Configuration of Gender Stereotypes in Children's Advertisements. Comparative Study between Spain and Argentina

Abstract

The content analysis of advertisements which are addressed to children's audiences is relevant as an approach to the exposure that this audience has to a social discourse characterized by a manifest interest in persuading. Based on Gender Theories and Cultural Studies, this study analyzes how gender stereotypes are configured in advertisements broadcasted in the context of children's TV-shows in Spain and Argentina during several weeks in July and August 2019. The sample is taken from Disney Channel in the morning slot. The particularity of the study presented here is that the observation and analysis has not been restricted only to advertisements from the toy industry, and the range of observation has been extended to other industries that share advertising space with the toy sector. To this end, a mixed content analysis methodology has been used to analyze a non-probabilistic sample of commercials addressed to children in order to observe and analyze the gender appeals and contexts in which the advertising narrative is articulated. The results indicate that the advertisements addressed to this audience keep binary and dichotomous roles translated into representations and stereotypes present both in the advertising narrative, as well as in the actions of the characters who are protagonists in the advertisements