Gender stereotypes in original digital video advertising

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study looks into gender stereotypes in original digital video advertising as an independent trend in the advertising industry worthy of a new avenue of research. Content analysis is performed on a judgemental sample of 324 original digital videos that have won awards from professional marketers. The results show that there is no statistically significant association between gender and any of the ten studied attributes (mode of presentation, credibility, role, age, argument type, reward type, product type, background, setting, and end comment). Although previous studies depicted men in male-authored science roles and with muscular physiques and women as objectified and a hypersexualized subordinate to the male, this research shows that women and men are equally portrayed in non-stereotypical activities and roles, However, central figures are more likely to be men than women, indicating a gender difference in terms of the assignment of main roles. This paper highlights the change in women’s roles as well as advertisers’ and marketers’ criteria for the content of original digital videos.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender stereotypes
• original digital video
• advertising
• content analysis
• marketers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Elena Aramendia-Muneta

Maria Elena Aramendia-Muneta is a lecturer in Marketing at the Business Administration Department of Universidad Pública de Navarra, and researcher at HoNEST (Horizon 2020 European project). She has been a guest lecturer in different universities in Italy, Slovenia, Belgium, France, Latvia and Lithuania among others. Her primary research fields are e-Marketing, e-Advertising, e-Tourism and History of Marketing. She has published in journals such as Telematics and Informatics, Journal of China Marketing, International Journal of Management Cases and International Journal of Business Anthropology.

Cristina Olarte-Pascual

Dr Cristina Olarte-Pascual is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at the University of La Rioja (Spain). She holds a PhD in economics and management from Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). She is also Director of the Chair in Commerce at the University of La Rioja. She has participated in many research projects and international conferences. Her main research interests include consumer behaviour, mobile marketing and marketing innovation. She has participated in more than 50 conferences and published relevant research in books and international journals, such as the Computers in Human Behavior, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Frontiers in Psychology, Telematics and Informatics, Food Quality and Preference or the International Journal of Innovation and Learning. (ORCID: 0000-0002-9853-0266; Researcher ID: L-5766-2014; Loop profile: 304,111).

Leonidas Hatzithomas

Dr Leonidas Hatzithomas is an assistant professor in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Macedonia, Greece. His research interests include humor in advertising, visual metaphors, gender issues and social media. He has published in a number of journals, including the International Marketing Review, International Journal of Advertising, Psychology & Marketing, Food Research International, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Journal of Marketing Communications, International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, International Journal of Internet Marketing & Advertising, Journal of Customer Behavior and Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising.