Sex sells - still

The study examines the portrayal of women in advertising. A total of 560 TV commercials from 1996 and 2016 from seven product areas were analyzed to show changes over time.

The study examined the status, appearance, personality and role of women, as well as signs of social subordination and sexualization. The study came to the conclusion that today just under one in three women (30 percent) is portrayed in a sexualized way in advertising. In 1996, it was still more than one in two women (54 percent). Whereas in 1996 sexualized portrayals were particularly prevalent in the automotive and trade services sectors, in 2016 the cosmetics industry, with 68 percent, shows by far the most women revealing themselves or making provocative and seductive gestures, although the majority of this industry is aimed at young, self-confident women. Significantly fewer women are compared with the merits of the product or reduced to their appearance as mere eye-catchers. In 2016, this quasi commodity character applies to five percent of all female performers shown. In 1996, it was still twelve percent. The proportion of women breathing sensually into the camera also fell from 21 to four percentage points in the period under review.

Reverse sexism and signs of social subordination in advertising

Furthermore, the study examined signs of social submission of women in advertising. According to the American sociologist Erving Goffman, this includes women who allow themselves to be lectured, bow physically (e.g., tilted head position), touch themselves and others gently, or turn away from the camera shyly, for example by lowering their gaze. According to the study, one in four women (26 percent) shows signs of social submission in advertising. Twenty years earlier, the figure was 42 percent. Whereas in 1996, for example, 20 percent of all female actors were still caressing products and tracing them with their hands or gently touching themselves, in 2016 the proportion was twelve percent.

"Even if we can observe a sharp decline in obviously discriminatory advertising, it is the sum of stereotypical roles, social submission and sexualized modes of presentation that explains why many women feel discriminated against by advertising," says Dr. Andreas Baetzgen, professor in the Advertising and Market Communication program at the HdM. The omnipresence and matter-of-factness with which women are still shown stereotypically, submissively and sexualized in advertising calls for a broad and differentiated social discussion to further raise advertisers' awareness of the problem, according to the initiators of the study. It was conducted by Hannah Leute under the direction of Prof. Dr. Andreas Baetzgen at the Institute for Creative Industries & Media Society at Stuttgart Media University.

You can find an excerpt from the study here.