Affect of Women in Advertisement

International Journal of Business and Social Science

Vol. 3 No. 2 [Special Issue – January 2012]

Jordanian Male Consumers’ Attitude towards Using Women in Advertisement
Dr. Hamza Salim Khraim
Chair of Marketing Department, Faculty of Business
Middle East University, P.O.Box 383
Amman 11610 Jordan

Abstract
Due to advertisement clutter in the 21st century customers are exposed to a variety of advertising appeals that aims to influence their attitudes towards a wide range of products and services. Many companies worldwide are using women as an object to attract and influence consumers’ attitudes towa rds the products they sell. Women appear in huge number of advertisement as a sexual object or as attractive decorative model standing nearby a product, even when the sexual image has little relevance to the advertised product. This article looks at Jordan ian male consumers’ attitude towards using women in advertisement. Results reveals four factors tend to influence consumer attitude towards using women in advertisement. Culture, control, and emotion were found to have a significant influence on consumer attitude towards using women in advertisement, while there was no significant influence for women appearance on consumer attitude towards using women in advertisement. In general
Jordanian male consumers’ were opposed to exposing, exploiting and objectifying the woman and her body in advertisement. Introduction
Research on advertisement featuring sex role focused on how content and imagery affect cognitive responses and attitude toward the advertisement, which in turn affect attitude toward the brand and purchase intention (Jaffe,
1994; Leigh and Whitney, 1987). Attitude toward advertising can be defined in general as learned tendencies to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner to advertising in general (Lutz, 1985; Mackenzie and
Lutz, 1989). The link between attitudes, intentions and behavior has been explained

References: Ashill Nicholas J. and Yavas Ugur (2005). Dimensions of advertising attitudes: Congruence between Turkish and New Zealand consumers Al-Makaty, S., Tubergen, G., Whitlow, S. & Boyd, D. (1996) Attitudes toward advertising in Islam. Journal of advertising Research, (May/June), 16-26. Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Al-Olayan, Fahad S. & Karande, Kiran (2000). A content analysis of magazine advertisements from the United States and the Arab world Bayraktar, Ahmet (2011). Is it ethical to use women as a marketing instrument? Global conference on business and finance proceedings, Vol: 6 No.1. Bryant, Elizabeth (1998) P&G pushes the envelope in Egypt with TV show on feminine hygiene. Advertising Age International Boddewyn, Jean J. (1991) Sex and Decency Issues in advertising: Genera l and International Dimensions. Business Horizons 34, no 5 (September-October, pp 13-20). Baummeister, Gurit E., Hananyah Glaubman., and Mario Mikulineer (2001). Women 's experience of heterosexual intercourse-scale construction, factor structure, and relations to orgasmic disorder Clow, Kemmeth E. and Baack, Donald (2009) Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communiation. Courtney, A. and Whipple, T. (1983). Sex Stereotyping in Advertising. Lexington, Heath, 103. Das, Mallika (2000). Men and Women in Indian Magazine Advertisements: A Preliminary Report Dodds, W. B., Monroe, K. B., & Grewal, D. (1991). Effects of Price, Brand, and Stor e Information on Buyers‟ Product Evaluations Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Luqmani, M., Yavas, U. and Quraeshi, Z. (1987). Advertising in Saudi Arabia: content and regulation, International Journal of Advertising, Vol Marlin Sadek-Endrawes (2008) “Culture & Advertising” How masculinity or femininity of a culture is influencing the consumers‟ responses on the gender appearance in advertisements? Unpublished Master Thesis, Umea Michell, P. and Al-Mossawi, M. (1995). The mediating effect of religiosity on advertising effectiveness”, Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol Nunnally, J. (1978). Psychometric Theory. 2nd edition. McCraw-Hill, New York. Nordén, Linda (2006) Gender-roles in magazine advertisements: A comparison between Egypt and Sweden. Gaby Odekerken-SchroÈder, Kristof De Wulf, Natascha Hofstee (2002) Is gender stereotyping in advertising more prevalent in masculine countries? A cross-national analysis Gilly, M.C. (1988). Sex roles in advertising: a comparison of television advertisements in Australia, Mexico and the United States, Journal ofMarketing, Vol Haque Ahasanul, Khaliq Ahmed and Syeada I. Jahan (2010). Shariah observation: advertising practices of Bank Muamalat in Malaysia Jonathan E. Schroeder & Detlev Zwick (2004) Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images Goodrum C and Dalrymple H, (1990). Advertising in America: The First 200 Years, Harry N Abrams, Inc., New York. Richins ML, (1991) Social Comparison and the Idealized Images of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. Reichert, T., Heckler, S.E., & Jackson, S. (2001). The effects of sexual social marketing appeals on cognitive processing and persuasion Reichert, T. (2002). Sex in Advertising Research: A Review of Content, Effects, and Functions of Sexual Information in Consumer Advertising Reichert, T., & Lambiase, J. (2003). Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal. New Jersey: Erlbaum. Ramirez, A. and Reichert, T. (2000). Defining sexually oriented appeals in advertising: A grounded theory investigation Sprecher, Susan (1989). Premarital sexual standards for different categories of individuals. Journal of sex research. 26, (May) 232-48. Usman, M., Saqib I., Muhammad F., and Tahir M., (2010) General attitude towards advertising: Cultural influence in Pakistan