Chapter 2:
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Chapter 1 |
Copyright John Worth; originally published 1997 |
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Introduction
Researchers
have been investigating how women are portrayed in advertising since the
early 1970s, coinciding with the women’s movement in the United States.
However, only recently has the role of women in Japanese advertising begun
to be analyzed. This
chapter reviews the research in two broad categories. The first section
will look at Japanese culture with some historical notes, focusing on
those elements which 'define' (if such is possible) the role women have
played in that society. Concluding this section will be a discussion of
the role women play in contemporary Japan. The
second section will cover advertising as it relates to this thesis. A
definition of advertising per se will not be given; rather, the focus will
be exclusively on first research into Japanese advertising in general
followed by a broad look at the research into women in Western
advertising, primarily the United States. Finally, studies on the
portrayals of women in Eastern advertising will be examined, concluding
with those rare studies on Japanese advertising. The prior research has
been summarized in Table 1. JapanThe
Japanese woman is the product of centuries of mixed signals. This section
will explain why. There have been many foreign influences on Japan
throughout the nation’s history. There is also a complex web of rules
governing interpersonal contact, both between the sexes and within the
sexes. While the explanations of individual concepts related to
interpersonal relationships is not relevant to this study, it is important
to note the evolution of these relationships over the centuries. Foreign InfluencesAccording
to Kumagai (1995), Japan has been influenced by multiple foreign cultures
throughout history. First, oriental cultures (chiefly Chinese and Korean)
entered Japan over 1200 years ago. From these came a writing system,
organized government, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Chinese ‘pop
culture’ – dance, art, clothing, calligraphy – had a particularly
strong presence in Japan, much like French and European fashions and art
were (and still are, to an extent) considered leaders of American culture,
China set the precedent for Japanese culture. The
Europeans (primarily the Portuguese and Dutch) entered Japan progressively
up until the country closed itself off from foreign influence in the
seventeenth century. From these traders the Japanese learned, among other
things, how to make the tools of modern warfare: guns. Even in the period
of isolation, the Dutch were allowed to have one trading port in Nagasaki.
In the years that followed Admiral Perry’s appearance and ‘request’
that the Japanese open their country to trading – referred to as the
Meiji Restoration or Revolution, or just Meiji – the nation’s
modernization moved at a rapid pace. (Though the country was forced open,
evidence suggests that the social and political climate within Japan was
ripe for just such a change.) However, as will be explained later, the
social advancements were largely reserved for males; the government, at
least in early Meiji, went so far as to pass laws preventing women from
partaking in ‘deviant behavior’ such as cutting their hair short (Sievers,
1995). From
this period until the Second World War, Japanese society was more or less
able to pick and choose what they wanted to learn and from where. Morton
(1984) referred to the early twentieth century as the 'take-off point' for
the Japanese economy. Those in government who had originally opposed the
Meiji reforms had for the most part died or become too old to exert any
real influence. Japan followed most of the developed Western nations and
began to seek out countries for colonization, a move backed by a military
built largely with foreign technology. The
First World War greatly boosted Japan’s economy. Great Britain, Germany
and the United States, all strong shipping powers, suffered large losses
to their merchant fleets; Japan did not and moved in to take up the slack
(Morton). This
pace of economic expansion continued up until the Second World War,
interrupted only by the great Tokyo earthquake; though the loss of life
was over 100,000, the city was literally wiped clean and new buildings of
a more ‘Western’ style were erected (Morton). After the War, it was
the American occupational forces that helped create a constitution for the
Japanese (based on the American model), provided the impetus to reorganize
government, and, in so doing, within Japan a sense of gratitude was
generated towards the United States. Interpersonal communicationDi
Benedetto et al.. (1992) said that, “In Japanese, what is most important
frequently is not what is stated explicitly but rather what is implied by
the speaker or writer.... This avoidance of directness in expression is
pervasive in all types of communication among the Japanese, including
their advertising” (p. 40). In a sense, the Japanese have a strong sense
of intuition. Society as a whole is relatively structured, with a complex
web of rules which govern action and behavior. While this is true of
American society as well, Japan is, relatively speaking, culturally even,
and to a large extent the unwritten codes of conduct are adhered to almost
uniformly across the country. This
‘group consensus’ is a factor in all levels of inter- and
intrapersonal communication. Not only does a person know what to expect in
certain situations, but there is a society-wide expectation to ‘go with
the flow.’ In Japan, the pressure is to conform. Condon (1984) noted
that
[e]very person, everywhere, is both an individual, separate from Sometimes,
as with schoolchildren, the groups are obvious. Other memberships are more
subtle. The ‘good wife’ is one such category. Though
the evolution of the woman’s role in contemporary Japanese society has
been widely studied, it is perhaps the least understood. It has been over
a thousand years since a woman in Japan held any form of 'real', i.e.,
political, power. First, Shinto, the native religion of Japan, put women
on a somewhat equal footing with men; in Japanese mythology, even, the
leader of the gods, Amaterasu, was a woman, the sun goddess, and women in
early Japan were thought to have supernatural power beyond men. (Perhaps
fear of this power led the males to want to control women so tightly.)
Buddhism, brought from China, taught that women were one of the sources of
temptation that could lead men away from the path of enlightenment. The
third strong religious influence, Confucianism, spread the belief that
women should obey first their fathers, then their husbands, and finally
their sons. These influences gradually pushed the woman inside the home.
One of the words in Japanese for wife emphasizes this point: a man refers
to his wife as kanai, which
means inside the house. Women
and change
Researchers
have noted that women were often affected by changes in Japanese society
to a greater extent than men. Most of the great social reforms affecting
women, however, were not consciously initiated by women themselves, but
were, instead, efforts by the government to appease the Western powers and
appear more ‘civilized’ by the Western definition. Whereas in the
United States women have been actively fighting for change for a hundred
years, Japanese women were much more passive in their fight for equality. Iwao
(1993), however, notes that the generalization that women were primarily
home-bound was for a long time true only among the upper classes. It was
not until after the Meiji restoration that an attempt was made to
'integrate' all women into the upper class culture. She notes that while
men have superiority in government and companies, all forms of visible
power, women have dominated the family and home, including finances (dansei
jooi, josei yuui). In fact, women’s power in society lasted until at
least the Muromachi period (1333-1467), when “commoner women enjoyed
freedom (including freedom in such areas as love and marriage), equality,
and power as they worked under much the same conditions as men” (p. 5).
Like the West, though, the upper classes of this age gave very little
direct control to women, but revered and protected women; chivalry
dictated that women should not have to worry about the complexities and
stresses of governing and holding power; over time, perhaps, society
forgot why women were not given power, and simply did not give any.
Confucianism dictated the power (or, rather, the lack thereof) given to
women. After
Meiji, women were a prominent, though not respected, force in the new
nation. According to Skov and Moeran (1995), “at the beginning of the
country’s industrial development in the Meiji period, in particular
between 1890 and 1910, women made up over two thirds of the labour force
employed in private companies” (p. 15). Japan’s first labor strikes
were called by women in the 1880s to protest poor working conditions and
low wages. However, though women provided the power and created the
foundations upon which the economy would grow, the control still rested in
the hands of men. (It was not uncommon for fathers to 'sell' their
daughters to factories for periods of time in exchange for money.) The
economic success of Meiji Japan brought about service industries that gave
women employment options. “In contrast to those working in the textile
industry who had remained hidden in the factories, women who took up these
new jobs were very visible in the communication, transportation and
consumption of modern urban life” (Skov and Moeran p. 16). This growing
service sector created a consumer culture, complete with increasing
numbers of ‘social’ magazines (not concerned with news, politics or
academics) as well as celebrity endorsements in advertising. Coinciding,
then, with the rise in consumerism was the natural growth of
image-oriented advertising to the masses. However,
women, though they made up a sizable percentage of the pre-war workforce,
were not being portrayed in the media as part of the working class. In
1933, the Tokyo Asahi Newspaper published its Changing
Japan Seen through the Camera. “Its photos strike a fine, though
even at that time well-tested, balance between the monuments of
modernization..., on the one hand, and modest markers of Japaneseness...,
on the other” (Skov and Moeran p. 17). However, though commonly seen in
society of the day, only one photograph showed women engaged in physical
labor. Most common were photos of women as consumers. The service sector was the transition period
that, much like in the United States, created in women an interest in
motion pictures, coffee shops, shopping, and other leisure-oriented
activities. Yet women were not 'independent' in the Western sense. In
fact, there is evidence that, while perhaps they idealized American films
and modeled their fashions after Western stars, Japanese women were not
overly inclined to be Western. Emulation of physical styles does not imply
adoption of values. Women as mothersPerhaps the most important traditional role for a woman was as mother. According to Smith and Schooler (1978), “Japanese society has traditionally placed a high priority on the maternal role and has de-emphasized the conjugal one" (p. 613). To some this was the only role, the woman seen as a womb, an incubator of the preferably male children of the nation. Shand noted that “the Japanese maternal role performance ... is seen as a crucial link in the transmission of the culture group’s valued characteristics from generation to generation” (p. 52). Traditionally, then, the woman was in reality more than just a breeding partner; the mother alone had the burden of taking the child and forming it to fit the ideals of society, teaching, to a point, both male and female children their place in society. The ie (home) was her domain. Research has shown that modern Japanese women still hold onto the concept of ‘woman as mother’, but not universally. Smith and Schooler found that the better educated a woman was, the more likely she was to shun the traditional maternal role. Moreover, these women strayed from the belief that the good mother must place her child’s welfare before her own. Shand
(1985) found that the above changes also varied depending on one’s age.
Naturally, older women, who were brought up in a period where the
‘traditional family’ was still intact, felt strongly about the
traditional maternal role, while younger women, raised in an age of
economic success and assaulted by the mass media and other products of a
culture of consumption, tended to be more open to change. She noted,
however, that the large majority of women perceive, or at least say they
perceive, their role as being more traditional. Women
as independent
White
(1992 ) postulates that the social fabric within Japan is being forever
altered by women in the 1990s. She says “women are bringing many
formerly taboo issues out of the closet and changing not only their own
lives but those of men, children, [and] society itself” (p. 61).
Increasingly women are emerging from behind the scenes and taking a more
active role in the process of social change. “They have become the most
visible, and audible, agents of change in Japan” (p. 62). White
(1992) says three dominant images of women have emerged (note that these
are not the same as the three distinct generations defined by Iwao below;
White’s concern is with images). From the 1950s to the 1970s “women
were to help in the reconstruction of Japan by providing a stable family
life for their children and for their dedicated salary man husbands”.
White refers to these women as the 'dedicated and dependent' housewives.
The images shifted in the 1970s; “the idea of the separation of spheres
clarified the distinct turfs of men and women, and women tried to live up
to ‘professional mother’ standards set in the school and community”.
However, towards the end of the 1980s the options available for women
began to expand to allow greater access to the “success ladder formerly
reserved for men. The housewife-professional now is joined by the
career-professional of the 1990s” (p. 63). White
(1987, 1992) says that Japanese society has relegated its members to
predetermined roles. From a young age, the path a child follows is
somewhat predetermined. Elementary school children compete for admittance
into ‘good’ schools, a trend which continues until they become
employed. “Status and ideology” (White, 1992, p. 68) which have
defined different paths for the sexes, in the past “have only
occasionally been questioned, though the reality of suppressed ambition
and discrimination... has been discussed among women over the past 40
years” (p. 68). These two spheres – one a facade of what the male
dominated society thinks, the other the reality of what women think –
are now in direct opposition. “Women now see themselves, employment, and
the workplace from a different perspective” (p. 68). Another
observation made by White (1992) is that Japanese are “champion
shoppers” (p. 71). Anyone who has been to Japan for even a brief period
can attest to this. Further, sports are also becoming increasingly popular
among females, particularly golf and tennis. These
social changes in the woman’s role noted by White are most probably
linked to changes in the greater society. The late 1980s, for example, was
an era of economic prosperity, followed by a recession in the 1990s. There
have been equal opportunity laws passed to provide a more even playing
field for women. Three
generations
Iwao
(1993) said that there are three primary generations of Japanese women in
society today, each with a different value set. Older (born
before 1935) –
Pre-war Japanese women were raised under the ie
system. The ie, which means house,
was described by Nakane (1972) as “a corporate residential group and...
a managing body.... The ie is a
social group constructed on the basis of an established frame of residence
and of of management organization” (pp. 4-5). In this framwork, the ie
social unit is the most important; other human relationships are
secondary. More than just a simple hierarchy of power, the ie is integral to the social function in Japan. Women, then, were
taught that men were superior and that the role of the woman was to
maintain the home and, to a certain extent, the family (“good wife and
wise mother” model; Iwao p. 19). They were content with their
“repertoire of sex roles” and strictly adhered to the prescribed
role-relevant behavior. “Many women did work to help make ends meet, but
no matter how large their contribution, their work had nothing to do with
personal actualization or fulfillment; it was simply to support the
husband’s role as breadwinner” (p. 20). This
generation is the first to grow up in what White (1995) called the
“modern consumer society” (p. 258), a result of economic prosperity
and increasingly greater urban populations. Production’s focus began to
shift towards the growing consumer markets. Youth began to spend more time
away from the home, creating a youth market. However, this generation knew
two different economic realities: consumerism and mass depression,
worsened by war’s devastation. Post War 1 (born between 1946-55) – The first
generation to grow up after the war was faced with conflicting ideas. On
the one hand, their parents and mentors were of the older generation,
enforcing upon women the limited role of the past. On the other hand,
these women grew up under a new constitution that, in theory, promised
equality for women. (The vagueness of this term was irrelevant; it was, in
a real sense, the thought that counted.) This
generation also grew up in the technological age. Indoor plumbing and
electricity became more and more widespread, in many cases for the first
time. Women who once washed clothes by hand in local streams now used
washing machines. Like their Western counterparts, technology increasingly
eased the burden of housework, giving the women more free time. (The cost
of these household gadgets, moreover, created the need for more income
with which to purchase them.) Television slowly filtered out of the
cities, sparked by the loosening of the government’s grip on the media.
Further, the cities began to grow as more and more families began to
migrate from the countryside in search of work which paid more than
farming. (Here, too, technology decreased the need for manpower in the
fields; the migration to the cities fed the need for technology, which in
turn fed the migration to the cities, and so on.) The
1973 'oil shock' profoundly affected women of this generation. The
financial crunch forced women to seek work outside the home and
subsequently they began to play a larger part in consumption. Marketers
began to target this generation, the “new families” (an expression
coined by the Public Relations department at Marui Department Store). The
focus began to shift from consumption for the sake of improving household
life (where advertising focused on the women as the family representative;
further, the aim was to place products in all homes) to consumption for enhancing oneself (Skov and Moeran). Skov
and Moeran note that “in this period, there was a major shift in
emphasis in the way in which the media represented and addressed women,
from ‘women in the household’ to ‘women as individuals’” (p.
28). This generation also experienced the Decade of Women (1975-1985), and
the media began to strongly focus on women in the first baby-boom
generation. Post War 2 (born between 1960-69)
– The second post war generation was raised in the
era of prosperity marked by the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. This generation
knew very little of the hardships encountered by their parents and
grandparents; this was an age of change, both technological and social,
and the youth of this era reaped the financial windfall of their
parents’ efforts. Evidence
of the effects of social change in this generation became visible in
Yoyogi Park in early 1980s Tokyo, where youth groups sporting fashions
ranging from 1950s American rock to British punk (and diverse others)
began to influence all of Japanese society (Skov and Moeran). Media
attention began focusing on this shinjinrui (new breed) and marketers quickly began pushing the
fashions and styles being imported, at least in concept, from the West. “What
was new about these men and women,” Skov and Moeran note, “was that
they were not willing to sacrifice themselves for their companies without
getting anything in return, and that they regarded leisure as almost as
important as work” (p. 29) They are more individualistic than their
parents and became the nation’s principal consumers of leisure goods and
travel. Women and media
Japanese media... are marked by a preponderance of visual This
is not out of line with Western advertising. However, Skov and Moeran note
that there are conflicting representations of women in other media.
“Japanese media have a marked tendency to place women in typical
housewife rather than working roles in fiction and drama.” Women
reporters are “chosen because of [their] looks and youth, rather than...
knowledge and skills as a journalist.” Society has, perhaps, “loosened
[women] from their backstage position at home, and recast them as floating
signifiers of the female form. In the process we find an ongoing
displacement for women’s desire for consumer goods with men’s, indeed
society’s, desire for the female body” (Skov and Moeran p. 44). AdvertisingAdvertising
is both the black sheep and golden calf of the mass media. Charles Sandage
(1990) said that “[U.S.] society holds advertising responsible to inform
and persuade members of society
(p. 4).” Advertising is an educator, and often receives more criticism
than praise. As
“a formative influence within our culture” (Richard Pollay, 1990, p.
438), advertising has been under the microscopes of researchers from
across the social science spectrum (and, perhaps, beyond). This section
will first look at literature about Japanese advertising and then work on
women in advertising. Japanese AdvertisingAdvertising
in Japan is not as apt to use the logical argument as American
advertising; rather, instead of appealing to the “reason of the
audience” Japanese ads are more image oriented and appeal to the
sentiment of the audience (di Benedetto et al. p. 40). The ads are more
abstract; it is the implied meaning that is important. Research
has noted that advertising practitioners use several promotional
techniques in television advertising. One is to promote the product based
on the image of the originating country, or, often the country that the style
of the product comes from: Scotland with whisky (including that made in
Japan), France or Germany with wine. Other countries have a particular
reputation or positive image that can be associated with a product: Swiss
mechanical precision and watches, chic fashions and France, Italy and
romance. Still other countries have unique cultural icons, and those
images are used in the expression to give the products the 'flavor' of the
country of origin: American cowboys, British Beefeaters, a Scotsman in
traditional attire (Nishina, 1990). Messages
can also be constructed to reflect the history of the product in Japan.
The ad campaign falls back on product reputation. There are even instances
where a foreign product (or company, in the case of Proctor and Gamble) is
actually perceived to be Japanese simply because it has settled
comfortably into the market.
The Japanese “Soft-sell”Mueller
(1987) noted that magazine advertising in Japan was 'less direct' than
Western-style advertising. “[Japanese] advertisements appeal much more
to the emotional level of the consumer and rely on building atmosphere
within the confines of the printed page” (p. 55). One way comparative
appeals are made softer is by not directly mentioning the competitors. The
implication is that the consumer should make his own comparison. An
examination of television commercials (Ramaprasad and Hasegawa, 1992)
confirmed that the soft style is not confined to the print media. The
researchers found that “the Japanese make less use of the hyperbole
strategy” than America (p. 65). They attributed this to the preference
for softer strategies. Kishii (1988) noted that “Japanese advertising
creates a happy, friendly atmosphere, invites the recipients of the
message to share it, and seeks to raise their awareness of and familiarity
with the product” (p. 53). The purpose of advertising within these
parameters is not to push a product, it would seem, but designed, like a
television program, to entertain the audience. One
distinction between the hard- and soft-sell techniques is the amount of
information presented. Both Hong et al. (1987) and Madden et al. (1986)
found the level of information in Japanese magazine advertisements to be
higher than in American advertisements. Ramaprasad and Hasegawa (1990),
however, discovered that Japanese television commercials were less
informative than American ads, and used transformational strategies over
informational. Furthermore, the informational strategies were very rarely
comparative, instead relying largely on Preemptive or USP (unique selling
proposition). Kishii (1988) said that Japanese advertising has lower
language content than American ads, a fact attributable to the
aforementioned social expectations placed on people. Related is the
tendency toward short commercials. It is common knowledge among
researchers of Japanese television advertising that the majority of
commercials are 15 seconds long (Lin, 1993; Ramaprasad & Hasegawa,
1992, 1990; Sengupta, 1996). Yet
another element of the soft-sell is the types and degree of emotional
appeal employed. In a comparison with American magazine advertisements,
Hong et al. (1987) discovered that “Japanese ads were... more
emotionally oriented than American ads” (p. 60). This finding is true
regardless of product type. Ramaprasad and Hasegawa (1992) found that this
was also true of television advertising. The researchers went one step
further and said that the physical appearance of the commercials was
conducive to promoting an emotional atmosphere. “Japanese commercials
use mood-creating nature symbols which are serene. It is possible that the
fewer camera shots in Japanese informational commercials might be a
manifestation of [using] emotional execution strategies” (p. 65). Reverent societyThis
veneration of nature extends to members of society as well. Mueller (1992)
and di Benedetto, et al. (1992) indicated that in advertising, as in
society as a whole, the older members of the population are highly
respected, even if the age difference is as little as a year. A younger
person (koohai) will interact with their elders (sempai) by asking for – and going by – their advice, deferring
to their opinions, etc. Likewise, traditional symbols are also used in
respectful ways. This can be seen in the traditional home, where an altar
existed for the family’s ancestors, and offerings of food were
periodically made out of respect. Mueller (1992) found that the Japanese place an
emphasis on status (perhaps an extension of the feudal class system).
Thus, while everyone wants to be a part of a group, they want to be part
of the best group possible. However,
di Benedetto et al. noted that one of the 'unique' characteristics of
Japanese advertising defined by Kishii is that advertising will often show
a celebrity as ‘one of the people.’ Since the Japanese are very
careful not to stand out in any way (Barnlund, 1975; Condon, John, 1984),
portraying the celebrity as a normal citizen is in line with this element
of Japanese culture. Japanese
consumers are especially brand conscious and loyal. This and the desire
for status leads to a strong emphasis on the company in advertising.
Because of this strong belief, for example, Motorola, a company which had
been doing business for several years with Japanese businesses, associated
itself with those customers in its advertising so the general public would
associate Motorola with reputable Japanese companies, and thus give them
more trust (Kishii). (Consult Table 1 for a synopsis of the prior research
on Japanese advertising.) Women in AdvertisingThe
role of the woman in society has seen dramatic change over the past
century. However, much of the research illustrates that advertising has
not kept up with this evolution. This section will divide the research up
into that of print and television dealing exclusively with Western
advertising, with a separate section dedicated to research into the Asian
market. Contemporary
research (regardless of country of origin or focus) into the portrayal of
women in print advertising has its roots in a 1971 study by Courtney and
Lockeretz. This analysis of 729 advertisements found that men were shown
working in 45% of the advertisements, while women were only shown working
in 9%. Women were never shown in executive positions but, instead, were
shown with the family (23%), in a recreational setting (46%), or in a
decorative role (31%). Courtney and Lockeretz identified four advertising
stereotypes of women: women belong in the home; women are not decision
makers and do not do 'important things;' women need men for protection,
etc.; women are regarded as sexual objects. This
study has been frequently replicated. Two years later Wagner and Banos
discovered that women were shown working outside the home in 21% of the
advertisements, and were portrayed as holding jobs with greater
responsibility (Courtney and Whipple, 1983). Those women shown in
non-working roles were shown less and less in family situations and more
often as decoration. However, dependence on men was still a common theme.
The authors believed that the results indicate a cautious reaction to
changes in society. However, they concluded that a significant number of
women in American society were still primarily homemakers, thus accounting
for their depiction as such in advertisements. The
first criticism of these studies came from Belkaoui and Belkaoui in 1976
(Courtney and Whipple, 1983). The researchers felt that because a
historical perspective was lacking, there was no sense of how the
situation had changed over time. Their sample included the same general
interest magazines as the previous studies, but from 1958. They then
compared their results to their predecessors, finding similar results to
their colleagues. The only major shift was in how women were shown
overall. In 1958, a family-oriented image was presented; in 1970 and 1972
a decorative image had become dominant. TelevisionCourtney
and Whipple (1983) noted that “a world of complexity can be packed into
a thirty-second commercial.... Complexities of meaning are not easily
categorized” (p. 15). Since the current study deals with television
advertising, this section will look at how previous researchers have
handled the problems of interpretation posed by television advertising. Bardwick
and Schumann in 1967 (Courtney and Whipple, 1983) painted a bleak and
contradictory picture of how women had been portrayed in television
commercials. While they are shown to be master of the home, they need the
authoritative male; they clean to the point of futility a pristine home.
This study’s qualitative findings have been repeatedly supported through
quantitative analysis. In
1972 Hennessee and Nicholson (Courtney and Whipple, 1983), under the
guidance and support of The National Organization for Women (NOW) in New
York City, did the first major content analysis of television commercials.
They examined 1,241 commercials taken from New York City over a period of
one and a half years. The majority of the commercials showed women in the
home. Household chores were the primary activity of women (42.6%); a
minority (.3%) were shown as 'autonomous individuals.' Men were found to
be literally the voices of authority: males dominated voice-overs (89.3%). Another
1972 study by Dominick and Rauch (Courtney and Whipple, 1983) found that
women were overwhelmingly associated with kitchen or bathroom products
(75%) and were never shown in ads for automobiles or other products which
are typically high-responsibility purchases. More than half of the women
were shown as housewives, and 38% were shown inside the home. Women
pictured as employed were in jobs inferior to men. In
1981, Pesch designed a study to compare data from the early to mid- 1970s
to the early 1980s, with an additional comparison of daytime to prime-time
commercials (Courtney and Whipple, 1983). The research discovered that
male voice-overs had actually increased, up to 92% for daytime and 90% for
prime-time. Women in daytime commercials were still shown in the home or
with the family. In this time segment, the majority of product
representatives were women (72%), while during prime time both sexes were
equally likely to have that role. However, the product-sex relationships
found in previous studies still predominated. It was concluded that the
‘traditional-woman’ image was shown in afternoon television; this
image still dominated prime-time commercials, but to a lesser degree. Women in Japanese AdvertisingStudies
of women in Japanese advertising have largely been limited to portions of
broad studies on women in East Asian advertising. Moreover, these studies
have been conducted largely in the past decade, indicating an increasing
interest in this area. The Cooper-Chen (1995) study examined 1,972
advertisements from 12 women’s, men’s and general interest magazines
in Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. The study discovered that women were the
primary model in a majority of the advertisements. Very few of the
advertisements showed the subjects (male or female) in occupational roles.
In Japan, women were primarily associated with cosmetics, while clothes
prevailed in Korea and Hong Kong. The ads promoted a youth culture, rarely
showing elderly women. While
the Cooper-Chen study examined a large sample (664 in Japan), the study
focused exclusively on magazine advertising. Furthermore, only three
magazines were used in the study. In
1994, Sengupta performed a content analysis of television commercials in
Japan and compared them with American commercials. Sengupta’s study
examined 18 hours of television shows from Japan (507 commercials) and 15
from the United States (227 commercials). Women in Japanese advertisements
were rarely shown in a working role; if they were, they were primarily
depicted as entertainers. The women shown in the home were depicted as
good housewives, performing household tasks (cleaning, cooking, etc.).
Women were more likely to be depicted in a decorative fashion than shown
relaxing. The researcher also found that males were dominant in
voice-overs. ConclusionWhile
there has been quite a lot of research into Japanese advertising, the bulk
of this research used relatively small samples primarily of magazine
advertisements. Due to the nature of advertising expenditures among the
four major media (Chap. 1, p. 5), Japanese magazines make a poor choice
for in-depth study. Most magazines are highly specialized, catering to
individual groups, not mass audiences; advertising in this medium, then,
is geared towards a specialized audience. Television, on the other hand,
does target a particular audience, but it is harder to predict who watches
than a magazine can predict who reads. Research
concerning women in Japanese advertising is a new frontier. The studies
which have thus far been published present strong support for expanded
efforts in this area. |
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