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Visual gender stereotypes in advertising. An experimental study on the effectiveness of implicit stereotypes in print advertisements

In the 20th century, women became more powerful and climbed into professional and managerial jobs. These changes incited equality between men and women. This (r)evolution is also reflected in advertisements as various studies show that gender stereotyping (i.e., male dominance and female subordination) in advertisements has decreased. However, although women are no longer simply and solely depicted in the private sphere and in housewife roles, subtle and implicit gender stereotypes in advertisements are still common. The current study therefore explores the affective (ad-likeability) reactions of average consumers to those implicit gender stereotypes. In particular, an experimental study with 315 participants shows that people do not differ consistently in their preferences for either an implicitly a-stereotypical or stereotypical portrayal. Moreover, no gender nor age-related differences were found in preferences for stereotypical versus a-stereotypical gender stereotypes.