Learner Resource 5
Impact of advertising on children (social): Key
Research – Johnson and Young (2002)
Johnson and Young’s study ‘Gendered voices in children’s advertising’1 (2002) measures various
factors to do with the analysis of children’s advertising. For each of the main factors listed below,
research the findings and summarise what they found regarding the gender stereotyping of
children’s advertising.
Their study is available here:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.638.7814&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Main factors studied
Main findings
Toys are categorised by their
gender target audience:
- targeted to boys
- targeted to girls
- targeted to both genders.
Attributes of voice overs of ads:
- Gender of voice over
- Whether voice over is
gender-exaggerated.
Verb elements relevant for gender
imaging:
- Action verb elements related
to physical movement.
- Competition / destruction
verb elements.
- Agency/control verb
elements referring to the
consumer as possessing
power or control.
- Limited activity verb
elements.
- Feeling and nurturing verb
elements.
Johnson, F. L and Young, K. (2002) Gendered voices in children’s advertising in Critical Studies in Media
Communication 19(4).461-480.
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Main factors studied
Main findings
Speaking roles of girls and boys –
Do advertiser’s script speech
similarly for girls and boys?
Power discourse – Is the use of
‘power’ words different in boy and
girl oriented ads?
Consider how your findings contribute to gender stereotyping and what impact it has on children.
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© OCR 2016