Gendered stereotypes in advertising - a study on Finnish YouTube advertisements

Abstract

Studies on the use of gendered stereotypes in advertising shows that since the 1970’s harmful biases have been imposed on consumers and society at large. Change has been slow or non-existent in how women have been portrayed, and studies on masculine stereotypes has been partially overlooked in previous discourse. Large amounts of research on gendered stereotypes have also been conducted using traditional media. The aim of this study is to investigate gender role portrayals in online advertising in Finland, by examining online advertisements on YouTube. 462 advertisements were collected, which amounted to a dataset of 50 advertisements that fit the criteria. This thesis contributes to the research of gendered advertising by exploring a new cultural context for online advertising in Finland. Using content analysis, the advertisements were analysed, finding that the use of gendered stereotypes is present in Finland, but not as overtly harmful as not as globally.