Women in Advertising: An analysis of student attitudes towards the depiction of women in advertising; and its effect on consumer behaviour.
Acknowledgments
The completion of this study could not have been possible without the assistance of the several individuals/ groups. Firstly, I would like to thank the BCM210 staff for providing the opportunity to conduct this research.
I would like to extend special thanks to Kate Bowles, for providing her expertise and guidance on the framework of conducting research, and for sparking interest into the topic.
A debt of gratitude is owed to Stephanie Hanson, for taking the time to guide the flow of research and taking the time to read previous assessments, providing critical feedback.
Last but not least, thank you to all the BCM210 students who took part in the survey. Without you, the relevant information would not have been gathered.
Summary
This research project was conducted as an assessment of the BCM210 subject at the University of Wollongong. This research addresses the topic of the portrayal of women in advertising and the attitudes that students have towards this depiction. As well as, if these attitudes held by the students affects the way they purchase products. This report topic developed from curiosity towards the much talked about topic of the portrayal of women in media. Research conducted by Susan DeYoung and F.G. Crane in Canada and by Muris Cicic, Nenad Brkic and Amra Skrobo in Boznia, (Cicic, Brkic & Skrobo,2006) (DeYoung, & Crane, 1992) provided the foundation of the research. From the research the previously mentioned conducted, it was suggested that if an individual found the portrayal of women to be inaccurate and if an advertisement was deemed offensive they would discontinue using the product. Through conducting and analysing online surveys this report aims to uncover the attitudes that the students at the University of Wollongong have towards the depiction of women in advertising and if this attitude affects the way they purchase products.
Aims
The aim of this research project is to investigate the attitudes that students at the University of Wollongong have towards the representation of women in advertising. As well as, establish if these attitudes change their approaches to purchasing products.
Methods
In order to gain the most potential success for the research the method used had to be effective and efficient. It was decided that the best way to conduct the research, reach larger numbers of individuals and gather relevant information a survey was conducted online. Although originally intended to be completed by individuals over all age groups, however strict guidelines given by the University meant that only individuals within the university could be surveyed. In order to adhere to these regulations, the link, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9B96HZP (now closed), to the survey was posted on the BCM210 Moodle Spread sheet for students of the course to complete. This narrowed down the findings to a particular set of individuals.
The survey consisted of 2 questions and 10 statements to which the responder must answer. The survey was conducted using a 5 point scale ranging from 1- strongly agree to 5- strongly disagree, the responder will then choose which of the five answers resonates with them. This will enable the attitudes students have on the topic to be gauged. The first group of questions will establish the attitude the individual has towards the female’s depiction in advertisements. The second lot of questions will be used to determine if these attitudes towards the depiction changes the individual’s perspective when buying products. The following are the questions asked in the survey:
- Are you male or female?
- What is your age?
- Ads I see show women as they really are
- Ads that I see accurately portray women in their daily activities
- I find the portrayal of women in advertising to be offensive
- Ads treat women as sex objects
- Advertising suggests women do not make important decisions
- If a new product is introduced with ads that I find offensive, I might still buy it if it offers me benefits that I find attractive
- If a new product or service that I use adopts an ad campaign which I find offensive, I’ll discontinue using it
- If I see an ad that is offensive for one product, I would discontinue to purchase other products that I have been using from the same company
To maintain ethics, the survey began with a brief introduction in order to explain the purpose, state confidentially and consent and enable any further communication between researcher and respondent. The following is the brief introduction included at the commencement of the survey:
This is a voluntary survey, to be completed by students studying at the University of Wollongong. This survey consists of 10 questions and should only take 10-15 minutes to complete. Participation in this survey will be completely anonymous as to protect the privacy of all participants. By selecting submit you are consenting to the use of any information gathered through the completion of this survey.
This survey is being conducted as part of a research project being conducted at the University of Wollongong. The aim of this research is to identify the attitudes students have towards the portrayal of women in advertisements, and whether this changes consumer behaviour. The findings from this survey will be published on my website https://brianawallace.wordpress.com/category/bcm-210/ where they will be available to the public.
If you wish to follow the research or contact me, you can do so by looking at the website mentioned or by messaging me on twitter @Bri_dubbleyou
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey.
It was decided to conduct online surveys as they can be accessed anywhere and on any device making it easy to fill out on the go; this is done to accommodate a university students busy schedules. The collection of data is also made easier as the service used (Survey Monkey) provides collated data of all the responses in the form of bar graphs and percentages as each individual response.
Findings
The first 2 questions in the survey aimed to establish the gender and age demographic of those partaking in the research. 28 students from the University of Wollongong, 18% of which were male and 82% were female, completed the survey.
As the survey was conducted amongst university students it was expected that a majority would fall within the 18-29 age bracket. 64% falling in the 18-20 age group (figure 2)
Questions 3- 7 aim to establish the attitudes that students have towards the portrayal of women in advertisements.
Figures 3-7 show that the students of the university of Wollongong find the portrayal of women in advertising to be inaccurate with 46% of students saying they disagree and 25% strongly disagreeing that the advertisements they see depict women as they are. Figure 6 shows that a majority of students find that women are treated as sex objects within advertisements. However, Figure 5 shows that a majority of students don’t really find the advertising of women to be offensive with 36% agreeing with the statement. By comparing the information from Figure 5 with the other figures it can be suggested that although students find the portrayal of women to be inaccurate they don’t necessarily find the portrayal offensive.
Questions 8-10 are asked to determine if the offensiveness of an advertisement affects the way they purchase products. The answers to each of these questions is shown in the graphs below.
The data from Figure 8, Figure 9 shows that even if a student finds an advertisement to be offensive they will still purchase products from companies if they offer other benefits that appeal to them. However this being said the answers in Figure 10 show that when asked if they find an advertisement offensive for a product they would discontinue using products from the same company, 36% both agreed and disagreed and 29% answering neutral. Suggesting that the students at the university don’t necessarily care about the offensiveness of an advertisement if the product gives them benefits.
Concluding discussion
Although the data I analysed is inconclusive as only students of the university of Wollongong as per university guidelines. The data provided from the survey responses show that although the students surveyed mainly agree that the depiction of women in advertisements is inaccurate they don’t necessarily find it offensive. It also shows that even if an advertisement if found to be offensive it doesn’t affect the way they purchase products and will continue to purchase products from companies where extra benefits out way the offensiveness of the advertisement seen. This data although inconclusive can provide some insight into the minds of university students and how they perceive advertisements and the portrayal of women in these advertisements.
In order to obtain more sufficient data for this research focus groups could have been conducted to gain qualitative data to why the students have certain attitudes towards the portrayal of women in advertising and the effects of the offensiveness of advertising on the products they purchase.
Further research can be conducted on the topic by surveying students in other universities and surveying individuals of varying demographics. By doing so a more conclusive analysis can be achieved. Another area of further research can be done into the topic of what do the students at the university find offensive and what makes it offensive.
Reflection
The way individuals perceive an advertisement determines if the company will succeed in selling the product. For this research to work with the time frame and student sample size I had to chose a narrow topic of research. I chose to explore the attitudes towards the portrayal of women in advertising and whether or not it affects consumer behaviour, as it is a highly debate topic. It is a topic that has been discussed repeatedly and one that has varying opinions causing controversy. Over the years it has been debated that women are portrayed as housewives, dominated by men, as sex objects and have been set an unrealistic standard of beauty. I was curious to see what attitudes the students at my university have towards this topic.
The research conducted has introduced some interesting data on the topic and how students at the university of Wollongong perceive advertisements. When deciding on the methodology of this research and the types of questions I would ask I would had to consider reflexivity. That is being aware of and examining my own ‘conceptual baggage’ and reflecting on the relationship with the respondent (Hsiung, 2010). That is my own assumptions and preconceptions about the topic in order to minimise the affect it had on research decisions, particularly the wording of questions asked and how the relationship dynamic affects the response to questions. To avoid my own prejudices on the topic being present it was decided to ask students to determine whether they agree or disagree with certain statements.
When conducting the research I had to ensure I was ethical and respectful, as I have a social responsibility towards the research topic and the participants of my surveys. I have a responsibility to educate individuals on a topic and contribute to the world’s database of knowledge, as there is a relationship between any research conducted and the lives of others. When dealing with ethics I had to differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour (Resnik, 2016) in order to create a respectful and safe environment for those participating in my research. The Media alliance code of ethics (Ross, 2008) provided a guideline to follow to maintain ethical research. The main ethical concerns were and are; Participants must consent to information used and their privacy and confidentiality must be respected, when conducting research honesty is key, no deceptive practice is allowed and all results should be accurately represented.
While conducting background research and when gathering the information from completed surveys and analysis the data to reach conclusions, I must have critical judgement to ensure that I can make informed judgements and evaluations about the validity, reliability of information gathered. These skills in critical analysis facilitate the examination of the significance and the relationships between the different components of information before conclusions can be drawn (‘Develop your skills in critical thinking and analysis’ 2015). Critical Judgement involves:
- Questioning and evaluating information
- Looking at the big picture and context of a topic
- Looking at theory and questioning how it relates to practice
- Asking the what? How? When? Who? Why? And what if?
- Analysing different viewpoints and forming own conclusions
- Reflecting on work and deciding on future improvements
By thinking critically and maintaining ethics and respect I am able to maintain accountability and integrity. I am held accountable to deliver accurate results in a timely manner, fairly and honestly report any problems and limitations, as well as make modest claims that are supported by the information I collect. I intend to publish my findings on my wordpress blog, which is available to participants and the public if it is within the university guidelines to do so. This will be done to generate further discussion on the topic. My research would be useful to advertising agencies and marketing executives as they can use it to see what can be done to improve sales and acknowledge how individuals perceive the portrayal of women.
Bibliography
Cicic, M, Brkic, N & Skrobo, A 2006, Public attitudes toward use of female body in advertising in Bosnia and Herzegovina, University of Sarajevo, accessed March 27, 2016, from <http://www.anzmac.org/conference_archive/2006/documents/Cicic_Muris.pdf>.
‘Develop your skills in critical thinking and analysis’ 2015, accessed April 20, 2016, from <https://www.uws.edu.au/hall/hall/critical_thinking>.
DeYoung, S & Crane, FG 1992, Females’ attitudes toward the portrayal of women in advertising: a Canadian study, NTC Publications Ltd, accessed March 27, 2016, from <http://www.warc.com/fulltext/ijoa/5225.htm>.
Hsiung, P-C 2010, ‘Process of reflection’, lives & legacies, accessed April 15, 2016, from <http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~pchsiung/LAL/reflexivity>.
Resnik, DB 2016, ‘What is ethics in research & why is it important?’, National Institute of Environemntal Health Services, accessed April 18, 2016, from <http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/>.
Ross, P 2008, Media alliance code of ethics, accessed April 18, 2016, from <http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/0921_meaaethics.pdf>.
Through My Eyes! 