Abstract:

All around the world, the effects of gender inequality show itself in many areas from basic human rights and freedoms to participation to social, cultural and economic life. Reinforced by various global movements, the gender equality agenda has also become one of the important topics of discussion for marketing and advertising industries in recent years. The study examines the winning television advertisements in the Crystal Apple Advertising Creativity Award in Turkey from the perspective of gender representations and role portrayals. Within the scope of the research, 222 Crystal Apple-winning television advertisements in 2011, 2014 and 2017 are subjected to content analysis. The results provide that sampled television advertisements often contain traditional female and male portrayals. Even though not in majority, they also include certain progressive gender representations. However, this does not change the general outlook. In Turkey, award-winning television ads are still male dominant in terms of imagery and voice. Male lead characters are mostly portrayed as authority figure and associated with public space and work life. Female representations also reproduce traditional roles and female leads are associated with home and housework. Among all Crystal Apple winning television commercials, those that are awarded in 2014 yield the highest percentage in terms of traditional role portrayals and elements pertaining to gender inequality.

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