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Portayal Of Men And Women N Tlevision Advertising

Title: Role Portrayals of Men and Women in Indian
Television Advertising

Authors:
Priya Jha Dang, Associate Professor, Management Development Institute, Mehrauli Road, Sukhrali, Gurgaon - 122 001, India. email: priyajha@mdi.ac.in

Neharika Vohra, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad ¡V 380 015, India. email: neharika@iimahd.ernet.in

Correspondence regarding this article may be addressed to Priya Jha Dang; email: priyajha@mdi.ac.in

Abstract

Although gender role portrayals in advertising have been extensively studied in Western and other Asian countries, very few such analyses have been done in India. The study does a systematic analysis of the role portrayal of men and women in Indian television advertising. 128 male role portrayals and 196 female role portrayals are content analyzed for the years 1996, 1999 and 2002. Results show that Indian advertising depicts men and women in traditionally assigned roles of the culture. In several respects, role portrayals in Indian advertising are different from the West but similar to other Asian countries.


Role Portrayals of Men and Women in Indian
Television Advertising
The advertising industry in India is estimated to be Rs 11,000 crore (¡§Advertising: Back in Business¡¨ Businessworld, August 23, 2004) and growing at a robust pace every year. The expenditure in advertising is used to promote a wide range of products ranging from automobiles to washing machines to personal care products. Although the primary function of advertising is to inform consumers about product attributes and benefits, advertising also functions as a vehicle of socio-cultural communication (Courtney and Whipple 1983). Advertisements link the functional benefits of a product to emotional and social benefits thus creating cultural meaning in the course of communication (Aaker, Batra and Myers 1992). The potential of advertising to reflect cultural roles and norms has been...