Gender portrayals in food commercials at different times of the day: A content analytic study

This study examined 153 foodstuff commercials on a popular British television channel. Eighty ‘Daytime’ and 73 ‘Evening’ commercials were separately coded for 11 content categories; constituting attributes pertaining to central advertised figures (gender, presentation-mode, credibility-basis, role, age, location, arguments, background, reward-type, product-appeal, end-comment). Although both sexes were portrayed stereotypically for eight daytime and nine evening content analytic categories, daytime advertisements tended to reveal advertisers' awareness of a female audience which tended to be reflected in greater proportions of non-stereotyped female depictions rather than a salience of female stereotypes. Results are discussed with respect to implicated gender ideologies and their accuracy against the wider sex-role climate in society.