Content Analysis of Television Advertisements: The Indian Case (original) (raw)

Status of Women in Masculine Product Advertisements: A Study of Indian Commercials

Journal of Media & Social Development, 2014

In India, the majority of the people have a disposition to think that Mass media in any form may reflect the society. Advertising is possibly one of the most important and influential products of media. Ads are characterized by their persuasive nature specially TV commercials, which are regarded as the most effective mass market advertising format. Advertising acts as a critical agent of socialization in modern developed societies and is employed as a means to keep up certain social structures. Male oriented consumer goods such as shaving cream, men's deodorant and perfumes have women in them just to raise the charm of those advertisements to the viewing audience. Many times these models are scantily dressed and used to seduce men in buying a product. Furthermore, there is an inclination to show women as secondary to men, as decorative objects or as alluring sex objects. The aim of this study is to explore how the female models are portrayed in Masculine Product commercials with reference to television advertisements. The findings point out that female models are most often misrepresented and they are needless and unnecessarily portrayed in these commercials.

Being Man, Being Woman: Masculinity and Femininity as reinforced by advertisements PARVIN SULTANA

Advertisements have gone a long way from merely selling things. It reflects social attitudes as well. Advertising is a powerful medium of reproducing and reinforcing social values and ideologies. And gender does not escape it. In patriarchal societies, advertisements play a crucial role of reinforcing stereotypical gender roles. What an ideal women or an ideal man should be like is shown in the advertisements. It is also shown in what an ideal woman or an ideal man should not be like. While advertisements started with commodification and objectification of women, it moved on to objectifying men as well. However the objectification did not subvert gender roles. This paper will study such depiction of gender roles in advertisements in Indian media. While women's bodies are marked by fragility, vulnerability, sexuality, men's bodies are invested with values like power and authority.

Stereotyped Gender Ads in Hindi TV Channels: An Analysis

Advertisements use women as "objects" whereas men are promoted as superior, muscular, dominant and as having authority. There are few advertisements which aim at breaking the stereotype, but majority of the men's products mainly promote "manhood". Television being the most popular form of audiovisual media creates an impact on the people. This study highlights the advertisements appearing in Hindi entertainment television channels. Three channels have been studied for four months through constructed sampling to critically analyze the content of the advertisements which promote masculinity and underrate women. The data has been analyzed theoretically and critically using codes.

Masculinity and Men: A Critical Study on Hindi Television Commercials

Gender Inequality is prevalent in every sphere of our life and is a burning issue globally. The media harps on the issue and there have been significant changes yet many things remain unchanged and biasness can be witnessed almost everywhere. As far as showing women in advertisements is concerned, things seem to have only worsened over time. In most of the advertisements of recent times too, a woman is either washing clothes and utensils, cooking, serving food to family members or trying to make her husband feel better who's at that time reading a newspaper or suffering from cold. A woman does all this even when she's headache or backache. These advertisements arguably encourage sexism. They reinforce the old belief that a woman is supposed to forgo her own comfort and keep on doing household chores without getting tired. Television Advertisements are a persuasive form of communication which helps in setting trends and influences the taste and perceptions of people to a considerable extent. The advertisements pertaining to the host of men’s products from face wash to jeans depict a very stereotyped picture and uphold male supremacy. The man is exercising his masculinity and claims to regain his manhood after utilizing the services of these products. It is essential that there is a strict check to these commercials as it has profound influence upon the people. This study has analysed the commercials appearing in Hindi Television Channels namely- Aaj Tak, Set Max and Star Sports 3 over a period of 4 months- August, September, October, November 2015 and how the notions of masculinity, domination and gender biasness is depicted through them. This is a qualitative study wherein the advertisements have been analysed using specific codes.

Masculinity and Gender Stereotyped Commercials in Hindi News Channels- A Content Analysis

The portrayal of men and women in the television commercials is usually stereotyped. It causes adverse effects on achieving gender equality. The media being the “Fourth Estate” has substantial role to play in promoting gender equality. Our patriarchal society has laid down certain norms specifically on the basis of gender, which forms the gender identities. These gender identities increase manifold when it is portrayed through the media. Repeated portrayal of gender stereotyped messages creates hurdles and widens the gender disparity. Advertisements play a significant role in creating trends and conveying messages and shaping the masses about lifestyle, fashion, behavior, attitudes and help in building opinion. The study has been conducted on 2 Hindi news TV channels using specific codes through constructed sampling for 3 months. Cultivation Theory forms theoretical framework in the analysis. The study reveals the stereotypes reinforced through the selected commercials appearing in Hindi news TV channels during prime time.