Texas A&M University

College of Liberal Arts

Communications

How is the Female Market Affected by the Depiction of

Controversial Social Issues in Advertising?
Research Project for Communication 291

Haley Carson, Lauren Ward, Julie Rakowitz

Communication 291
Professor Street
December 4, 2015

Carson, Ward and Rakowitz 1

The Introduction
In nearly every form of media, readers and viewers alike are exposed to advertisements that represent a
myriad of brands. A large variety of these advertisements portray women to the world, and consequently
present a substantial message. According to Tania Maree, Advertising is seen as a reflection of societal
norms, (2014). As women in advertisements range from stay-at-home, loving mothers to sexual teases,
there are countless representations of women in the modern industry. These controversial social issues
rooted in advertisements have embedded themselves in society, intertwining themselves in the lives of
women. By conducting our own empirical research, we were able to determine how these advertisements
affect women of all ages, how those ads influence their purchases, and if they would be more inclined to
support brands based on the message sent by the advertisement.
The Purpose
Social issues pertaining to advertising, including the portrayals of women, are important to researchers
because of the large influence advertising holds. Female appearances in advertising can affect a womans
self-esteem, especially as advertising portrays women as oversexualized, or generally inferior to men.
Attention must be paid to this controversial issue to promote a societal change and encourage the female
market to be more critical of brands they support. To encourage women to support an advertisers ideas
and products, We must create ad platforms that treat women and girls as if theyre fully human, so we
can turn them into brand loyalists, (Zmuda and Diaz 2014). This topic is especially popular in the field
of communication because the message sent by advertisers often times does not equal the message
received by consumers. The controversy of advertising stems from the idea that not all generally
perceived messages are being accurately portrayed to target audiences.
The Question
The research question we asked is, How is the female market affected by the depiction of controversial
social issues in advertising? To come to this question, we first started thinking about the emotional
appeals in advertising and how they affected consumers. Then, we wondered: How do advertisers convey

Carson, Ward and Rakowitz 2

emotion in their advertisements to reach their target audience? Upon further investigation, we found that
the advertisements that most affected consumers were ones that involved controversial social issues. To
further narrow the field of study, we chose to specifically study and research how those issues affected
women.
The Method
To analyze how the female market is affected by the issues that surround advertising, a survey was
conducted among young girls and women, ranging in ages sixteen to sixty-eight. This sample of females
was selected at random, based on personal networks in which the researchers could use to reach
respondents convenience sampling was not employed. The survey was comprised of open ended
questions, so that respondents could answer freely. The survey method worked well for this research
because it revealed the respondents thoughts and feelings. The survey method also reveals how
respondents intend to behave, which allowed us to see respondents buying strategies based off of
advertisements. Since we were specifically studying the effect of controversial social issues in advertising
in regards to the female market, the survey method provided us with ample data to favorably answer this
question.
The Data
One hundred percent of the women surveyed responded that they do not believe women are accurately
portrayed in advertisements. When asked why they felt this way, women responded that the depiction was
sexualized, degrading, or stereotypical. This hones in with other female critics such as Lesli Pace, who
claims that advertisers, Accept the cultural construction of womens bodies as commodities, (2005).
Women surveyed were also asked to view two advertisements. The first was an Always advertisement that
supported female empowerment, and the second was a Calvin Klein perfume advertisement that showed a
partially naked woman. After viewing these advertisements, we asked women to reflect on how these
depictions made them feel, and if the message sent had any impact on their brand support. Fifty-six
percent of women said that their buying habits are affected by advertisements, and the other forty-four

Carson, Ward and Rakowitz 3

percent responded that they buy products based on quality. All of the women surveyed stated that they
liked the advertisement for Always because it relayed a positive message. None of the respondents liked
the Calvin Klein perfume ad, yet twenty-four percent stated that it was a typical platform.
The Analysis/Interpretation
Women do not like the way females are portrayed in advertisements, as it accentuates the image of
women as a selling point. Advertisers often misrepresent their subject due to the fact that they are
utilizing outdated and inaccurate stereotypes; women have progressed continuously, and advertisements
often fail to reflect that (Zayer and Coleman 2015). Although, women as a whole seem to have become
immune to the negative messages sent by advertisements, likely due to the prominence of negative
advertising in modern society. Most of the time, women disregard these messages and focus on the
quality of the product; however, if advertisers are spreading positive messages within the structure of the
advertisement, women would be more likely to support their cause (Yilmaz 2013). This infers that women
are more likely to not support a brand if it sends a negative message or contains an inaccurate portrayal of
women. Overall, our research has led us to the conclusion that women assume various stances on the
controversial social issues in advertising, although women of all ages are alike in that they do not think
women are accurately depicted by advertisers.
The Conclusion
Advertisements can determine the way women make decisions about the products they use and ultimately,
how women view themselves. As communicators and researchers, we should draw attention to these
apparent controversial issues in our advertisement driven society and attempt to mend the skewed
relationship between product and product advertising. Advertisement projections should contain no biased
material and eliminate message negativity, while also establishing a realistic portrayal of everyday
women. Any and all projections should not degrade any audience. To move forward in the way our
society advertises, professionals must put aside what sell to what positively promotes. Advertisers should
focus on the rhetoric of empowerment to strengthen their brand and market (Duffy 2010). In doing so,

Carson, Ward and Rakowitz 4

brands can strengthen their name while also sending positive messages through accurate portrayals of
women.
The limitations/future directions
By choosing the survey method, we limited our research because this method does not establish causality.
In other words, it conceals what women actually do as consumers in their everyday lives and how they
subconsciously act toward advertisements containing these controversial social issues. Another limitation
was making generalizations about women as a whole from a sample of women. Our data can only predict
how women feel about this issue, based on the research obtained from our survey sample. This data will
not prove how all women in society think and feel. In the future, we would want to know how advertisers
react to the controversial social issues that they themselves embed in advertisements. Future research
would shed light on the thoughts and feelings that advertisers have pertaining to this. If advertisers could
see what our research concluded, would it yield any effect on them?

Carson, Ward and Rakowitz 5

The Bibliography
Duffy, Brooke Erin. "Empowerment Through Endorsement? Polysemic Meaning In Dove's UserGenerated Advertising." Communication, Culture & Critique 3.1 (2010): 26-43. Communication
Source. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
Maree, Tania. "Through The Looking-Glass: Exploring The Wonderland Of Other Female Portrayals In
Advertising." Communication: South African Journal For Communication Theory & Research
40.2 (2014): 113-136. Communication Source. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Pace, Lesli. "Image Events And PETA's Anti Fur Campaign." Women & Language 28.2 (2005): 33-41.
Communication Source. Web. 14 Oct. 2015
Tuncay Zayer, Linda, and Catherine A. Coleman. "Advertising Professionals Perceptions Of The Impact
Of Gender Portrayals On Men And Women: A Question Of Ethics?." Journal Of Advertising 44.3
(2015): 1-12. Communication Source. Web. 15 Oct. 2015
Ylmaz, Rasime Ayhan, and Mesude Canan Ozturk. "Emotional Appeals Are Used In Social Advertising:
Content Analysis On Turkish Case." Online Journal Of Communication & Media Technologies
3.3 (2013): 74-90. Communication Source. Web. 15 Oct. 2015
Zmuda, Natalie, and Ann-Christine Diaz. "Marketers Go Soft On Feminism." Advertising Age 85.18
(2014): 16. Communication Source. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.