Sex Stereotypes in Commercials Targeted toward Children: Acontentanalysis

This article reports the results of a content analysis of 467 commercial characters in the programming between children’s cartoons. Replicating and expanding upon Smith’s (1994) research, the findings reveal that being in a major role, having active movement in an individual activity, and being in an occupational setting all significantly increase the likelihood of an actor being male. It is suggested that media perpetuation of these stereotypes over time, which exists in spite of decreases in real-world sex-typed behaviors, may be related to a reliance of advertisers on cognitive shortcuts they anticipate their viewers will use while viewing their commercials.