How do People view the Portrayal of Women in Advertising

 

Title

            The proposed title for the proposal is “How do People view the Portrayal of Women in Advertising”. This paper will show the different approaches, methods and instruments to be used in order to achieve the proposed aims and objectives of the study.

Background of the Study/Literature Review

            The study regarding the portrayals of women in advertisement began with the systematic counting and coding of women in the print media, then towards the television advertisements. According to the analysis of Courtney and Lockeretz (1971), in the US advertisements, women portrayal in advertisement focus on their homes, fully dependent on men and considered as sexual objects by men. The study of Dominick and Rauch (1972, 264) categorized the advertisements of women based on their occupation. The result showed that women are commonly depicted as sex objects, wives and mother, but rarely professionals. Thus, it shows that women are less knowledgeable than men.

            However, these stereotypes have changed as time goes by. Currently, women are considered as equal as men. Thus, many advertisements, even those products by men are commonly portrayed by women in many advertisements. Many advertisements of today showcases women in professional field, thus, showing that they are equally knowledgeable and powerful as men.

 

 

 

 

 

Aims and Objectives

            The main purpose of the study is to analyze how people view the portrayal of women in different advertisements. In line with this, the following are the specific objectives of the study:

·                     To evaluate the perspectives of the people regarding the portrayal of women in different advertisements;

·                     To assess the reasons behind the media in using women in portraying different advertisements;

·                     To appraise the impact and the influence of the women in advertisement in influencing the behaviors of the consumers, compare to other advertisements portrayed by other gender or objects.

Problem Statement

            Currently, many advertisements are being portrayed by women. Women are being showed as equally powerful and knowledgeable as men. However, it is important to focus on the impact of women portrayal in advertisements, at the same time, study the main reasons behind the effectiveness of portrayal of women in advertisements, and what are the factors of women, which influence the behavior and perspectives of the consumers regarding the products being advertised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Methodology

The research study to be used in the proposed study will be descriptive method. According to Creswell (1994) it intends to present facts about the nature and status of a situation as it exists at the time of the study. In addition, it also concerns with the relationships and practices that exist, beliefs and processes that are ongoing, effects that are being felt or trends that are developing (Best 1970).

Data Collection

Surveys will be implemented in the study. Surveys are the most common form of research method for collection of primary data (Commonwealth of Learning, 2000). One of its purpose is to describe, e.g., to count the frequency of some event or to assess the distribution of some variables such as proportion of the population of different age groups, sex, religion, castes and languages, knowledge, attitude and adaption of practices about particular issues, and other information of similar nature about the population (Commonwealth of Learning, 2000).

            Survey questionnaire will be used in order to gather primary information. While secondary data will be gathered from past literatures and studies as well as theories found in textbooks and journals from EMERALD, SCIENCE DIRECT, EBSCO, QUESTIA and GOOGLE BOOK.

            The questionnaire will focus on measuring the effectiveness of women in advertisements. In addition, the researcher will also compare the effectiveness of an advertisement by showing the same products with three different advertisers: women, men and other objects.

 

 

 

Sampling Population

            The population will be consisted of 2 groups. The first group will be consisted of consumers of different age and genders. They will be selected by convenience sampling. Because there are some content which will not be appropriate for younger respondents, the age of the samples will be limited to 18 and above. The other population will be consists of media practitioners, particularly those who belong to Media or advertisement agencies.

 

References

Best, J. W. (1970). Research in Education, 2nd Ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Commonwealth of Learning. (2000). Manual for Educational Media           Researchers: Knowing your Audience. Vancouver, Canada:   Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA).

Courtney, A. E. and Lockeretz, S. W. (1971). ‘A women’s place: an analysis of the roles portrayed by women in magazine advertisements’. Journal of Marketing Res. 8 (1), 92 – 105.

Creswell, J.W. (1994). Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Dominick, J.R. and Rauch, G. E. (1972). ‘The image of women in network television commercials’. Journal of Broadcasting. 16(3), 259 – 265.

 

 

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