Gender Representation of Older People in Japanese Television Advertisements

Abstract

This content analysis of 306 Japanese television advertisements featuring older people (50+) analyzed differences in representation based on gender. The results revealed that both genders were underrepresented in comparison to demographic reality. This disparity was even more pronounced for older females, who appeared in less than half as many commercials as did older males. Older females were depicted at home, while their male counterparts were shown in the workplace. Moreover, some product categories were associated with a particular gender: cosmetics/toiletries with females and foods/beverages with males. Many of these findings are in accordance with previous studies from other parts of the world. Adding evidence from Japan lends support to the hypothesis of global gender stereotypes.

Japan's demographic revolution? A study of advertising practitioners' views on stereotypes

“…The results that advertising practitioners find older spokespersons effective for the product categories health-related products and finance/insurance are in line with content analytic research on Japanese TV advertisements Prieler et al 2009Prieler et al , 2011 and also with previous surveys (Greco 1988;Szmigin and Carrigan 2000). It is interesting to note that the former holds true for the case of an older target group, while the latter holds true for a general audience.…”

“…also Yoon and Powell [2012] for a recent review of the literature). Content analyses in various countries -including Japan -on the representation of older people in advertising have confirmed such tendencies, particularly a consistent and significant under-representation of older people (Simcock and Sudbury 2006;Lee, Carpenter, and Meyers 2007;Hagiwara et al 2009;Prieler et al 2011).…”

“…Most accounts of advertising in the aging society have either been general and conceptual in nature (e.g. Carrigan and Szmigin 2000a), analysed consumers and their reactions towards the portrayal of older people in advertising (Nelson and Smith 1988;Robinson et al 2003;Hagiwara et al 2009), or used content analysis to investigate the representation of older people in advertisements (Simcock and Sudbury 2006;Prieler et al 2011;Yoon and Powell 2012).…”

Gender representations in East Asian advertising: Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea

“…In a metaanalysis, Eisend (2010) found that the odds of females being younger were three times higher than they were for males. Research on Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea all reported more females than males in the younger age segment (Furnham & Chan, 2003;Furnham & Imadzu, 2002;Furnham et al, 2000;Kim & Lowry, 2005;Milner & Collins, 2000;Moon & Chan, 2007;Prieler, 2012;Prieler, Kohlbacher, Hagiwara, & Arima, 2011). Considering these findings, we suggest the following hypothesis:…”

Diferencias de género en el contenido icónico de los periódicos

“…Se trata de un área importante dentro del estudio de las diferencias de género en los medios de comunicación, ya que tradicionalmente se ha asociado la masculinidad con el deporte (Aulette, Wittner y Blakely, 2009). Y son muchos los estudios que han reconocido que la representación de mujeres y hombres en los medios de comunicación se hace de forma estereotipada según el género (cfrs., Arima, 2003;Das, 2011;Furnham y Mark, 1999;Paek et al, 2011;Prieler et al, 2011).…”