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Gender Differences in Perceiving Advertising Texts

Rouzanna Arakelyan, Margarita Sahakyan
Yerevan State University

I
t would not be an exaggeration to say that today we live in an era of advertisment.

Nearly everyone in the modern world is to some degree affected by advertising and

other forms of promotion. Although few people admit to being greatly influenced by ads,

surveys show that a well-designed advertising campaign has dramatic effects. A logical

conclusion is that advertising works even below the level of conscious awareness and it

works even on those who claim immunity to its verbal and non-verbal messages. As the

main purpose of advertising is to attract attention, arouse interest and stimulate sales, its

textual message is thought over thoroughly. The language of advertisment should be pure

but complicated, soft but ordering, clear but full of expressive devices, the word order

should be both complex and simple, in other words, the language should be used to

attract the attention of a reader, listener or viewer at once. This could be done also by

appealing to emotions through arousing feelings of  love, fear or pleasure. 

The main persuasive goal of ads  is to strengthen or change one’s attitude toward a

certain product or service. So it is not by chance that many advertisers use more than one

technique in attemting to persuade consumers. To make the advertisment more effective,

one should know for whom the advertisment is created, thus creation of ads should be

carried out taking into account gender differences of  consumers  as well. Difficulties in

differentiating gender roles in modern societies can be a perfect example of the social

effects of using stereotypes. A division of gender roles is deeply rooted in the social and

cultural archetypes. 

Men and women perceive the reality and respond to it differently, so gender has a sig-

nificant impact on the way we communicate. Men are highly visual by nature and more

likely to absorb the total picture, wheras women are more detail oriented. It is not by

chance that women require a clear product or pocket of text for their eyes to land on,

while men will respond to the given images instantaneously. So, men and women are

capable of enjoying the same advertisments, but they are likely to respond to and

perceive ads differently. And since the process of perception of ads differs, the length of

time men and women need to analyze the ad also varies. Studies have shown that women

are able to retain more information from a 30-second spot than men do. But  women are

able to retain more information from ads, they also need to see a commercial several

times to be convinced to try a product or service. Therefore, women also require more

information before making purchasing decisions. 

Men tend to be oriented to the present and the visual, they don’t require more

information before making purchasing decisions and so will respond more effectively

than women to seeing an ad just one time. One more distinctive feature: men have greater

propensity to ads featuring humor, distinctive creative styles and a different type of

imagery, while women enjoy ads featuring children or a “slice of life’’. In other words,

men are prone to intellectual and intriguing ads, while women are prone to emotional

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appeals that border on family and children. And all the above mentioned does not come

as a surprise: we often begin life with gendered identities. We communicate our gender

identity and popular culture tells us what it means to be man or a woman. For example,

some activities are considered more masculine or more feminine. Similarly, the programs

that people watch on television or the news they read in periodicals or magazines affect

how they socialize with others and come to understand what it means to be a man or a

woman. As a culture changes, so do notions of what is masculine or feminine. The

popular notions of the ideal male (or female) characteristics are largely determined by

commercial interests, advertising, and other cultural fources. This is especially true for

women. Advertisments in magazines and commercials on television tell us what it means,

and how much it will cost to be a beautiful woman. 

Perfection is portrayed at every stage in life - whether it is a beautiful doll little girls

are given to play with or perfect-looking supermodels in fashion  magazines. It is not a

secret what is accepted and expected. Our expression of gender identity not only

communicates who we think we are but also constructs a sense of who we want to be.

We learn what masculinity and femininity mean in our culture and we negotiate how we

communicate our gender identity to others (Martin, Nakayama 2011:97). As a result,

nowadays mass media still uses gender stereotypes, basing on the assumption that they

are well known to everyone and help the receivers to understand the content of the

message delivered. It should be confessed that the differences between male and female

roles are smaller  today, however,  mass media perpetuates traditionally and socially

determine gender stereotypes. Though people are aware of the unequal representation of

certain social groups in any type of mass media, it is hard to remain objective and

insensitive to its influence. 

The portrayal of women in advertising is an issue that has received a great deal of

attention through years. It has been criticised for stereotyping women and falling to

recognize the changing role of women in our society. Critics have particularly argued that

advertising often depicts women as preoccupied with beauty, household duties, and

motherhood or shows them as decorative objects or intriguing figures. Portrayals of

women in television and print advertising have emphasized lack of intelligence and

credibility for high levels of efforts. According to S. Craig’s research, women can be

presented in commercials in several ways. The first one is the most popular: a housewife

who is obsessed by a steam on a new tablecloth or a woman whose main problem is lack

of ideas for dinner. The other examples are less traditional, however, they are still

stereotypical. One more type is a woman whose major concern is to preserve her beauty,

so she presents a very healthy life style: she is physically active, uses a wide range of

body and facial cosmetics. It should be noticed that one can observe mainly the presence

of very thin actresses in this type of commercials, which can lead to the idea that only

thin women can be considered an object of beauty. As a result, many female receivers fall

into the obsession with their weight, which sometimes can have negative effects (Craig

and Emerson 2000:65).

Advertising messages about women convey the idea that a woman’s place is in the

home, women do not make important decisions or do important things, they prompt us

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that women are dependent and need men’s protection, and men regard women primarily

as beautiful objects. Advertisements have consistently confined women to weak, child-

ish, dependent, domestic, irrational, subordinate creatures, the producers of children and

little else compared with men. Courtney and Lockeretz examined images of women in

magazine advertisements. They reported the following findings: women were shown as

dependent on men’s protection, they were  most often shown in ads for cleaning prod-

ucts, food products, beauty products, drugs, clothing and home appliances. Males were

most often shown in ads for cars, travel, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, banks, industri-

al products, entertainment media, and industrial companies (Courtney, Lockeretz

1979:92-95).

It seems that since then a lot should have been changed. However, the later research-

es have shown two opposite tendencies. According to one pole only few changes

occurred. The view is grounded on the idea that perhaps advertising has this powerful

role: to depict women not necessarily how they actually behave, but rather, how we think

women behave. Furthermore, according to E.Goffman, this depiction serves the social

purpose of convincing us that this is how women are, or want to be, or should behave.

On the other hand, one cannot overlook the fact that there has been a revolutionary

change in the workplace and in society since women began to come into the workforce.

Women nowadays are not only gaining ground in workforce participation, but arealso

filling positions once held primarily by men. If women have changed and if society has

therefore been altered, then it could not but be reflected in ads as the demands of the soci-

ety have consequently changed (Goffman 2009).

Whatever effort women put to take men’s positions in various spheres, one thing is

certain; there exist vast differences between their behaviors and the way society per-

ceives them. As already mentioned, the concept of beauty is assumed to be one of the

central issues in women’s lives. The beauty role - the importance of appearing attractive

in public, of maintaining standards, of encouraging male attention, is said to become a

central preoccupation for girls and remains a concern for women for much of their lives,

if not all their lives (Barthel 1988:10). For example, the advert of Palmolive Soap, pub-
lished in 1950, depicts a naturally beautiful, tall, slender woman wrapped in a towel.

From the modern perspective she would be considered rather old-fashioned, especially

the way her hair is pulled back and the bow tied in it. Another feature which divulges its

being out-of-date is the overuse of the text which is a rare thing among modern ads. A

full paragraph explains how doctors approve of the beauty soap and how it can help one’s

complexion. The ad has little angels around the woman and the bar of the soap. Next to

each angel is a description of the soap: Fragrance...for Daintiness, Mildness...for
Loveliness, Purity...for Gentleness, Bath size...for Thriftiness. Use only Palmolive to give
your skin this lovely charm... All over! The wording Daintiness, purity, gentleness, mild-
ness, loveliness alongside with little cheerful cherubs conveys the message that a woman
should be exactly that: a little smiling, mild angel. The language of the ad can also be

described as “mild and gentle”. The nouns are mostly formed on the basis of adjectives,

like dainty-daintiness, mild-mildness, lovely-loveliness pure-purity, thrifty-thriftiness,
gentle-gentleness, which create some light, airy atmosphere.

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R. Lakoff (2004) attempted to establish features which distinguished women’s lan-

guage from men’s language.  And one of the linguistic features she singled out was the

use of “empty adjectives”. These are adjectives that express feelings with no significant

meaning. It is argued that this special type of adjectives, distinct from neutral adjectives,

is characteristic of only women’s language. Among them R. Lakoff also listed adjectives

like lovely, charming, divine. This advert of Palmolive makes use of this type of adjec-
tives. Here are some more examples taken from Elle women’s magazine:

Get Gorgeous Hair and Glowing Skin for Good! 
The best hair products for shiny, oh-so-voluminous locks starting from

the roots.
It’s nothing but good hair days ahead this winter with these amazing

hair care products.
Get gorgeously glowing this Valentine’s Day. Beauty tips for perfect

eyebrows.

Though these empty adjectives are believed to express feelings with no significant

meaning, they seem to have the power of “imparting certain sense of confidence”; they

help the female consumer to imagine herself almost perfect and attractive. These empty

adjectives and adjectives in general, add some more emotional coloring and contribute

to the overall creation of the image. So, we may conclude, from what has been said,

that the ad is full of feminine features from both linguistic and extra-linguistic perspec-

tive.

The next linguistic feature we are going to discuss seems to have the same property

and ability. The feature suggested by R. Lakoff and reflected in the “feminine” commer-

cials are the intensifiers - linguistic means that make no contribution to the proposition-
al meaning of a clause but serve to enhance and give additional emotional context to the

word they modify: Mohair is our newest soft wear program: impressively soft impossibly
bright and extraordinarily user-friendly.

The examples discussed above come to state a rather disputable view - women are too

much concerned with their appearance and beauty. According to stereotypical views, that

is just the proper way she should behave. Women are relationship oriented, and look for

commonalities, their conversational style is described as consensus-building. In case of

women consensus means thinking alike, being in agreement, being the same. This idea

of “grouping into a team and being similar” is expressed in advertisements as well.  

Your friends use Mary Kay, and you? Only Mary Kay and Women! Dermatologists
have put something unusually strong in this skin cleanser. Dove. Their trust. Women trust.

The advertisement adduced comes to illustrate the point that women have created

their own separate world where they speak of things which they all use and here they may

share their experiences and give advice to others. For example, the advert of Mary Kay

suggests that a girl use the product as her friends have already tried it. So her friend’s

opinion can serve a kind of guarantee for her. However, it seems there is another motif

hidden under the claim “your friends use Mary Kay”, the so-called “motif of jealousy”.

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The ad seems to have a subtext which says; “your friends already possess the product, so

hurry and get one for you if you do not want to fall behind them”.

Your friends will want to look at it. You won’t even want to take it off to
shower.  

Years later babies will want to touch its light. Little girls will ask to try
it on. And long after everything has changed, you’ll look down at it and
realize nothing has.

Lately certain commercials targeting women speak (not always directly) of the

possibility of achieving the external beauty through the inner one. The concept of

the inner beauty is believed to be closely connected with nature and with the har-

mony of it. So very many advertisements state the product’s relation with nature.

For example; 

AVENDA: The art and science of pure flower and plant essences.
For Lancôme, beauty goes far beyond appearances. Beauty is an emo-

tion reflected on the surface of the skin. An awakening of the senses, a har-
monious connection between the mind, body and soul.

Femininity in the last ad is expressed through the use of the words flower, plant which
seem to be rare things in adverts designed for men unless they are used with reference to

women. In the commercials targeting men the concept of nature is basically used with

reference to medicine. Perhaps the fact that women are portrayed closer to nature is hid-

den behind the prototypical perception of nature as a woman. The associations of women

with nature are reflected in languages as well. For example in Latin, Italian, French,

Russian or Spanish the word nature is gendered as female: la natura, la nature, priroda,
la naturaleza, etc. Besides, woman and nature share the same characteristic features -
giving birth and providing the balanced life cycle. 

The concept of infinity is expressed in the ads of cosmetics as well where it stands as

an indicator of the reliable quality of the product. The advertisements of Estee Lauder
and Max Factorassert: 

Lauder lipstick makes lipfinity. Max Factor Lipfinity Colour and Gloss
is an innovative double ended Lipstick which gives a depth of multitonal
colour and shine for an eye catching look that lasts up to10 hours.

Here the combination of lip + infinity results in an interesting neologism lipfinity
which seems to promise to entirely meet the women’s demands of having long lasting

color on their lips which would not fade as soon as they eat or drink something. 

Women targeting advertisements can freely “play with different colors” creating new

shades:

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First we doubled the color, then we doubled the wear, for lipcolor that’s
made to last. And added shimmering reflectants that give your lips dramat-
ic depth. In fifteen shades that will make a lasting impression. Double
Color Everlasting Lipstick. Non- stop color in 15 shades. From Petal Petal
to Honey Honey.Estee Lauder Lips.Buttery yellow, white hot and honey
hues ruled the spring runways. Our expert shares five tips on how to cre-
ate—and maintain-the perfect shade...

The adverts represent a very interesting interpretation of different hues of colors

which probably would be better perceived by women-consumers. Generally advertise-

ments designated for women are much more colorful not only from the linguistic per-

spective. 

Though in the course of time the image of the “newwoman” has undergone a number

of changes, there has always been a kind of concern on women’s not losing their femi-

ninity. Nowadays we may say that women have mostly succeeded in keeping the balance

between traditional femininity and traditional masculinity. In advertisements passive,

feeling-based adjectives and verbs are now replaced by lively, energetic and “action-

requiring” words which are considered to be men’s property. The woman is encouraged

to liberate herself, to be free; she is provoked to take her life in her own hands and to set

up her own rules for the game. 

Take control of your life: make him fall for you.
Nowadays you have to have brains as well as beauty.
Love me! Smashbox’s new “Love Me” lip gloss range is funky, fresh

and full of street cred.  

Male stereotypes are quite different. The first model is “a real man’’, athletic,

successful, professional seducer with a nice young lady by his side. The other type is

less popular and presents men devoted to their families who can save enough time for

them. Men are rarely presented during household activities. And if they are, it is rather

a satirical image or they appear as experts and they are the ones who advise women

how to to do things.  On the whole, men are generally shown more knowledgeable,

active, aggressive and instrumental than women. Nonverbal behaviours involving

dominance and control are associated more with men than women. Advertisments

directed towards children have also been shown to feature more boys than girls, to

position boys in more dominant, active roles. Here are some examples to illustrate the

points mentioned: 

For the men in charge of  Change. (Fortune buisness Magazine)
Try Nivea for Men Energizing Face Scrub, a hardworking face scrub

for hardworking men. (Nivea for Men)
It is for you. Buy the car. Own the road. (Pontiac Grand Am)

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It’s not your car. It’s not your friends. It’s not  your job. It’s your watch
that says most about who you are. (Seiko Watch)

The language of ads becomes more expressive with the help of tropes and figures of

speech which provide the stylistic effect of advertisements; the use of tropes makes the

language of advertisements unique, original, consequently natural. The most frequently

used tropes to denote feminine and masculine features include metaphor, metonymy,

hyperbola, epithet, simile, personification, etc. Epithets are often used with reference to

those products which would “flatter” the consumer: cosmetics, perfume, products which

offer luxury, etc. Epithets are to be extraordinary and, the more unique they are, the bet-

ter they are remembered. For example:

Hair care is war/fight. Hair is under attack. The environment, heat
styling, colouring and bleaching can all take their toll. Paul Mitchel fight
back with new Super - a 3 part strengthening system for your hair. (Paul
Mitchel Luxury Hair Care)

Vital Oils are high quality essential oils infused into pure, skin-soften-
ing organic apricot kernal oil. Preservative and colour-free, with nosyn-
thetic perfume, the results are out-of this world aromas. With names that
conjure the atmosphere they help to create. Choose from Restoring
Comfort, reviving Harmony and sensual Bliss.

Similes are often used for introducing something unknown through something

familiar. In advertising they are basically used for original sounding, for example,

Swarowsky. Pure like love. Metaphors, as means of figurative language, are widely used
in advertising because they can arouse and enliven the consumer’s imagination, and rep-

resent an effective means to create brand associations and enhance persuasion. In adver-

tising metaphors have the following functions: firstly the metaphor is considered to be

“the material” through which the essence or basic idea of an ad is conveyed. One of the

specific features of human mind is that an idea is better memorized in case it takes a

metaphoric form. And, secondly, metaphor gives birth to new ideas and enforces the

inner motivation. It influences indirectly and, what is more interesting, it reduces the

level of criticism in consumer’s mind with reference to advertising: it is difficult to con-

tradict one’s own ideas and associations (Bernadskaya 2008:67).

When used in advertising, metaphors create a picture in consumers’ minds and tap

into meaning that is shared both by the advertiser and the consumer. Metaphors may not

accomplish their desired objective, however, if they are complicated or too abstract.

Imposing certain feature that is typical of humans on a product may leave an impression

as if the product is a part of our life. This is why personification is used in the advertise-

ment of Geox shoes where the product is endowed with human ability to breathe: Geox
Shoes that breathe or Baon Clothes with temper. Metonymy involves the substitution of
an aspect of a product, thing or person for the thing itself, such as the crown represent-

ing the Queen. The Sunday Times is the Sunday Papers is a form of metonymy, trying to

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get the brand to stand and represent the entire product group (Brierley 2002:147).

Hyperbole very often seems to be an indispensable part of advertising. It is necessary for

the psychological influence as it exaggerates certain qualities of this or that object or

event and underlines the uniqueness of the product (Blackest Black from Great Lash).The
following example shows how the producers use certain objects metaphorically for cre-

ating a symbolic effect in consumers’ minds. 

Now get extremely big, way-out-there lashes that defy reality. E-long
extends natural lashes to supernatural lengths – up to 50 percent longer.
Super brush separates, defines and lengthens beyond belief. It’s great to
exaggerate.

The text of any advertisement is thought over thoroughly and delicately as each sen-

tence, each word can be the key to any product’s success. In this sense a great

significance is attached to the ability of communicating correctly with both target groups

of people and target individuals (Berdishev 2008:76). The right knowledge of the com-

municative process and its main techniques can be effective and can lead to the desired

results. The importance given to the linguistic means used in advertisements, allows us

to conclude that advertising occupies a special position in the problems related to the

development of modern society. Advertising deals with ideas, attitudes, and values. It is

an interesting issue of discussion from the psycholinguistic perspective, as first and fore-

most, it is closely connected with the art of speech, with the art of persuasion.

Commercials are powerful tools used for creating and shaping opinions, as well as

forming proper choices. Texts of advertisments contain the prevailing characteristics of

the objective reality, therefore stereotypes are very often used in the commercials as one

of the most popular techniques of persuasion. It is evident that advertising is a huge and

pervasive industry: it has a powerful effect that goes well beyond the purpose of selling

products to consumers, it affects our culture and our views, therefore it is extremely

persuasive. Consumer advertising most commonly associates products with symbols that

exemplify values, feelings, prestige, status, power, achievement or just plain pleasure.

The effect of gendered differences is apparent; gendered advertising beliefs, attitudes,

values and consumer behaviour exist, therefore advertisers recognize them, understand

them, and use them to design gender specific advertisments. 

References:

1. Berdishev, S.N. (2008) Reklamni tekst. Metodika sostavleniya i oformleniya. M.:
Dashkov i K.

2. Belch, G.E. and Belch, M.A. (2001) Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated
Marketing Communications Perspective. San Diego State University.

3. Bernadskaya, Yu.S. (2008) Tekst v reklame. M.: Yunitti-Dana. 
4. Brierley, S. (2002) The Advertising Handbook. Canada: Taylor & Francis Group.

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5. Courtney, A. & Lockeretz, S. (1971) A Woman’s Place: An Analysis of the Roles
Portrayed by Women in Magazine Advertisements. // Journal of Marketing Research,
Vol. 8. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

6. Craig, S. and Emerson, R. (2000) Feminist Media Criticism and Feminist Media
Practices. // The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

7. Goffman, E. (1978) Gender Advertisements. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.

8. Lakoff, R.T. (2004) Language and Woman’s Place: Text and Commentaries. New
York: Oxford University Press.

9. Lee, M.; Johnson, C. (2005) Principles of Advertising: A Global Perspective. NY:
The Haworth Press.

10. Talbot, M. (2010) Language and Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.
11. Martin, J.N.; Nakayama, Th.K. (2011) Experiencing Intercultural Communication

(An Introduction). New York: NY.

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