Cross cultural study of gender portrayal in children ’ s television commercials: Korea and Hong Kong

Cross cultural study of gender portrayal in children’s television commercials: Korea and Hong Kong • Young Sook Moon • Hanyang University • & • Kara Chan • Hong Kong Baptist University gender protrayal

Stereotypes in children’s advertising is believed to have potential impact on gender socialization, children’s views of themselves and other people • Gender role portrayal in advertising is well studied in some western countries • cross-cultural variation in gender stereotyping in children advertising was neglected gender protrayal

Many multinationals start to view Asian countries as a single regional market: fast development of communications more flattening of income, education, opportunity to travel and exposure to other cultures • Asia is really a series of localized markets with their own characteristics • Korea and Hong Kong differ in: history, culture, language advertising rules and regulations gender protrayal

Gender Socialization • Several theories to account for gender differences: cultural explanation: established through childhood socialization process structural explanation: arise from common positions in social structures social role theory: men and women behave according to the stereotypes associated with social roles they occupy (a more flexible perspective) gender protrayal

Hofstede’s typology • Five cultural dimensions: individualism/collectivism power distance uncertainty avoidance masculinity/femininity long/short term orientation • This study focuses on the Masculinity/femininity dimension gender protrayal

Masculinity Index (MAS) Korea Hong Kong 39 57 Feminine Masculine gender protrayal

Research question • How does the gender portrayal differ in children’s commercials in Korea and Hong Kong? preference for masculine or feminine values in a culture gender differentiation (whether there is sharp distinction between the roles of men and women) • Method: Content analysis of TVC gender protrayal

Hypotheses • H1: Characters in commercials are more likely to be portrayed in relationships with others in Korea (feminine society) than in Hong Kong (masculine society) • H2: Characters are more likely to be portrayed in work situations in Hong Kong than in Korea. • H3: There will be more sex-role differences between male and female characters in Hong Kong than in Korea. gender protrayal

Sample • N=345, unduplicated Korea: commercials of children’s programming from KBS2, MBC and SBS channels Hong Kong: 40 hours of children’s programming from TVB-Jade and ATV- home channels • Public services announcements, station identification and promotional messages were excluded gender protrayal

Two levels of coding • Each commercial, code: Product category, product user, sex of voice-over, music, presence of central characters, setting and reward type • Each central character (a child, adult, or cartoon human character appears most), up to two CCs, code: Character type, sex, age, role, employment status, activity, and whether he/she is a spokesperson • coded by two pairs of trained coders, • intercoder reliability ranged from 0.8 to 1 gender protrayal

% % 37.9 34.0 19.2 9.5 15.7 14.3 9.1 4.8 7.6 7.5 7.1 8.8 1.5 12.2 2.0 8.8 Table 1. Sample profile (N=345) Korea (N=198) Hong Kong (N=147) Product category Snack food Drink Toys and character toys Fast food Entertainment Education tools and services Medicine and personal goods Others Chi-square: 32.7; p<0.001 gender protrayal

Product user • Korean sample: 12 (6.1%) for male 14 (7.1%) for female 172 (86.9%) for both • Hong Kong sample: 15 (10.2%) for male 6 (4.1%) for female 126 (85.7%) for both • No significant difference gender protrayal

Voice over • Korean sample: 82 (41.4%) use male voice(s) 72 (36.4%) use female voice(s) 16 (8.1%) use male and female voices 28 (14.1%) no voice over • Hong Kong sample: 81 (55.1%) use male voice(s) 29 (19.7%) use female voice(s) 9 (6.1%) use male and female voices 28 (19%) no voice over gender protrayal

Central characters • Altogether 372 CC coded • Korean sample: 109 male CC (48%), 116 female CC (52%) • Hong Kong sample: 80 male CC (54%), 67 female CC (46%) • No significant difference gender protrayal

Relationship • Korean sample: 137 (61%) are in relationship roles, 88 (39%) are in independent roles • Hong Kong sample: 90 (61%) are in relationship roles, 57 (39%) are in independent roles • No significant difference, H1 rejected gender protrayal

Employment Status • Korean sample: 18 (8%) are in working roles, 207 (92%) are in non-working roles • Hong Kong sample: 11 (8%) are in working roles, 136 (92%) are in non-working roles • No significant difference, H2 rejected gender protrayal

Sex-role difference • Korean sample: no significant difference in the roles, recoded roles, employment and sex of spokesperson, significant difference in the activities of CC • Hong Kong sample: did not show great sex-role difference between male and female CC • H3 rejected gender protrayal

Hypothesis F-stat. 0.004 N.S. No 0.03 N.S. No No Results of hypotheses testing Sign. level Supported H1: relationship H2: employment status H3: sex role differences gender protrayal

Discussion • A country’s “gender” failed to predict the gender role portrayals of relationships • Possible explanations: the standardization of advertising strategy in the Asian Market heavy use of celebrity endorsement in children’s commercials in Korea women’s issues and rights are more in concern in today’s Korea work roles are seldom featured as children are not familiar with work gender protrayal

Conclusion & Further Research • Concept of “gender of nations” needs further examination • Application of Hofstede to marketing and advertising research is subject to trial and error • The current study can be repeated for adult’s commercials to see if there is any difference gender protrayal

Cross cultural study of gender portrayal in children ’ s television commercials: Korea and Hong Kong