THE IMPACT OF PORTRAYALS OF THE IMAGE OF WOMEN ON THE TELEVISION ADVERTS OF ALCOHOL & TOBACCO:

(A CASE STUDY OF GUINNESS STOUT & BENSON & HEDGES CIGARETTE).

ABSTRACT

It is rare these days to see advertisement broadcast on television without women playing prominent ant visible roles.  Such roles range from complementary, subjective, subordinate to major actors in most television advertisements.  Women’s role in Television advertisements have hitherto generated series of controversial arguments both in favour and against, especially in the advertisement of tobacco and alcohol products.

Thoughts are also rife regarding various environmental and societal influences limiting the roles women play in these advertisements.  In the minds of the publics, the image of women who participate in such advertisements are at stake.

Based on this and other manifold allegations and realizing the implications of those to the status of women and society at large, it became imperative to carry out a study to either prove or disprove these allegations.

The introductory chapters of this work dealt on advertising, what it is all about, the role of advertising as understood by the public, why most advertising agencies use women in advertisements and the roles of women in advertisements.

The literature review did not stop only at x-raying generally the roles of women in advertisements and the image their portrayals creates in the minds of viewers but went further to reveal societal reaction, beliefs and influences, promoting or limiting such roles.

Four hypotheses were generated for the study.  using the social scientific survey method of research ad analysis on two case studies, information collected were tabulated in percentage, and frequencies in relation to the variables of interest.

The results were also analyzed based on the chi-square method of statistical data analysis to find out the level of support each hypothesis generated for the study gained.

It was discovered after data analysis that the presence of women helps in the acceptance of the advertisements in which they appear.  It was also observed that the presence of women in tobacco and alcohol advertisements negatively affects their image.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.2      STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

1.3      OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.4      SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.5      RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.6      RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

1.7      DEFINITION OF TERMS

1.8      LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

REFERENCES.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1      SOURCES OF LITERATURE

2.2      THE REVIEW

2.3      SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW

REFERENCES

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1      RESEARCH METHOD

3.2      RESEARCH DESIGN

3.3      RESEARCH SAMPLE

3.4      METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

3.5      METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

REFERENCES

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

4.1      DATA ANALYSIS

4.2      ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS

4.3      ANALYSIS OF HYPOTHESIS

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1      SUMMARY

5.2      CONCLUSION

5.3      RECOMMENDATION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

QUESTIONNAIRE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

People have for centuries communicated their ideas and needs to one another through advertisements.  They have sold houses, expressed ideas, and engaged in a wide range of social and economic activities through advertisements.  Government communicates with the people, politicians with their constitutuents corporations communicate with the city and their shareholders, employers announce job opportunities and persuade people to come to them.  Charities exhort people to support their many causes.  The uses of advertising are many, and advertising is a constructive part of our social fabrics.

The term advertising has been defined in various ways by various people.

The American Marketing Association defined advertisement as the “non-personal presentation of goods, services or ideas for action, paid for by and identified sponsor”.

Advertising can be defined simply as Mass Communication whose aim is to create awareness for products, services, ideas projects, institutions or individuals and persuade the right target audience or consumers to purchase, accept, adopt, vote or engage in other behaviours desired by the sponsor of the advertisement.

Advertising as we understand its meaning today was not used until 200 years ago, the practice of using advertisement for the transmission of information goes back to ancient Greek and Rome.

Television, delayed by World War II began in the mid 1940s.  During the first decade of television the advertiser usually sponsored a program as commodity and was identified with an entire program.  Advertisers were naturally attracted to this medium because it provided an opportunity for presenting live demonstration to large audiences.

Advertising is an agent of choice, one of the most important benefits of advertising is that it makes the consumer to become an active rather than a passive agent in the economic cycle.  In order to make purchase decisions or social decision, the consumer must be informed ideally, he should receive his information from a variety of sources and the paid-for advertisement is one of these sources.

Although people use and approve of advertisements, they are often critical of advertising in the abstract.  Yet again, careful research has shown that advertising is something they accept as part of their lives, they do not talk about it as much as other issues, they do not criticize it as much as other issues and they do not see it as much in need of reform as other things which make impact on their lives.

This is partly because the role of advertising is understood by the public and partly because the whole advertisement industry works towards maintaining the confidence of the public can have in advertising communication by maintaining high standards and trying to make sure that the public are not mislead.

Interestingly, advertisements also make positive contribution to the content of the media in which they appear.  One survey showed that some people liked their television commercials more than the programmes, when the advertising association asked women if they would like their magazines to appear without adverts, there was very considerable agreement that they would not.  The entertainment and informational value of advertisement is appreciated.

Beyond the general rules and principles, the APCON code provides guidelines relating to special categories of advertising.  For example, in tobacco advertising, the code requires that all advertisement messages carry the warning “The Federal Ministry of Health warns that smoking is dangerous to health and smokers are liable to die young”.  On the advertising of alcoholic beverages, the code warns that no alcohol advertisement should be shown in children’s programmes and that children, sports men/women and pregnant women should not be used as models in alcohol advertisements.

Even in the United States of America, the regulation of advertising of tobacco and alcohol products dates back to 1970s.  Then, cigarette advertisements on television and Radio were bared.  Reacting to the development in memo to employees, Steven Gold store, Chief executive of RTR “radically changed the way we do business”.  The tobacco industry in the United States, he said “will have to adjust from being a cash rich free wheeling marketer to one of the most regulated businesses in the United States, from an industry that cannot advertise enough to one that can barely show its face.

Jeffery Harns, Economic Professor at Masachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) has estimated that the tobacco industry in the United States spends 15 billion per annum on advertising and wide-ranging promotion but noted that this would shrink due to regulations.

Haunted by harsh government policies, advertisers of tobacco and alcohol have resorted to any unknown strategy to keep the industry in business as well as maximize profits.  One of this is the use of women in the advertisement of these two products.  A typical example is with Guinness Stout and Benson and Hedges cigarette.  However, the objective and motive of the advertisers are the same – he/she wants to inform possible consumers of what is on offer, and persuade them to buy his goods, think about the product or accept his point of view by increasing their association with the product.

Society believes that it is wrong for the women folk to indulge or engage in smoking and taking alcoholic drinks, if not privately, at least publicly.  This motion has lived with us for years and can be said to be part of our culture.  On the contrary, we see women being used in the advertisement of these products that are considered a taboo for them.

In advertisements, women have been the advertisers’ delights.  Being naturally inviting and most times seductive, they are being used to attract and arrest attention.  By portraying certain groups of individuals in certain roles, advertising promotes stereotypes.  Women are usually portrayed as housewives, mothers/wives or companion to men, thus apparently relegating them to a secondary role.  Only in some cases are they shown as business executives.

Cigarettes advertisements that include women do so either to give an impression of a kind of sanctity provided by them, although they are not usually shown as smokers or to create a romantic situation.

Often, the portrayals of women as sex objects is not cluttered up with the extraneous idea that women hold jobs, even if they are jobs as helpers to men.  In the pure sex object category, women are exploited out-rightly for the titillation and amusement sometimes even the sadistic fascination of men.

Myra Janco Daniels, president of Draper Daniels Inc. in Chicago sees a “feudal concept of women as property” in some cigarette commercials, “the handsome unsmiling man in dark glasses punished any woman who presumes to take his cigarettes.  With cool deliberation, he deserts them on the highways, ocean liners, cable cars and mountaintops.  Another variation in the campaign proclaims.  “Cigarettes are like women, the best ones are rich and thin.

The image of women in advertising is as much defined by the adverts that omit her as those that exploit her.  Business executives and doctors for example are always men.  Even the language is male oriented like General Electrics, “Men helping man” on an advert that discusses he development of nuclear power plants.

Adverts did not create these images about women but it is a powerful force for their reinforcement.  It legitimizes the idealized stereotyped roles of women as tempress, wife, mother and sex object and portrays women as less intelligent and more dependent than men.  It makes women believe their chief role is to please men and that their fulfillment will be as wives, mothers and homemakers.

This research venture is therefore aimed at not only x-raying the role of women in tobacco and alcohol adverts but also the type of image such roles create for them in the minds of the public.

1.2      STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The role of women in the society is diverse just as the society itself.  And in advertisements, they have been the advertisers delight.  Women are naturally inviting and in some cases compelling in their feminine characteristics, for advertisers, women are used to attract and arrest attention and subsequently evoke interest.

Catherine R. Langan likened the iron with spike to a female that have the potential to harm.  Therefore, it is not passive and weak but again has its hidden strength.  there is the natural, feminine associated cutting in rebellion against the man made world.

But what is the role of these women in tobacco and alcohol advertisement such as Guinness and two products, women are not know to be major consumers.

This study is intended to find out whether the use of women in the adverts of these products affect their image in the society as well as people’s perception of the women folk especially the models in such adverts.

It is the intention of this study to also find out the actual role of the image of women in the adverts of these products.  Whether by their preference to men in the adverts, they contribute to the consumption of the adverts and be extension, the product.

1.3      OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This research is being conducted with the following objectives in mind.

(1)                 To scientifically prove or disprove that women enhance the acceptance of advertisements on tobacco and alcohol as Guinness Stout and Benson & Hedges Cigarette.

(2)                 To confirm if this acceptance translates into more consumption of the products.

(3)                 To prove or disprove that women used in advertisements of tobacco and alcohols as Guinness Stout and Benson and hedges cigarette create good images for themselves.

(4)                 Finally to confirm that by using women, advertisements on these products compel more women intake of the products.

1.4      SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is the product of a long rooted curiosity by the researcher to scientifically discover why women, a sex not noted for their high rate of consumption of alcohol and tobacco are used in the advertisement of these two products.

The researcher at the end of this work hopes to actually find out the truth in the contention that the use of women in Guinness Stout and Benson & Hedges Cigarette advertisements enhances the acceptance of the advertisements.

It is also hoped that the study, which is aimed at a definite conclusion would provide another academic reference for students of social sciences, researchers and advertising practitioners.

This work is also hoped to guide the public in their perception of women used in the advertisement of the two products.

The study is also aimed at providing scientific data to guide the government on her regulations of the practice of advertising especially through the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON).

1.5      RESEARCH QUESTIONS

(1)  Why are women portrayed in advertisements that involve products that are related to females?

(2)  Does the presence of women in advertisements of alcohol and tobacco help in the acceptance of the advertisements?

(3)  Does the presence of women in advertisements affect the image of women?

(4)  Is the image of women in Guinness Stout and Benson & Hedges Cigarette advertisement negative or positive?

1.6      RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

H1:Women are always portrayed in advertisements that involve products that do not relate to females.

H0:    Women are not always portrayed in advertisements that involve products that do not relate to females.

H2:    The presence of women in advertisement of alcohol and tobacco helps in the acceptance of the advertisement.

H0:    The presence of women in advertisement of alcohol and tobacco does not help in the acceptance of the advertisement.

H3:    The presence of women in advertisements affects the image of women.

H0:    The presence of women in advertisement does not affect the image of women.

H4:    The image of women in tobacco and alcohol adverts presents negative response.

H0:    The image of women in tobacco an alcohol adverts presents positive response.

1.7      DEFINITION OF TERMS

IMAGE

Conceptual:        A mental picture or concept of something or somebody.

Operational:        The perception/view of the public towards the use of women in alcohol and tobacco advertisements.

IMPACT

Conceptual:        Effect something has on another thing.

Operational:        Effect of the portrayal of image of women on TV adverts of tobacco and alcohol on the viewers.

WOMEN

Conceptual:        Adult female human beings.

Operational:        The adult females who are being used as models in the advertisement of tobacco and alcohol.

ALCOHOL

Conceptual:        Large group of chemical compounds f the same type.  Pure, colourless liquid present in such drinks as beer, wine, brandy, whisky, etc.

Operational:        In this research work, alcohol refers to Guinness Stout brand of beer.

TOBACCO

Conceptual:        Plants/leaves, which are dried and used for smoking.

Operational:        Here, tobacco refers to a Benson & Hedges brand of cigarette.

ADVERTISING

Conceptual:        The act of making something known to people through the use of Newspapers, Radio Tv. Etc.

Operational:        Mass Communication whose aim is to create awareness for products and persuade the right target audience or consumer to purchase, accept as desired by the sponsor of the advertisement.

ADVERTISEMENT

Television information on Guinness Stout beer and Benson & Hedge cigarette advert in which women are portrayed as a way of luring people to buy.

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