Themes and Gender Portrayals in Saturday Morning Children's Television Advertisements
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University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Student Work 6-1-1997 Themes and Gender Portrayals in Saturday Morning Children's Television Advertisements Sara C. Karpan University of Nebraska at Omaha Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork Recommended Citation Karpan, Sara C., "Themes and Gender Portrayals in Saturday Morning Children's Television Advertisements" (1997). Student Work. 1958. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/1958 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Work by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Themes and Gender Portrayals in Saturday Morning Children’s Television Advertisements A Thesis Presented to the Department of Communication and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha by Sara C. Karpan June 1997 UMI Number: EP73598 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Pissettafefi Publishing UMI EP73598 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 THESIS ACCEPTANCE Acceptance for the faculty of the Graduate College, University of Nebraska, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts, University of Nebraska at Omaha. Committee (2j o ^ ^ ' ciccf>o Department/School c . \/V— v - S - Name Department/School Name Department/Schoolt/Spnoi Chairperso Date ^ I i i Acknowledgments I would like to thank Dr. Lipsr.hultz, Dr. Sherer and Dr. Rousseau for their direction and guidance while serving on my thesis committee. I would also like to thank Debbie Summerside and Jackie Elliott for their assistance in coding the data and my family for their support. Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the content of advertisements directed toward boys and girls ages six to twelve. Gender portrayals, settings, activities, themes and types of advertisements were variables analyzed in the sample. Data collected from the advertisements were taken from a random sample of four Saturdays of children’s programming between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. CBS, ABC, and FOX were the three networks and Nickelodeon was the cable channel used in the study. Out of 1079 advertisements observed in the sample, 220 were not repeated. Results revealed that the most frequent types of advertisements viewed sold food (54 percent) and toy products (44 percent). More advertisements directed toward girls contained inside settings and passive activities, compared to those directed toward boys, which contained more outside and fantasy settings and active activities. Dominant themes in boy advertisements were adventure and conflict, while many of the advertisements directed toward girls were humorous. Social and observational learning theories explain how and why children model characters in the advertisements they view. Because gender roles and behaviors are apparent in advertisements directed toward children, it is important to examine exactly what they are watching between their favorite programs. Table of Contents Title Page..........................................................................................................................................i Thesis Acceptance...........................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................................................Hi Abstract ............................................. iv List of Tables..................................................................................................................................vii Chapter One - Introduction............................................................................................................ 1 Background ........................................................................................................... 3 Theoretical Trends in Gender Differences Among Children ...........................................5 Purpose of Study.................... ..............................................................................8 Chapter Two - Literature Review...............................................................................................11 Issues in Children’s Television Advertising........................................................................... 11 The Development of Television Advertising................................................................. 11 The Children’s Television Act of 1990......................................................................... 16 Recent FCC Policy Guidelines ...................................................................................... 20 The Nature of Broadcasting. ......................................................................................... 22 Gender and Children’s Advertising ................................................................................. 25 Gender Typed Advertisements ......................................................................................27 Social Learning Theory....................................................................................................29 Cognitive Factors Regarding Children and Advertising........................................... 30 Influences and Effects of Television Advertising....................................................... 33 Advertising Retrieval Cues............................................................................................ 34 Children’s Skepticism Towards Advertising...............................................................36 The Deceptive Nature of Television’s Advertising....................................................38 Social Comparison Theory.............................................................................................40 Types of Advertisements................................................................................................41 Commercial Themes in Food Products........................................................................ 45 Lois Smith’s Content Analysis on Children’s Advertisements.................................48 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 49 Research Questions......................................................................................................... 50 Chapter Three - Methodology......................................................................................................51 Sample...............................................................................................................................51 Procedures........................................................................................................................51 Method of Data Collection........................................................................................................... 51 Coding............................................................................................................................... 52 Pre-test................................................................................................................................52 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 54 Quantitative Analysis.......................................................................................................54 Qualitative Analysis.........................................................................................................54 Treatment of Data............................................................................................................54 Chapter Four - Results................................................................................................................. 55 Introduction......................................................................................................................55 Chapter Five - Conclusions & Recommendations..................................................... 65 Girl Advertisements...........................................................................................................65 Boy Advertisements.................. 67 Food Advertisements........................................................................................................ 70 Brand Characters ....................................................................................... 70 No Theme...........................................................................................................................71 Recommendations............................ 73 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................74