor into the ad significantly enhanced these perceptions of humorousness” (Eisand 2014). In short, the results showed that the effect of humor caused a positive reaction to the participants. The interaction between humor and nontraditional and traditional stereotyping showed a positive effect. The effect of humor and nontraditional was even more positive among the participants. The effect was higher for women than it was for men.
Works Cited
Antigone G. Kyrousi, George G. Panigyrakis & Anastasios P. Panopoulos, (2016) Attitudes toward ads portraying women in decorative roles and female competition: an evolutionary psychology perspective. International Journal of Advertising.
Eisand, Martin, Julia Plagemann, and Julia Sollwedel. "Gender Roles and Humor in Advertising: The Occurrence of Stereotyping in Humorous and Nonhumorous Advertising and Its Consequences for Advertising Effectiveness." – Journal of Advertising. N.p., 8 Aug. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
Kyounghee Chu, Doo-Hee Lee & Ji Yoon Kim, (2016) The effect of non-stereotypical gender role advertising on consumer evaluation. International Journal of Advertising 35:1, pages 106-134.
Nicole Hartnett, Rachel Kennedy, Byron Sharp & Luke Greenacre, (2016) Creative That Sells: How Advertising Execution Affects Sales. Journal of Advertising 45:1, pages 102-112.
Marc G. Weinberger, Charles S. Gulas & Michelle F. Weinberger, (2015) Looking in through outdoor: a socio-cultural and historical perspective on the evolution of advertising humour. International Journal of Advertising 34:3, pages 447-472.