Very little has changed for women in advertising in the last 10 years, according to new research data.

The study by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mount Saint Mary’s University and J. Walter Thompson New York, in collaboration with University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, has revealed that men get about four times as much screen time as women and speak about seven times more than women. 

Unpacking Gender Bias in Advertising, analyzed more than 2,000 films from the Cannes Lions English Language archive.

Highlights

• There are twice as many male characters in ads than female characters.
• 25% of ads feature men only, while only 5% of ads feature women only.
• 18% of ads feature only male voices, while less than 3% of ads featuring female voices only.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No progress in 10 years

In more than a decade, (2006 to 2017) there has been very little change in the trend where men get more screen time than women across all ad categories. This includes number of characters, time on screen and speaking time.

What has age, intelligence and location got to do with it?  

Age: Women in ads are mostly in their 20s while men are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. This means male characters are far more diverse than female when it comes to age.

Humor: Men are almost twice as likely to be funny than women.

Objectification: One-in-ten female characters are shown in sexually revealing clothing – six times the number of male characters.

Intelligence: When it comes to characters for whom intelligence is an integral part of their character (e.g., a doctor, a scientist), men are 62% more likely to be shown as smart.

Location: Women are 48% more likely to be shown in the kitchen while men are 50% more likely to be shown at a sporting event.

Work: One in three men are shown with an occupation compared to one in four women.

What the authors say

Madeline Di Nonno, CEO, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: “By changing the narrative, the images we use, the stories we tell about women, we can dramatically change the way the world values women and how women and girls see themselves. It’s not enough to portray more women. We need a more progressive and inclusive representation of women.”

Brent Choi, Chief Creative Officer, J. Walter Thompson New York: “What this research shows is that our industry has tent-pole moments, amazing actions or campaigns when we all rally around women, but when it comes to creating our ‘regular’ ads for our ‘regular’ clients, we forget about them.”

Shri Narayanan, Niki & C. L. Max Nikias Chair in Engineering, University of Southern California: “Technology advances in data sciences and machine learning give us new ways of shining light on media content, at scale and with an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy. It can give us novel insights not just by eliminating the mystery about potential unconscious biases in content but in offering objective tools to shape content”

The research was led by the Institute and J. Walter Thompson, and conducted by Dr. Shri Narayanan, Krishna Somadepalli and the team of Engineers at the University of Southern California’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL), in collaboration with Dr. Caroline Heldman and the team of researchers at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

Find out more at www.jwtintelligence.com.