Female power portrayals in advertising
Date
2021-12-29
Authors
Kordrostami, Melika
Laczniak, Russell N.
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© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
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Abstract
Although stereotypical female portrayals are still common in advertisements, in recent years it appears there has been a move toward portraying women in powerful positions in ads. This research investigates the recent trend in advertising that portrays women in positions of power and offers a typology of female power dimensions in ads. Building on previous literature on social power, feminine power, and current trends in advertising, a typology for female power is proposed and verified using two studies. In the first study, data from a pile sort of current print ads is collected and analyzed by cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. In the second study, semi-structured interviews are employed to verify the proposed typology. Results verified that receivers perceive female power in advertisements in the following power dimensions: sexual power, expert power, family power, and empowerment (including athletic power).
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This article is published as Melika Kordrostami & Russell N. Laczniak (2021) Female power portrayals in advertising, International Journal of Advertising, DOI: 10.1080/02650487.2021.1998878. Posted with permission.