Scandinavian Journal of Psychology

Personality and Social Sciences

The portrayal of men and women in television advertisements:

An updated review of 30 studies published since 2000

ADRIAN FURNHAM and STEPHANIE PALTZER

University College London, UK

Furnham, A. & Paltzer, S. (2010). The portrayal of men and women in television advertisements: An updated review of 30 studies published since2000. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 216–236.

In 1999, Furnham and Mak published a review of 14 content-analytic studies of sex roles stereotyping in television commercials. All these studies werebased on the McArthur and Resko (1975) content categories. This paper updates that review considering 30 studies in over 20 countries published between2000 and 2008. Studies were from Australasia, Austria, Bulgaria, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Poland,Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. They exam-ined over 8,000 advertisements. National and cultural differences in gender stereotypes are also considered in the light of this data. The popularity of, andthe problems associated with, the research paradigm are considered.

Key words: Sex roles, television, advertisements, commercials.

Professor Adrian Furnham, Department of Psychology, UCL, 26 Bedford Way, WC1 0AP London, UK. Tel: +44 207 679 5395; fax: +44 436 4276;e-mail: [email protected]

INTRODUCTION

Concern with how people are portrayed in the media has existed

since the beginning of all popular media, particularly the elec-

tronic media. Various groups have been particularly concerned

about how people from different age, ethnic, gender and profes-

sional groups are shown in possibly unrepresentative or stereotyp-

ical roles (Bollinger, 2008; Hazell & Clarke, 2007; Nina-Pazarzi

& Tsangaris, 2008).

Perhaps the area that has attracted most research attention has

been the portrayal of men and women in television commercials

(Kaufman, 1999). Although there were a number of early studies

it was not until the late 1970s that good empirical studies, primar-

ily content analytic studies, began to emerge (Dominick & Rauch,

1972; O’Donnell & O’Donnell, 1978; Schneider & Schneider,

1979). Various researchers began to review these studies at vari-

ous points (Bretl & Cantor, 1988; Lovdal, 1989). Further, some

have even attempted updates of studies in particular countries

(First, 1998).

One study done over 30 years ago was to inspire many

researchers to replicate it. McArthur and Resko (1975) published

a study analyzing American television commercials of the time.

What the study did do so successfully was suggest a number of

coding categories for the central role person (being either male or

female) in the commercial. For instance, one way how the actor

established his/her credibility: was it as an authority, expert or sci-

entist, or as a happy and contented user? The coding categories

devised for the content analysis in this paper formed the basis of

nearly all subsequent research and this modest study has 70 cita-

tions since its publication to the present day.

Not long after the study was published the essential methodol-

ogy of the study was replicated in other countries (Manstead &

McCulloch, 1981). Soon thereafter researchers were doing cross-

cultural comparisons (Gilly, 1988), all using the original coding

scheme or minor modifications of it.

By the end of the millennium 14 essentially replicative studies

had been published looking at sex-stereotyping in television

commercials in 11 countries. These formed the basis of the

review by Furnham and Mak (1999) which is already a highly

cited paper. This paper extends that review looking at studies

published over the next decade, since the start of the millen-

nium. Indeed rather than slow down there has been an accelera-

tion of studies in this area using the same or very similar

methodology.

Part of the fascination of the research is to do cross-cultural, as

well as, across-time comparisons. Based on a range of theoreti-

cally inspired differences, most researchers hypothesize which,

what and why gender-role stereotypes should exist in the data set

they examine and why they should be either similar to, or differ-

ent from, studies done in different countries.

However, Furnham and Mak (1999) pointed out three problems

with comparing the results from different countries or indeed the

same country over time. The first was channel equivalence based

on funding, viewing figures, target audience, and philosophy.

Most countries have a range of different local and international

channels and the question is whether they are in any way equiv-

alent in different studies. This begs the question as to whether

different commercial channels would have advertisements for dif-

ferent products that would portray gender differently. Certainly

different channels are aimed at different audiences and therefore

may advertise different products. But it remains unclear as to

whether there tend to be cross-channel national differences in the

way gender is portrayed.

The second involves commercial sample equivalence. Commer-

cials change as a function of time-of-day, product-specificity and

legal constraints. Products aimed at school children versus home-

makers versus sports people are inevitably very different. Thus

cross-national or cross-temporal differences could easily be a

function of non-channel, or non-product, equivalence rather than

an actual difference. Unless some attempt is made to ensure

� 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2010 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. ISSN 0036-5564.

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2010, 51, 216–236 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00772.x

reasonable equivalence particularly in terms of product, compari-

sons are essentially meaningless. Third, there is the issue of con-

tent-equivalence. Inevitably researchers have altered, extended

and modified McArthur and Resko’s original categories. This is

both to be expected and welcomed but leads to problems of com-

parison. Indeed it is a testament to the original coding scheme that

the categories have changed so little. Some studies use only select

categories (Nassif & Gunter, 2008) while others have added cate-

gories (Furnham & Saar, 2005). Some additional categories

include verbal issues like humor (Furnham, Gunter & Walsh,

1998).

Furnham and Mak (1999) found evidence of cross- similarity in

terms of stereotyping on such categories as credibility, age and

argument-made while others like location showed much greater

variety. By and large, sex-role stereotyping was more prevalent

the more traditional the country in terms of social and religious

values.

Since the turn of the millennium researchers in countries as

diverse as Serbia, Singapore, and Spain have continued this tradi-

tion. Some have content-analyzed as many as 878 local commer-

cials (Kim & Lowry, 2005) while others have looked at as few as

48 (Furnham & Saar, 2005). Usually numbers are around 100–

200 non-overlapping advertisements. Most examined commercials

on just one channel, others have looked at as many as six (Uray &

Burnaz, 2003). Most have examined evening prime-time tele-

vision while others have sampled from different times of day

(Skoric & Furnham, 2002).

This paper attempts a comprehensive and critical review of the

area. The paper compares the data from 30 studies published in

2000–8. Sometimes different studies from the same countries (i.e.

Japan and Spain) are reported, which allows for internal compari-

son. The appendix tables show in detail where there are differ-

ences on the content categories.

In order to bring some sort of classification to this data the stud-

ies analyzed were classified under five continents. It may be possi-

ble, albeit crudely, to classify the continents thus; America,

Europe and Australasia are essentially first world, continents dom-

inated by individualistic values and sensitive to sexual inequality

(Schwartz, 1991). Asia has a wider variety of countries most of

which are second world economically and have collectivistic val-

ues (Hofstede, 1980). African countries on the other hand tend to

be third world and conservative in the way the sexes are treated.

The various categories will be considered one at a time and some

inferences and comparisons made.

RESULTS

Mode of presentation

This refers to whether the actors are seen or heard or both.

Asia: There is a clear trend in countries in Asia regarding mode

of presentation. Throughout all studies that looked at mode of pre-

sentation in Asia, men were more likely to be voice-overs while

women were presented visually. Through the years the results

have remained relatively stable. Bresnahan, Inoue, Liu, and Nish-

ida (2001) found Malaysia and Taiwan to have the same results

with 81% of males and 19% of females being voice-overs, as well

as Japan with 68% of males and 32% of females as voice-overs.

Most studies since then have found results similar with male

characters being voice-overs around 70% of the time and female

characters only around 30% of the time. However, the most recent

study in Korea, in 2005, found 20.5% of male characters and

9.8% of female characters as voice-overs, while there is still a

difference between the two; this is a much lower figure for both,

especially males.

Europe: There is still a trend for mode of presentation in Europe

as well, however, it is not as prominent as in Asia. Males are still

more likely to be voice-overs, but there is not such a large differ-

ence between males and females, although the difference is still

significant. Ahlstrand (2007) found similar results in Austria to

those in Asia with 70.6% of males and 22.9% of females as

voice-overs. Ibroscheva (2007) found unusual results with only

21.6% of males but 0% of females doing voice-overs. Skoric and

Furnham (2002) found high prevalence of voice-overs for both

sexes in Serbia, with 81% of males and 71.4% of females doing

them. Studies in Turkey (Uray & Burnaz, 2003) and Poland found

that advertisements were much more equal between males and

females for voice-over. Uray and Burnaz (2003) show only a

small difference between males (58.8%) and females (52.6%).

There seems evidence of an east-west split with fewer sex differ-

ences in the east.

Australasia: In New Zealand (Furnham & Farragher, 2000),

women are a little more likely than males to be presented visually

(47.4 vs. 41.2%).

Africa: In Mauritius, approximately two-thirds of females

(67.9%) are presented visually while 47.1% of males are pre-

sented in this context. In South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bow-

dage, 2002), a larger difference in portrayal exists where 52.1% of

males were voice-overs while only 2.6% of females have provided

voice-overs.

There seems general agreement across all cultures that men are

generally more likely to provide voice-overs and females continue

to be presented visually more often than men. Often women’s

voices are used for clarity (speaking clock, public announcements)

so it is not for this reason that men are more likely to be chosen

for ‘‘speaking roles’’. It is young, attractive women that appear

more often in advertisements with mature men doing the authori-

tative voice over.

End comments

This refers to the presence or absence of final summary comments

at the end of the advertisements.

Europe: There were no significant results found in either Serbia

or Turkey. Poland (Furnham & Saar, 2005) showed a significant

difference where 42.1% of men presented an end comment while

80.6% of women did not.

Asia: In Hong Kong (Furnham & Chan, 2003) English advertise-

ments, women were more likely to make end comments than men

(76.7 vs. 68.6%) while end comments were present in 100% of

Chinese Hong Kong advertisements, with both male and female

Scand J Psychol 51 (2010) TV commercial sex roles stereotyping 217

� 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2010 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

central figures. However, Japan found men more likely to make

end comments (55%) than women (40%).

Australasia: In New Zealand, most central figures did not make

end comments, 80% of men did not make an end comment but

women were still less likely to make an end comment, with com-

ments absent 94.7% of the time.

Africa: Both studies in South Africa and Mauritius showed the

majority of central figures, both males and females, presenting

end comments. However, there was a difference between men and

women. For men, the figure was around 80% for both studies,

while it was lower for females at around 60%.

End comments do not seem particularly sex-linked despite the

evidence of the recency effect. That is, there is considerable evi-

dence from experimental psychology that order of presentation of

material effects memory for that material (Furnham, 1986). How-

ever, the fact the advertisements are so short (often being under

one minute long) and containing so little that is very informative

that less attention is paid to the end comment.

Credibility

This seems a most important dimension to the advertisements,

namely the credibility, and equally the credulity, of male and

female users and experts in advertisements.

Europe: Most countries in Europe have shown women primarily

as the user of the product advertised. In Sweden (Milner & Col-

lins, 2000), 80% of women were portrayed as the user. Poland

and Bulgaria also showed similar results with around 80% of

females in each study as product users. However, men in each of

these studies (Poland, Bulgaria, and Sweden) are equally as likely

to either be an authority or a product user. For example, 42.9% of

men are portrayed as the user while 38.1% of men are portrayed

as an authority figure. Surprisingly, Russia (Milner & Collins,

2000) was the only study to show men (92.9%) more often than

women as the user (90%).

Asia: In Singapore (Lee, 2003), men were actually more likely to

be the product user in both daytime (85.6%) and primetime

(54.5%) advertisements when compared to women (33.3% for

daytime and 45.7% for primetime). Hong Kong (Furnham &

Chan, 2003) showed a much larger proportion of women as an

authority figure (73.3%/48.3%) than most other countries in Asia.

Other studies such as the one in Korea (Kim & Lowry, 2005)

found smaller differences between men and women with regard to

credibility when compared to other areas of the world. As an

authority figure, 26.2% of men and 14.2% of women were por-

trayed in this role.

Australasia: New Zealand (Furnham & Farragher, 2000) por-

trayed men and women relatively equally as the authority (19.6%

of males vs. 15.8% of females) and males (74.5%) were actually

portrayed more often than women (63.2%) as the product user. In

Australasia (Milner and Higgs, 2004), the same was seen in

authority (52.6% of males vs. 47.4% of females) yet women

(64.1%) were more commonly portrayed as the product user than

men (49.2%).

Africa: Furnham and Spencer-Bowdage (2002) found a large dif-

ference between men and women in South Africa. Women were

seen 82.1% of the time as a user, compared to 29.2% of men.

Men were also most likely to be an authority (41.7%), while

women were rarely seen as the authority (7.1%).

America: Milner and Collins (2000) found nearly equal difference

for men with 49.2% as a product user and 50.8% as authority

while women (64.1%) were more likely to be the user than an

authority (35.7%).

Overall these results suggest that generally, other than three

studies across the world, in most countries analyzed, women were

by far more likely to be a user of the product advertised and men

far more likely to be portrayed as an authority. This does vary as a

function of product category where the advertised product is

clearly aimed at one gender or the other. Nevertheless both

women’s products and gender neutral products seem often to have

males portrayed as wise, scientists or knowledgeable experts and

females as happy, grateful and contented users of those products.

Role

This focuses on whether the central figure is more in a profes-

sional and advisory or a dependent consumer role.

Europe: Bulgarian and Polish data suggested a large difference in

autonomous and dependent/familial roles between men and

women. In Bulgaria (Ibroscheva, 2007), 83.8% of males were in

the autonomous role while 45.6% of females were in dependent

roles. Poland (Furnham & Saar, 2005) showed 57.9% of males in

autonomous roles and 48.4% of females in familial roles. Most

other countries (Austria, Serbia, Spain, and Turkey) did not find

very significant differences between men and women in specific

roles. Serbia actually had a high proportion of both men (91.9%)

and women (85.7%) in the role of interviewer/narrator.

Asia: In both English and Chinese advertisements in Hong

Kong (Furnham & Chan, 2003) women (30% and 37.9%) were

shown a higher proportion of the time in a ‘‘professional/other’’

type of role, when compared to men (19.6% and 9.1%). All

other studies showed more men in autonomous roles such as

interviewer/narrator and professional and women in more depen-

dent roles. In Japan (Furnham & Imadzu, 2002), 56.8% of

females were in dependent roles while 42% of men were an

interviewer/narrator. In Singapore (Lee, 2003) only 5.7% of

women were professionals, compared to 36.4% of men, and the

majority of women (65.7%) portrayed were celebrities, almost

double that of men (36.4%).

Australasia: In New Zealand (Furnham & Farragher, 2000)

70.5% of men were portrayed in an autonomous role while 42.1%

of women were portrayed in familial roles.

Africa: Females in South Africa and Mauritius were most often

portrayed in a dependent role (60.7% in Mauritius and 78.6% in

South Africa). Men were most often in an interviewer/narrator

role (around 50% in both studies). While men (35.3%) were com-

monly portrayed in professional roles in Mauritius, women were

not portrayed in this role at all.

218 A. Furnham and S. Paltzer Scand J Psychol 51 (2010)


Over the years the role categories have expanded to try and

encompass all those of the people in the advertisements. While

the studies had different categories for role, the majority of studies

agreed with one another in the type of role men and women held

in advertisements. The autonomous or interviewer/narrator/profes-

sional role was typically a role that men had in advertisements

while women were often in the dependent purchaser, customer

role. Some studies, however, (such as Turkey) divided the roles

up into even more categories (i.e. sex object). This may be evi-

dence of researchers trying to pick up more subtle nuances in the

advertisements they content analyze. While this may be very help-

ful it does mean that it is more difficult to compare and contrast

studies of sex role on television.

Age

The issue of age and agism has emerged recently in Western soci-

eties with large aging populations. Sensitivity to how age is por-

trayed has appeared more widely. Usually researchers group the

central character into three groups: under 30 years, 31–50, and

over 50 but this does change from study to study and what label

is given to each group.

Europe: All content analytic studies from Europe showed signifi-

cant differences between age groups. Women were most com-

monly in the youngest age group. In Russia (Milner & Collins,

2000), 81.6% of females were young (four times the amount of

women who were middle-aged). This was also seen in Turkey,

Sweden, Poland, Bulgaria, and Austria where at least 60% of

women in each study were young and at least double the amount

of women in any other age group. In Austria (Ahlstrand, 2007),

64.1% of men were middle-aged, double the amount of women in

the age group. In both Serbia and Russia, there were no men or

women representing the old age group, while most other countries

showed around 5% of the sample in that group.

Asia: Again, women are always seen most often in the young

age group. This number is usually at least 50% of advertisements

with women, with only Furnham and Chan (2003) finding 33.3%

of women in this age group in English advertisements in Hong

Kong. All studies showed men in the middle-aged group at least

50% of the time as well. The highest was also seen in English

advertisements in Hong Kong with 84.3%.

Australasia: In New Zealand (Furnham & Farragher, 2000)

women were more commonly portrayed as young (55.3%) while

men were often portrayed as middle-aged (56.9%). Milner and Hi-

ggs (2004) found a higher proportion of women (39.3%) than men

(22.7%) in the middle-aged group which was not seen in any other

studies. However, this was still not as high of a percentage for

either males or females as the young group (over 50% for both).

Africa: South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002) found

70.4% of women (more than three times the amount of women in

the middle-aged group) and 47.8% of men in the young age

group.

America: The highest proportion of both males and females in the

United States (Milner & Collins, 2000) is seen in the youngest

age category with 49.4% of males and 63.6% of females in this

age group. For men there is not a large difference between young

and middle-aged since 42.1% of men are in the middle-aged

group, yet only 30.8% of women are in this group (half of the

amount in the young group).

Interestingly only one study, done in Australasia, has shown

males and females similar to one another in terms of age category.

Even though they still have a large proportion of ‘‘young’’ central

figures, they have a much more equal proportion of central figures

between genders (between 50 and 60% each). Two studies

grouped middle-aged and old together, Bulgaria and Korea. This

presents a problem for between study comparisons because age

judgments have to be estimated. Further the terms young (under

30) or old (over 50) may be seen as inaccurate, insensitive or even

derogatory. Again, age of the actor is no doubt related to the prod-

uct or service being advertised. However, in keeping with the sex-

ual stereotype of the young attractive consumer and the wise

avuncular expert there remains strong evidence and age differ-

ences in the central role of television advertisement characters.

Argument

This category refers to the central issue of the rationale for the

advertisements: the argument, implicit or explicit as to why the con-

sumer should select and purchase the brand of product or service.

Europe: In Poland (Furnham & Saar, 2005), the majority of

males (42.1%) and females (67.7%) did not present an argument.

When it was presented they were more likely to present both fac-

tual and opinion arguments. Turkey (Uray & Burnaz, 2003)

showed similar results in that 60.7% of women and 56.2% of men

did not present an argument. In Serbia (Skoric & Furnham, 2002),

67.6% of men presented factual arguments while 57.1% of

women presented ‘‘opinion arguments’’. Surprisingly, men in Ser-

bia were more likely than women to be depicted with social/self-

enhancement rewards (13.5 vs. 3.3%). Serbia was also the only

European country where men were depicted with more practical

rewards than women (48.6 vs. 32.2%).

Asia: Studies in Asia found different results from one another.

Furnham and Imadzu (2002) found that men (40%) in Japan were

more likely than women (26.5%) to offer a factual argument while

the majority of women (30.9%) offered an opinion argument. In

Chinese advertisements in Hong Kong (Furnham & Chan, 2003),

women were just as likely to give a factual (51.7%) versus opin-

ion (48.3%) argument but men (65.9%) were more likely to give

an opinion argument.

Australasia: Furnham and Farragher (2000) found in New Zea-

land that it is most common not to make an argument at all, with

both males (62.7%) and females (86.8%). Men were more likely

than women to offer any sort of argument.

Africa: In South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002)

men were more likely to offer a factual argument (39.6%) while

women (78.6%) are more likely to not make an argument at all. In

Mauritius (Furnham & Hussain, 2009) men were just as likely to

offer a factual or opinion argument but women (60.7%) were

more likely to offer an opinion argument.



In all the studies that had the option of ‘‘none’’ for argument

type, women were more likely than men to not even present an

argument (reason) for choosing the product. This suggests that

women, in such advertisements as those for body products and

clothing, are more likely to only be shown as ‘‘models’’ than

men are. There were only nine studies that analyzed argument

type in the advertisements. Across countries, factual arguments

are most commonly presented by men. Six of the nine studies

showed males with higher proportions of factual arguments, two

showed about the same proportion between men and women, and

only one study of Chinese advertisements in Hong Kong found

the opposite with females presenting a higher proportion of fac-

tual arguments than men. There was a difference, however, when

it came to ‘‘opinion’’ arguments. This is not so much an argu-

ment as to give a person opinion that is favorable to the brand.

Of the nine studies; five of them found that men had a higher

proportion of opinion arguments, one found that men and women

showed the same proportion, and three found that women pre-

sented more opinion-based arguments. Studies in Mauritius,

Serbia, and Japan found that women presented more opinion

arguments while studies in New Zealand, Poland, South Africa,

Turkey, and Hong Kong found that men present a higher propor-

tion than women.

Reward type

This category speaks to the way in which the advertisement pro-

vides a specific portrayal of what sort of rewards are to be

obtained from purchasing that brand.

Europe: The most common reward type for women in Poland

was social/self-enhancement (37.7%), almost nearly double the

amount of men portrayed with this reward type. The same was

seen in Turkey with 44.4% of women and only 16.1% of men

with social/self-enhancement rewards. In Serbia, women were

most portrayed with practical rewards (65.8%) while men were

portrayed with pleasure rewards (45.9%).

Asia: In Hong Kong, women were more likely to be associated

with practical rewards (33.3% for English and 41.4% for Chinese)

than men (23.5 for English and 29.5% for Chinese). Men were

only more likely to be associated with pleasure rewards in Chi-

nese advertisements (56.8%). In Japan (Furnham & Imadzu,

2002), women were depicted with social/self-enhancement

rewards more than men (30.97 vs. 23.5%).

Australasia: In New Zealand, there was not a difference seen in

any categories of reward type. Men and women were as likely to

be associated with practical (13.7 vs. 13.2%) and pleasurable

(29.4 vs. 31.6%) rewards.

Africa: Furnham and Spencer-Bowdage (2002) showed that

women in South Africa were portrayed more with social/self-

enhancement rewards (53.6%) while men were portrayed most

with practical rewards (29.2%). In Mauritius (Furnham & Huss-

ain, 2009), women were most often associated with practical

rewards (46.4%) while men were most associated with pleasurable

rewards (70.6%, more than double the 28.6% of women with

pleasurable rewards).

Results suggest that more often, the reward type that women

advertised was under the category of ‘‘social/self enhancement.’’

This speaks to the fulfilling of self-esteem needs. The idea is that

the product brings benefits to the way people feel more confident

when having the product or using the service. Further, others rec-

ognize this brings social rewards of acceptance and recognition.

This was found in seven of the ten studies. Only two studies were

similar for both males and females and only Bulgaria presented

males advertising social/self enhancement reward more than

women. It is generally equal between male and female central fig-

ures for pleasure reward type; however, there are a few studies

that have found differences between proportions of males and

females where the reward type is pleasure.

Product type

This presents a particular problem for researchers as the number

of products and services advertised is very great indeed. Content

analyses have to try to find categories which may be very broad

or narrow. Further legislation, cultural tradition and availability

means that there are large differences in what is advertised, when,

and to whom. It is possible to very crudely devise products

broadly aimed at women, those aimed at men and those neutral.

Europe: The only significant difference in Spain (Valls-Fernandez

& Martinez-Vicente, 2007) was seen in body products with

women shown more (41.9%) than men (25.1%). Royo-Vela,

Aldas-Manzano, Kuster & Vila, 2008) also did not find significant

results in most categories. Body products were also seen three

times as much with women (31.4%) as with men (12.0%) in Aus-

tria. Results in Bulgaria show that men were more commonly seen

with ‘‘away (not used at home)’’ products (16.2 vs. 3.3%). Uray

and Burnaz’s (2003) results revealed that women were twice as

likely to advertise body products (30.4 vs. 15.1%), while men

were almost twice as likely to advertise food products (17.1 vs.

8.9%). In Serbia, women were much more frequently portrayed

with home products (20%) than men (1.3%). In Poland, like the

rest of Europe, men were often advertising food products (36.8%)

when compared to women (22.6%), while women were three

times more likely to be shown with body products (29%) than

men (10.5%).

Asia: In Japan (Furnham & Imadzu, 2002), the only difference

was seen in the home category where 19.35% of women and 9%

of men advertised home products. Men and women were just as

likely to advertise body products and it was the most common

product advertised for both sex (28% of males and 30.97% of

females). There was a difference between English and Chinese

advertisements in Hong Kong. In English advertisements, men

were equally likely to advertise body products (7.8 vs. 6.7%)

while in Chinese advertisements women advertised body products

more than double that of men (24.1 vs. 11.4%). Men were less

likely to advertise food products (9.8 vs. 16.7%) in English but

were more likely to advertise them in Chinese (52.3 vs. 41.4%).

In Singapore, there were no men that advertised domestic prod-

ucts and there were also no women who advertised auto/sport

products, compared to 18.2% of men. In daytime advertisements

in Singapore, 14% of men advertised body products, but 0% did



so in primetime advertisements, compared to around 25% of

women which remained steady.

Africa: In South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002),

42.9% of females advertised body products, more than four times

that of men (10.4%). Men were three times more likely to adver-

tise financial and other services (29.2 vs. 10.7%). In Mauritius,

the difference was even higher for services with 41.2% of men

and 0% of women. Women advertised home and body products

over 50% of the time while men advertised these products less

than 6% of the time, with zero body product advertisements. A

new category, finance and real estate, was also advertised by

17.6% of men and 0% of women.

Australasia: Men were more likely to advertise auto/sport prod-

ucts (21.6%) when compared to women (0%) and women were

more likely to advertise body products (23.7 vs. 13.7%). How-

ever, food was the most common product advertised by both men

and women (31.4 and 31.6%).

America: Bresnahan et al. (2001) found the most common prod-

ucts advertised by men were food (32%) while women advertised

health (27%) products the most.

The most prominent gender difference in type of product adver-

tised with the central characters as either male or female came in

the ‘‘body’’ category. Most studies had at least a 15% difference

between males and females. There was only one study done that

did not find a difference between men and women and that was

done in Hong Kong.

Many studies added different types of products making compar-

isons difficult, yet it is possible to conclude the self-evident point:

that the sex of the central role of the character reflects the gender-

linked nature of the product. The body, home and food products

have more females while car, sport and alcohol products have

more males in the central role.

Background

This refers to the social and physical setting of the advertisement.

It nearly always refers to the other (often non-speaking) people in

the background being predominantly males, females or children.

Europe: In Poland, no men were shown with children in the back-

ground, compared to 9.7% of women. There were only 7.1% of

men but 20.9% of women with children backgrounds in Serbia as

well. Other types of backgrounds showed different results depend-

ing on the country. With mixed backgrounds, males were more

likely to be depicted in them in Poland (36.8 vs. 22.6%) while, in

Serbia, females were more likely to be depicted with a mixed

background (40 vs. 24.35%). In Turkey, males were more likely

to be seen with male backgrounds (41.1 vs. 17.9%). The opposite

was found in Poland where more females (9.7%) than males (0%)

were depicted with a male background.

Asia: In Korea, men were seen more often in mixed (17.5%) and

mostly male (29.4%) backgrounds, while women were seen more

with mostly children backgrounds (14.8 vs. 4.1%). Studies in

Japan and Hong Kong (Chinese only) actually found men more

likely to be seen with children in the background than women (7

vs. 4.52% in Japan and 11.4 vs. 3.4% in China). In both English

and Chinese advertisements in Hong Kong, 0% of women were

shown with a mostly male background while 20–25% of men

were shown in this type of background.

Australasia: The study in New Zealand showed women most

with a male background (28.9%) and also were more likely than

men to have a mixed background (18.4 vs. 9.8%). Men were also

more likely than women to be seen in a female background (17.6

vs. 5.3%).

Africa: In Mauritius, men were most commonly seen in a male

background (29.4%) while 0% of women were portrayed in a

male background. There were no men shown with a background

of children while 17.9% of women had children in the back-

ground. In South Africa, the opposite was found with male back-

ground, 28.6% of females were presented with a male

background, compared to only 6.3% of males.

The majority of central characters, around 40–50%, in most

studies still were not shown with anyone in the background.

There is large variation in whether male and female central fig-

ures are shown with either mostly male or female background

characters. However, there was a clear distinction with regard

to children in the advertisement background. Men were rarely

shown with children in the background and two studies from

Mauritius and Poland did not find any advertisements that

showed the male central figure with children while women

were shown 10–20% of the time with children in the back-

ground.

Location

Location refers much more specifically to the physical environ-

ment in which the advertisement is shot. This can be a home and

work setting, outside pursuing leisure activities, etc.

Europe: In Serbia and Austria there were not any significant dif-

ferences. However, in Serbia, both males (87.8%) and females

(82.9%) were presented in ‘‘leisure settings’’. This was a much

higher proportion than all other studies. The largest difference in

Europe occurred in Poland where 41.9% of women were in pri-

vate residences while 52.6% of men were in leisure settings. In

Spain (Valls-Fernandez & Martinez-Vicente, 2007), most men

(49.5%) were in occupational settings, compared to 30% of

women. Bulgaria presented a similar pattern with more males in

occupational settings (24.3 vs. 10%) and more females in private

residence settings.

Asia: There was no significant difference in Taiwan, yet in

Malaysia and Japan (Bresnahan et al., 2001), there was approxi-

mately double the amount of women in private residences than

men (27 vs. 13% in Malaysia and 41 vs. 23% in Japan). A large

proportion of men and women were shown in leisure settings in

Hong Kong, between 70 and 80% in both English and Chinese

advertisements, while women were shown more in occupational

settings in Chinese advertisements (17.2 vs. 0%). In Korea, men

were also shown more in private residences than women were

(37.2 vs. 21.3%). The study in Singapore found an effect of time.

During the daytime, men were more likely to be seen in private



residences (42.9 vs. 16.6%) while during primetime this reverses

(0% of males and 28.6% of females).

Australasia: In Australasia, the most common location for men

was outdoors (37.8%) while private residence (i.e. home) was the

most common for females (32.8%). In New Zealand women are

also seen more in private residence than men (34.2 vs. 15.7%).

Both men and women are most commonly seen in leisure settings

but the proportion is higher for males (54.9 vs. 44.7%).

Africa: In one study in South Africa (Milner, 2005), there were

not significant differences between males and females. However,

in another study in South Africa (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage,

2002), women were portrayed more in private residences than

men (21.4 vs. 6.3%). The largest difference was seen in Mauritius

where 60.7% of women were seen in private residences while

41.2% of men were portrayed in an occupational setting, com-

pared to 0% of women. Men were also more likely than women

to be portrayed in occupational settings in Ghana (17.7 vs. 3.3%)

and Kenya (25.9 vs. 18.8%) (Milner, 2005). The majority of men

in Ghana were portrayed in outdoors settings (46.8%), compared

to 24.6% of women.

America: In the United States (Bresnahan et al., 2001), women

are shown double the amount of time as men in private residence

(27 vs. 13%) while men are shown more often than women out-

doors (29 vs. 18%).

Most studies in countries showed women in a private residence

(the home) setting approximately one-third of the time, while

some studies found women in private residence settings in up to

60% of the advertisements analyzed. It seems that men, as the

central character, were shown much less in private residences

except in a few studies in Singapore and Korea where approxi-

mately 40% of the men were shown in private residences. This

suggests possible differences in culture that has an effect on

whether men and women are shown in a household setting since

both of these studies are done in similar cultures. Studies in Hong

Kong and Taiwan also showed a much smaller difference between

men and women in the proportion of time shown in private

residences.

DISCUSSION

It is perhaps rare to see one content analytic system and method

endure for so long to be replicated so widely particularly as this is

‘‘expensive’’ research in terms of data gathering and analysis.

This may be seen as a comment on the parsimoniousness of the

content analytic categories or the fact that television advertise-

ments are fairly universal in content and invariant over time.

However, this has allowed for essential, albeit somewhat crude,

comparisons of studies for over 30 years.

This discussion will consider four things: first, the durability

and change in television advertising and more specifically content

categories used in this research; second, cultural specificity and

universalism in the research findings; third, patterns of change

over time and fourth, the theoretical framework that guides this

research.

It is apparent from the Appendix that while there remains con-

siderable overlap in the coding categories used in the studies,

there is also variability. Comparing many studies to the original

McArthur and Resko (1975) paper it seems that subsequent

researchers have tended to do three things: add categories, split

categories and very occasionally, drop categories. In the original

paper there were eight content analytic categories. Very few have

been dropped (one example is punishments threatened or incurred

for not using the product). Many researchers have added consider-

ably to the different sub-categories. Thus age of the central figure

and end comment have been added.

However, what is perhaps most noticeable is how many more

distinctions have been made within content category. This has

occurred particularly for credibility and reward type. Thus the cat-

egories have slowly evolved rather than radically changed, which

is testimony to comprehensiveness of the original study (McAr-

thur & Resko, 1975). It has also meant that it has been possible to

do various comparative reviews such as that of Furnham and Mak

(1999) and this study.

One criticism of this research, however, is the rather limited

imagination shown by researchers in what other issues they may

have considered. One issue is humor while another is sex. There

is now considerable interest from media psychologists of the

effect of sex and violence in television advertising. Bushman and

Bonacci (2002) have shown that attempts to include sex and vio-

lence in advertising and programming to make products and

brands more ‘‘attention grabbing’’ and memorable does not work.

This work has been confirmed by Parker and Furnham (2007)

who have found that ‘‘sexual’’ advertisements were no better

recalled than ‘‘non-sexual’’ advertisements for similar products.

Research has also focused on the efficacy of using humor in

advertisements which is fairly widespread (Furnham et al., 1998).

It is apparent that there are various types of humor in television

advertisements such as visual versus verbal humor, aggressive

versus sexual humor as well as the use of irony or role reversal to

make situations funny. It is perhaps surprising, then, that these

content analytic studies do not seem to have categories referring

to the use of humor, sex or violence.

Another perhaps more serious issue is the problem or product

category or type. It is quite clear that there are universal patterns

in how advertisers would choose to advertise products like soap

or beer; fast foods or cars. Further, many products are clearly sex-

related in the sense that they are more frequently bought by males

and females. Some studies have looked exclusively at certain

types of products. Thus Aronovsky and Furnham (2008) looked

specifically at advertisements for food products in Britain. They

found similar sex differences in daytime and evening commercials

with very clear and stereotypic differences in role, age, product

appeal and end product. They argued that their results revealed

advertisers’ awareness of a day-time female audience which

reflected a greater proportion of non-stereotypic female depic-

tions. They noted that it would be particularly interesting to look

at portrayals in fast food and confectionary products. Furnham

and Li (2008) looked at food and beverage advertisements aired

in Hong Kong. They found more evidence for sex role stereotypes

in Western-made as opposed to Chinese-made advertisements but

overall relatively little evidence of sex-role stereotypes. Certainly

examining sex role stereotypes for advertisements for very spe-

cific categories of products or services seems the way to proceed

in this area.



Advertisements have changed over time with technology and

fashion. In some countries they tend to be getting shorter with the

use of many more animated techniques. Equally some products

tend to be advertised less, either because they have been con-

strained or banned (alcohol, tobacco, children’s toys), while new

electronic gadgets, like mobile phones, have been invented (Furn-

ham, 2004). For researchers to capture changes and subtleties in

advertising it seems necessary to revisit and revise the established

content analytic categories. While some would of necessity endure

it seems sensible to add others which reflect changes in the genre.

Changes in media consumption has greatly affected the number

and type, but perhaps not so much the content of television adver-

tisements.

Equally, although many advertisements contain surprisingly

little speech few researchers have analyzed it to see if the person

in the central role differs in their type of language and speech as a

function of their gender. This may include an analysis of accent,

as well as vocabulary, pace of speech, etc. The use of language

and speech has been much more carefully scrutinized in written

(newspaper, magazine, billboard and flyer) advertisements than on

television. Indeed it is noticeable how visual all the content ana-

lytic categories are. A good example of this was the Japanese

study by Arima (2003) who included a category called ‘‘Angle of

Camera’’ and another called ‘‘Camera Work’’.

Thus it would seem that although this research has continued,

indeed accelerated, for over 30 years there has been relatively lit-

tle imaginative growth in the content categories that reflect the

more subtle and contemporary aspects of television advertise-

ments.

Over 20 years ago researchers started looking at sex-role stereo-

typing in TV advertisements as a function of time of day (Harris

& Stobart; 1986; Livingstone & Green, 1986). The central idea

was that the size and composition of the audience changed

throughout the day and that advertisements reflected that differ-

ence. This was not only related to the product and who it was

aimed at (i.e. children, men, housewives) but how the advertise-

ment was conceived, particularly if it appealed to a wide range of

people (especially foods, soft drinks, etc.).

Researchers have worried about channel equivalence when

doing this sort of work (Furnham & Mak, 1999). However, it may

be just as interesting to do more research on within country chan-

nel differences showing how similar products are very differently

portrayed on different channels. Most studies have attempted to

examine advertisements on major national channels whose market

share is declining along with television viewing in younger

people.

Perhaps the most striking feature of all this work is the compar-

ative absence of theoretical frameworks and equally of hypothesis

testing. Many researchers do a content analysis of a country’s tele-

vision, e.g. Bulgaria (Ibroscheva, 2007), Spain (Valls-Fernandez

& Martinez-Vicente, 2007), Singapore (Lee, 2003) or Turkey

(Uray & Burnaz, 2003) and although they may derive and test

various hypotheses about sex role differences in certain categories

they rarely provide a cultural framework.

While it is interesting to see this research it is rarely theory dri-

ven. There are exceptions. Hence Milner (2005) uses Hofstede’s

(1998) theory of culture difference to test gender role stereotyping

in three African countries. Milner and Collins (2000) continued

this research comparing four countries (Sweden, Russia, the USA

and Japan) which were placed on a masculine-feminine contin-

uum derived from Hofstede’s theory. Interestingly, many of their

theory-derived hypotheses were not supported. However, most do

little but compare countries (Furnham & Spencer-Bowdage, 2002)

or update studies (Bartsch, Burnett, Diller & Rankin-Williams,

2000).

A theoretical framework would allow for much better research

and hypothesis testing. This would allow, for instance, for the

assertion that in terms of the content categories there would be

universal similarities in how the different genders were repre-

sented in advertisements while in other categories there would be

specific and predictable differences. Thus, for instance, it may be

possible to argue that there would be near universal gender role

differences in credibility and age but fewer in reward and product

type. To be parsimonious, however, the theoretical framework

would have to account for social and economic difference

between cultures. Indeed, anthropological theories may be particu-

larly fecund for this sort of research.

The results of this content analysis reflect these issues. Most

studies are descriptive rather than hypotheses testing. However, it

is possible to group countries on certain categories and then do a

content analysis. These studies were grouped by continent but it

could be done by other variables like Hofstede’s masculinity ver-

sus femininity dimensions. Thus, one could contrast advertise-

ments from highly masculine countries like Japan and Austria

with those described as much more feminine like Sweden and

Thailand. Although this was done in a preliminary analysis no

clear patterns emerged. Indeed, there appear to be more evidence

of universalism than culture specificity in this area.

It is no doubt the growth of television in many countries and

concern with its short- and long-term effects that have led

researchers to continue to do comparative studies of gender repre-

sentations. Thus in a typical cross-cultural study Kim and Lowry

(2005) note that in Korea television commercials are a ‘‘lagging

social indicator’’ because although the role of women has changed

dramatically in that society, television images portrayed in adver-

tisements do not reflect the current situation. There are no doubt

over 50 that have drawn inspiration from early studies like that of

McArthur and Resko (1975). They have looked at cross-national

differences, changes over time, time of day and channel differ-

ences. There seems to be a decline in gender-role stereotyping in

Western countries but this is restricted to certain categories. This

difference in credibility, role and age seems to be declining but

that for product type is not.

What the research area still lacks is the development of more

subtle coding categories as well as theoretical frameworks to

make specific predictions about cultural or temporal differences

and even to make predictors about future developments. Future

research should also look at how television has changed over the

years.

Perhaps the most obvious change has been the growth of chan-

nels available in most countries as well as relative ease through

satellite connections to receive ‘‘foreign’’ television from other

countries. This has fragmented the national audience and seen the

growth of very specific channels specializing in everything from

news to sport, and weather to classical films. Most of these are

commercial and are liberally interspersed with advertisements.



The question is how advertisements differ as a function of chan-

nel. This is no doubt a past function of the size and demography

of the audience which would no doubt relate to products adver-

tised. However, it remains of interest how sex-roles are portrayed

perhaps on channels clearly aimed at quite different audiences

such as shopping and cooking channels versus science, history or

geography channels.

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Received 6 May 2009, accepted 8 July 2009



APPENDIX: THE DATA FROM THE DIFFERENT STUDIES

Various countries

New Zealand,2000

Sweden,2000

Russia,2000

United States,2000

Japan,2000

(Furnham &Farragher)

(Milner &Collins)

(Milner &Collins)

(Milner &Collins)

(Milner &Collins)

M F

M F M F M F M F(N = 51) (N = 38)

AttributesMode of presentationVoice-overVisual/othersVisual silence 41.2 47.4Visual voice 58.8 52.6Visual/musicCredibilityUser 74.5 63.2 54.2 80.0 92.9 90.0 49.2 64.1 79.4 95.2Authority/other 19.6 15.8 45.8 20.0 7.1 10.0 50.8 35.7 20.6 4.8User and authorityNeitherOther 5.9 21.0RoleAutonomous 70.5 50.0DependentInterviewer/narratorProfessional/otherCelebrityOther/unknown 4.0 7.9Familial 25.5 42.1AgeYoung 39.2 55.3 35.1 77.9 62.8 81.6 49.4 63.6 46.2 70.9Middle-aged 56.9 39.5 50.5 20.3 37.3 18.4 42.1 30.8 39.4 26.5Old 3.9 5.3 14.4 1.9 0.0 0.0 8.5 5.6 14.4 2.6Middle-aged and oldArgumentFactual/scientific 13.7 5.3Opinion/nonscientific 23.5 7.9OtherOpinion/noneNone 62.7 86.8Reward typeSocial approvalSocial/self-enhancement 5.9 10.5Practical 13.7 13.2Pleasure 29.4 31.6Product benefitsFinancial 5.9 2.6Other/none 45.1 42.1Product typeBody 13.7 23.7HomeFood 31.4 31.6Domestic 5.9 7.9Auto/sports 21.6 0.0Services 5.9 5.3Other 21.6 31.6BackgroundMostly female 17.6 5.3Mostly male 19.6 28.9Mixed 9.8 18.4Mostly Children 13.7 15.8None 39.2 31.6



APPENDIX: Continued.

Various countries

New Zealand,2000

Sweden,2000

Russia,2000

UnitedStates, 2000

Japan,2000

(Furnham &Farragher)

(Milner &Collins)

(Milner &Collins)

(Milner &Collins)

(Milner &Collins)

M F

M F M F M F M F(N = 51) (N = 38)

End commentsPresent 19.6 5.3Absent 80.4 94.7SettingPrivate residence 15.7 34.2Occupational setting 21.6 15.8OutdoorsLeisure/unknown 54.9 44.7SocialOfficeStoreFictionalOther 7.8 5.3

Malaysia, 2001 Taiwan, 2001 United States, 2001 Japan, 2001 South Africa, 2002

(Bresnahan, Inoue,Liu, & Nishida)




(Furnham &Spencer-Bowdage)

M F M F M F M F M F

(N = 52) (N = 39) (N = 98) (N = 115) (N = 59) (N = 72) (N = 137) (N = 179) (N = 48) (N = 28)

AttributesMode of presentationVoice-over 81.0 19.0 81.0 19.0 69.0 31.0 68.0 32.0 52.1 2.6Visual/othersVisual silence 27.1 64.3Visual voice 20.8 32.1Visual/musicCredibilityUser 29.2 82.1Authority/other 41.7 7.1User and authorityNeitherOther 29.2 10.7RoleAutonomousDependent 31.3 78.6Interviewer/narrator 50.0 3.6Professional/otherCelebrity 6.3 10.7Other/unknown 12.5 7.1FamilialSpouse/girlfriend/boyfriendParentPresenterOffice workerFiance(e)HomemakerDecorativeSex object








(Bresnahan, Inoue, Liu,& Nishida)


M F M F M F M F M F

(N = 52) (N = 39) (N = 98) (N = 115) (N = 59) (N = 72) (N = 137) (N = 179) (N = 48) (N = 28)

AgeYoung 47.8 70.4Middle-aged 30.4 22.2Old 21.7 7.4Middle-aged and oldArgumentFactual/scientific 39.6 14.3Opinion/nonscientific 20.8 7.1OtherOpinion/noneNone 39.6 78.6Reward typeSocial approvalSocial/self-enhancement 16.7 53.6Practical 29.2 14.3Pleasure 20.8 28.6Product benefitsFinancialOther/none 33.3 3.6Product typeBody 2.0 15.0 6.0 25.0 3.0 13.0 6.0 17.0 10.4 42.9Home 6.0 8.0 8.0 17.0 2.0 4.0 8.3 0.0Food 33.0 15.0 37.0 27.0 32.0 19.0 15.0 21.0 25.0 25.0Domestic 9.0 19.0Auto/sports 8.0 2.0 14.0 6.0 17.0 7.0 18.0 9.0Services 5.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 29.2 10.7Other 10.0 15.0 1.0 0.0 19.0 4.0 12.0 7.0Away (not used at home)Home and awayRestaurant/retail 2.0 0.0 2.0 2.0 7.0 7.0 3.0 1.0Alcohol/tobacco 17.0 8.0 4.0 1.0 7.0 4.0Finance/real estate 6.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 10.0 3.0 2.0SlimmingBaby careHealth 10.0 8.0 12.0 27.0 16.0 14.0TechnicalNon-technicalToiletriesElectronics 12.5 7.1Vehicles 12.5 0.0Clothing and accessories 3.0 8.0 0.0 3.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 3.0Cleaning productsTransportLeisure/cultureTelecommunicationsOrganizationsMediaTechnology 3.0 0.0 4.0 2.0 3.0 4.1 9.0 1.0BackgroundMostly female 14.6 7.1Mostly male 6.3 28.6Mixed 8.3 14.3Mostly children 4.2 7.1None 66.7 42.9End commentsPresent 75.0 60.7Absent 25.0 39.3








(Bresnahan, Inoue, Liu,& Nishida)


M F M F M F M F M F

(N = 52) (N = 39) (N = 98) (N = 115) (N = 59) (N = 72) (N = 137) (N = 179) (N = 48) (N = 28)

SettingPrivate residence 15.0 26.0 21.0 21.0 13.0 27.0 23.0 41.0 6.3 21.4Occupational setting 13.0 10.0 3.0 0.0 15.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 12.5 7.1Outdoors 29.0 13.0 29.0 29.0 29.0 18.0 33.0 28.0 18.8 10.7Leisure/unknown 0.0 0.0SocialOfficeStoreFictionalOther 43.0 51.0 47.0 50.0 43.0 52.0 42.0 29.0 62.5 60.7

Serbia, 2002 Turkey, 2003 Japan, 2002Hong Kong,2003 - English

Hong Kong, 2003 -Chinese

(Skoric & Furnham) (Uray & Burnaz) (Furnham & Imazdu)(Furnham &Chan) (Furnham & Chan)

M F M F M F M F M F

(N = 74) (N = 35) (46.5%) (53.5%) (N = 200) (N = 155) (63%) (36%) (60.3%) (39.7%)

AttributesMode of presentationVoice-over 81.0 71.4 67.0 34.19 60.8 26.7 68.2 24.1Visual/others 19.0 28.6 39.2 73.3 31.8 75.9Visual silence 47.9 47.6 6.5 16.77Visual voice 52.1 52.4 26.5 47.1Visual/music 0.0 1.94CredibilityUser 10.8 17.1 53.4 74.4 19.5 46.45 19.6 26.7 25.0 51.7Authority/other 89.2 82.9 13.7 3.6 45.5 27.74 80.4 73.3 75.0 48.3User and authorityNeither 29.5 16.1Other 3.4 6.0 35.0 25.81RoleAutonomousDependent 0.0 5.7 19.5 56.77 9.8 10.0 15.9 20.7Interviewer/narrator 91.9 85.7 11.3 12.8 42.0 20.0 70.6 60.0 75.0 41.4Professional/other 8.1 8.6 15.5 3.7 19.5 13.55 19.6 30.0 9.1 37.9Celebrity 26.8 18.3Other/unknown 2.1 0.6 19.0 9.68FamilialSpouse/girlfriend/boyfriend 6.3 6.1Parent 9.9 11.0PresenterOffice workerFiance(e)Homemaker 2.8 11.6Decorative 24.6 28.7Sex object 0.7 7.3AgeYoung 12.2 34.3 45.2 60.1 41.5 76.13 13.7 33.3 36.4 79.3Middle-aged 87.8 65.7 45.2 33.9 55.0 22.58 84.3 66.7 61.4 17.2Old 0.0 0.0 9.6 6.0 3.5 1.29 2.0 0.0 2.3 3.4Middle-aged and old




Serbia, 2002 Turkey, 2003 Japan, 2002Hong Kong,2003 - English



M F M F M F M F M F

(N = 74) (N = 35) (46.5%) (53.5%) (N = 200) (N = 155) (63%) (36%) (60.3%) (39.7%)

ArgumentFactual/scientific 67.6 42.9 15.1 18.5 40.0 26.45 43.1 40.0 43.1 51.7Opinion/nonscientific 32.4 57.1 28.8 20.8 22.5 30.97 65.9 48.3Other 29.0 20.0Opinion/none 56.9 60.0None 56.2 60.7 8.5 22.58Reward typeSocial approval 4.6 7.3 5.5 2.58Social/self-enhancement 17.6 17.1 16.1 44.4 23.5 30.97 5.9 0.0 13.6 20.7Practical 36.5 65.8 16.1 18.5 6.5 7.1 23.5 33.3 29.5 41.4Pleasure 45.9 17.1 26.4 9.7 28.5 27.74 25.5 26.7 56.8 37.9Product benefits 26.4 13.7FinancialOther/none 10.3 6.5 36.0 31.61 45.1 40.0 0.0 0.0Product typeBody 16.2 20.0 15.1 30.4 28.0 30.97 7.8 6.7 11.4 24.1Home 1.3 20.0 23.3 27.4 9.0 19.35 0.0 6.7 4.5 10.3Food 17.6 8.6 17.1 8.9 22.0 18.71 9.8 16.7 52.3 41.4DomesticAuto/sports 2.7 0.0 13.0 4.2Services 11.0 6.0 15.5 11.61Other 62.2 51.4 4.8 5.4 8.5 8.39 82.4 70.0 31.8 24.1Away (not used at home)Home and awayRestaurant/retailAlcohol/tobaccoFinance/real estate 2.5 2.58SlimmingBaby careHealthTechnicalNon-technicalToiletriesElectronics 8.0 6.45Vehicles 6.5 1.94Clothing and accessoriesCleaning productsTransportLeisure/cultureTelecommunicationsOrganizationsMedia 15.8 17.9TechnologyBackgroundMostly female 2.7 0.0 10.0 22.4 8.5 14.19 7.8 40.0 0.0 44.8Mostly male 10.8 2.9 41.4 17.9 12.5 4.52 21.6 0.0 25.0 0.0Mixed 24.3 40.0 41.4 38.8 22.0 18.71 39.2 40.0 29.5 34.5Mostly Children 4.1 5.7 7.1 20.9 7.0 4.52 9.8 13.3 11.4 3.4None 58.1 51.4 50.0 58.06 21.6 6.7 34.1 17.2End commentsPresent 79.7 77.1 93.8 96.4 55.0 40.0 68.6 76.7 100 100Absent 20.3 22.9 6.2 3.6 45.0 60.0 31.4 23.3 0 0SettingPrivate residence 5.4 5.7 30.8 57.7 21.5 33.55 9.8 16.7 11.4 13.8Occupational setting 6.8 11.4 37.7 16.7 7.5 3.23 11.8 3.3 0.0 17.2OutdoorsLeisure/unknown 87.8 82.9 17.0 20.0 78.4 80.0 88.6 69.0




Serbia, 2002 Turkey, 2003 Japan, 2002Hong Kong, 2003- English



M F M F M F M F M F

(N = 74) (N = 35) (46.5%) (53.5%) (N = 200) (N = 155) (63%) (36%) (60.3%) (39.7%)

SocialOffice 13.0 4.2StoreFictional 8.9 11.9Other 9.6 9.5 54.0 43.23

Singapore, 2003 Singapore, 2003 Mauritius, 2009Australasia,2004

Kenya,2005

(Lee) – daytime (Lee) - prime time (Furnham & Hussain)(Milner &Higgs) (Milner)

M F M F M F

M F M F(N = 7) (N = 12) (N = 11) (N = 35) (N = 17) (N = 28)

AttributesMode of presentationVoice-over 75.0 25.0 71.9 28.1 52.9 32.1Visual/others 47.1 67.9Visual silenceVisual voiceVisual/musicCredibilityUser 85.6 33.3 54.5 45.7 29.4 67.9 38.2 61.8Authority/other 0.0 2.9 70.6 32.1 52.6 47.4User and authority 14.3 58.3 0.0 37.1Neither 0.0 8.3 45.5 14.3OtherRoleAutonomousDependent 11.8 60.7Interviewer/narrator 52.9 42.9Professional/other 14.3 0.0 36.4 5.7 35.3 0.0Celebrity 28.6 75.0 36.4 65.7Other/unknown 28.6 8.3 27.3 2.9FamilialSpouse/girlfriend/boyfriend 28.6 0.0 0.0 8.6Parent 0.0 8.3 0.0 5.7PresenterOffice workerFiance(e)Homemaker 0.0 11.4DecorativeSex objectAgeYoung 51.3 59.0Middle-aged 22.7 39.3Old 26.1 1.6Middle-aged and oldArgumentFactual/scientific 41.2 17.9Opinion/nonscientific 47.1 60.7OtherOpinion/noneNone 11.8 21.4




Singapore, 2003 Singapore, 2003 Mauritius, 2009Australasia,2004 Kenya, 2005

(Lee) – daytime (Lee) - prime time (Furnham & Hussain)(Milner &Higgs) (Milner)

M F M F M F

M F M F(N = 7) (N = 12) (N = 11) (N = 35) (N = 17) (N = 28)

Reward typeSocial approvalSocial/self-enhancement 11.8 25.0Practical 17.6 46.4Pleasure 70.6 28.6Product benefitsFinancialOther/noneProduct typeBody 14.3 25.0 0.0 28.6 0.0 10.7Home 5.9 42.9Food 14.3 8.3 36.4 25.7 29.4 46.4Domestic 0.0 8.3 0.0 5.7Auto/sports 18.2 0.0 5.9 0.0ServicesOther 0.0 8.3 9.0 8.6 41.2 0.0Away (not used at home)Home and AwayRestaurant/retailAlcohol/tobacco 18.2 0.0Finance/real estate 0.0 5.7 17.6 0.0Slimming 0.0 8.3 0.0 2.9Baby care 0.0 8.3 0.0 2.9Health 71.4 33.3 0.0 5.7TechnicalNon-technicalToiletriesElectronicsVehiclesClothing and accessoriesCleaning productsTransportLeisure/cultureTelecommunicationsOrganizationsMediaTechnologyBackgroundMostly female 5.9 32.1Mostly male 29.4 0.0Mixed 23.5 14.3Mostly children 0.0 17.9None 41.2 35.7End commentsPresent 82.4 60.7Absent 17.6 39.3SettingPrivate residence 42.9 16.6 0.0 28.6 11.8 60.7 20.2 32.8 18.5 18.8Occupational setting 14.3 0.0 54.5 11.4 41.2 0.0 7.6 4.9 25.9 18.8Outdoors 37.8 13.1 11.1 12.5Leisure/unknown 0.0 16.6 9.0 5.7 47.1 39.3SocialOfficeStore 3.4 13.1 11.1 0.0FictionalOther 42.9 66.7 36.4 54.2 31.1 36.1 33.3 50.0




Ghana,2005

SouthAfrica,2005 Korea, 2005 Poland, 2005 Spain, 2007

(Milner) (Milner) (Kim & Lowry) (Furnham & Saar)(Valls-Ferandez &Martinez-Vicente)

M F M F

M F M F M F

(N = 469) (N = 643) (42%) (58%) (50.6%) (49.4%)

AttributesMode of presentationVoice-over 20.5 9.8Visual/others 79.5 90.2Visual silence 33.3 51.7Visual voice 47.6 41.4Visual/music 19.0 6.9CredibilityUser 42.9 82.8Authority/other 26.2 14.2 38.1 13.8User and authorityNeitherOther 19.0 3.4RoleAutonomous 57.9 19.4DependentInterviewer/narrator 27.3 11.5 31.6 32.3Professional/other 27.1 13.4Celebrity 3.4 3.7Other/unknown 20.9 33.9Familial 10.5 48.4Spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend 17.7 13.1Parent 3.2 12.1PresenterOffice workerFiance(e)Homemaker 0.4 12.3DecorativeSex objectAgeYoung 23.9 48.2 42.1 67.7 61.5 71.6Middle-aged 47.4 25.8 32.5 21.5Old 10.5 6.5 6 6.9Middle-aged and old 59.5 41.2ArgumentFactual/scientificOpinion/nonscientific 26.3 19.4Other 31.6 12.9Opinion/noneNone 42.1 67.7Reward typeSocial approvalSocial/self-enhancementPractical 21.1 37.7Pleasure 31.5 22.6Product benefits 26.3 19.4FinancialOther/none 21.1 19.4Product typeBody 10.5 29.0 25.1 41.9Home 21.1 22.6 14.0 10.4Food 36.8 22.6 31.1 29.3DomesticAuto/sports 12 5.4Services 10.5 6.5Other 10.5 0.0 5.9 5.6




Ghana,2005

SouthAfrica,2005 Korea, 2005 Poland, 2005 Spain, 2007

(Milner) (Milner) (Kim & Lowry) (Furnham & Saar)(Valls-Ferandez &Martinez-Vicente)

M F M F

M F M F M F

(N = 469) (N = 643) (42%) (58%) (50.6%) (49.4%)

Away (not used at home)Home and awayRestaurant/retailAlcohol/tobaccoFinance/real estate 9.5 6.5SlimmingBaby careHealthTechnical 44.8 29.9Non-technical 55.2 70.1ToiletriesElectronicsVehiclesClothing and accessoriesCleaning productsTransportLeisure/cultureTelecommunicationsOrganizationsMediaTechnologyBackgroundMostly female 9.6 9.0 15.8 12.9Mostly male 17.5 5.3 0.0 9.7Mixed 29.4 20.2 36.8 22.6Mostly children 4.1 14.8 0.0 9.7None 39.4 50.7 47.4 45.2End commentsPresent 42.1 19.4Absent 57.9 80.6SettingPrivate residence 12.9 19.7 35.5 41.4 37.2 21.3 5.3 41.9 30.4 46.5Occupational setting 17.7 3.3 4.8 3.4 14.7 4.4 21.1 6.5 49.5 30.0Outdoors 46.8 24.6 33.9 34.5 39.7 33.1Leisure/unknown 52.6 25.8 7.4 8.8Social 7.2 9.8OfficeStore 1.6 3.3 12.9 10.3FictionalOther 21.0 49.2 12.9 10.3 21.1 25.8 12.7 14.7

Bulgaria, 2007 (Ibroscheva) Austria, 2007 (Ahlstrand)Spain, 2008 (Royo-Vela, Aldas-Manzano, Kuster & Vila)

M (N = 37) F (N = 90) M (N = 117) F (N = 86) M (N = 179) F (N = 213)

AttributesMode of presentationVoice-over 21.6 0.0 70.6 22.9Visual/othersVisual silence 29.7 66.7Visual voice 48.6 33.3Visual/musicCredibilityUser 45.9 78.9





M (N = 37) F (N = 90) M (N = 117) F (N = 86) M (N = 179) F (N = 213)

Authority/other 45.9 10.0User and authorityNeitherOther 8.1 11.1RoleAutonomous 83.8 30.0Dependent 2.7 45.6Interviewer/narrator 16.2 5.8Professional/other 12.8 15.1 17.9 11.2Celebrity 2.6 7.0 6.1 4.2Other/unknown 13.5 24.4 46.2 38.4 24.5 31.7FamilialSpouse/girlfriend/boyfriend 17.9 25.6 11.2 7.9Parent 4.3 8.1 9.5 13.1Presenter 7.3 4.7Office worker 10.6 4.7Fiance(e) 8.4 7.5Homemaker 4.5 15.0DecorativeSex objectAgeYoung 62.2 81.1 27.4 61.6Middle-aged 64.1 31.4Old 8.55 7.0Middle-aged and old 37.8 18.9ArgumentFactual/scientificOpinion/nonscientificOtherOpinion/noneNoneReward typeSocial approval 13.5 3.3Social/self-enhancement 48.6 32.2Practical 18.9 30.0Pleasure 18.9 34.4Product benefitsFinancialOther/noneProduct typeBody 12.0 31.4Home 4.3 5.8Food 12.8 26.7 22.9 21.0Domestic 59.5 65.5Auto/sports 4.3 1.2ServicesOther 42.7 18.6 10.1 13.0Away (not used at home) 16.2 3.3Home and away 24.3 31.1Restaurant/retail 4.3 4.7Alcohol/tobacco 6.0 7.0 3.9 4.7Finance/real estate 13.7 4.7SlimmingBaby careHealthTechnicalNon-technicalToiletries 6.1 17.3ElectronicsVehicles





M (N = 37) F (N = 90) M (N = 117) F (N = 86) M (N = 179) F (N = 213)

Clothing and accessories 3.9 3.3Cleaning products 5.6 13.6Transport 11.7 5.6Leisure/culture 3.4 2.8Telecommunications 10.1 3.3Organizations 22.3 15.4MediaTechnologyBackgroundMostly femaleMostly maleMixedMostly childrenNoneEnd commentsPresentAbsentSettingPrivate residence 21.6 36.7 23.1 27.9Occupational setting 24.3 10.0 8.5 11.6Outdoors 35.9 33.7Leisure/unknown 45.9 48.9SocialOfficeStoreFictionalOther 8.1 4.4 32.5 26.7



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