Portrayals of Older Adults in U.S. and Indian Magazine Advertisements: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Abstract

The authors investigated cross-cultural media portrayals of older adults and other age groups across the lifespan through a content analysis of U.S. and Indian magazine advertisements (N = 1,464), focusing on the characters portrayed in these advertisements (N = 1,445). Forty U.S. and Indian magazines were randomly selected across genres such as sports, women's interest, news, general interest, and entertainment magazines. The authors examined the association of age of characters with product advertised, health and gender of characters, and relational context of portrayals. Results indicated that older adults as well as children and teens were underrepresented in both cultures. Overall, women were overrepresented in younger age groups and underrepresented in older age groups, with this pattern being stronger in India. Indian advertisements portrayed characters in spousal relationships significantly more than U.S. advertisements. References to aging and older adulthood were more common in U.S. advertisements, as were overall associations between ill health and older adulthood.

KEYTERMS:

• aging
• cross-cultural
• India
• magazine advertisements
• media
• United States

Portions of this article were presented at the Ninth International Conference on Language and Social Psychology, State College, PA, June 2004.

Notes

Note. N = 132 characters for reliability sample. Characters were also coded in terms of the location in which they were portrayed, their occupation, activity level, and attractiveness. These variables were dropped due to poor intercoder reliability.

^a These did not demonstrate any variability in the reliability sample, hence coefficients could not be calculated. Reliabilities reported are from pilot coding of advertisements not in our data set.

Note. For U.S., χ²(6, N = 903) = 237.784, p < .001, w = .51, average absolute difference between column % and population % = 6.11%. For India, χ²(6, N = 445) = 482.22, p < .001, w = 1.04, average absolute difference between column % and population % = 12.93%. Total number of characters is smaller than the total number in the data set because age was not identifiable for some characters.