Gender stereotypes through television advertising : A comparative analysis of French and Quebec television advertising

Details

Supervisors

Cougnon, Louise-Amélie

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue

Abstract

enAdvertisers use various methods to draw people’s attention and trigger desire to purchase. In advertising, a lot of sexist slogans and stereotypes are widespread every day through different mass media. After a theoretical study on gender stereotypes in France and in Quebec, this thesis aims at identifying gender stereotypes in French-speaking television advertising through various analyses, comparing French to Quebec television advertising by showing the similarities and differences between the two regions, and determining if one region is more prone to using gender steretoypes through television advertising. In this paper, we find out if gender stereotypes are still represented in current TV commercials, how they are represented and what the differences are between French-speaking television advertising. The study is focused on three product categories: food advertisements, beauty product advertisements and automobile advertisements in two French- speaking regions: Quebec and France. Concretely, we examine 48 television advertisements through various criteria: the product category, the region, the environment, the voiceover, the object and the advertising speech. On top of that, we carry out eye-tracking experimentation on ten participants in order to identify gender stereotypes and detect differences between the two regions. Throughout this dissertation, five research hypotheses are set forth, which accompany and encompass the subject of the study.