Adolescent evaluation of gender role and sexual imagery in television advertisements.

For this study, it is important that several audience comments were geared to male and female normative roles rather than being directed to the self. Perhaps a more in-depth examination of adolescent responses to television ads might generate more self reflection--e.g., social vignettes that respondents place themselves in and provide completion to illustrate their view of themselves in present or future mode.

Cognitive listing is a useful, though time-consuming, way to measure what people perceive to have been their thoughts while viewing. Although many respondents did not respond to gender roles and sexuality, an impressive number did. It is important to remember that respondents were not probed about gender roles or sexuality--they simply responded as to their thoughts about the advertisements they viewed. We need to take these cognitive thoughts one step further, to demonstrate their impact in mediating effects from the advertising stimuli--e.g., studying interpersonal communication and relationships regarding sexual behaviors as a function of attending to and challenging this imagery.

In addition, thinking-out-loud protocols, likely done individually, might yield more reliable and valid affective coding. Although comments about male ad models tend to be neutral and some respondents admired the beauty of advertising models, generally, and particularly in beer ads, a majority of the comments criticize the images of females. This might have some bearing on how television executives and advertisers think about the needs of their audience. Similarly, health educators might wish to focus on how to provide adolescents with more realistic, fair, and balanced information about sex and gender roles, as well as the related dangers associated with these--e.g., unwanted pregnancies, sexually-transmitted diseases, and problems associated with alcohol.

One major limitation of this study is that the viewing experience was not realistic in that people were not watching the shows and responding to ads in a natural fashion. Instead, they were asked to evaluate the ads. In addition, they were asked to do this quietly without sharing their responses with others. We do not know whether adolescents would choose to do this activity, and if so, they might do it in a social setting, producing different results.

Another limitation is the social desirability induced in repeated requests for respondents to evaluate ads. Although these task demands are a limitation, our procedure, similar to other persuasion studies (Cacioppo, Harkins, & Petty, 1981), was likely to elicit criticisms of the central content of ads, such as product claims or truthfulness, than unsolicited commentary on gender roles. There were few extremely sexual ads, so we did not expect an obvious objection or astonishment with sexual content. We do not believe respondents readily determined that we were interested in gender role or sexuality comments about ads. The respondents were never asked specifically for these types of information.

Finally, adolescent criticism of gender roles has implications for media literacy advocates and advocates for the elimination of negative stereotyping in the media, as well as the media industry's decision makers. Tied in with the self-socialization perspective, it appears young people as a social group may have their own agendas that are not directed by adult social "agents" or status quo when viewing television ads. Younger viewers may experience more interaction with members of diverse cultures, they may be more tolerant of that diversity and they may be more educated than the rest of the population about media images, effects, and ways of coping with deleterious content. What works effectively in a beer ad to appeal to a 35-year-old male may not work as well for the 15-year-old who might be critically evaluating gender roles, including objectification, invisibility, and unnecessary sexual presentations. This suggests media researchers, health educators, and campaigners might have a lively, active audience for their causes if they are studying message effects of information campaigns, anti-social content, and ads-particularly those that may present unintended, negative gender role stereotyping as well as stereotyping of other social groups like race, and those differing on sexual preferences, sexual orientations, and abilities.

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