Stereotypical Representations of Gender Roles in Romanian Pharmaceutical Advertising

Abstract

The present study is set out to determine the way in which video advertisements for pharmaceutical products, published online, depicted female, and male consumers, respectively. The paper offers an overview of the gender roles which have been used in Romanian pharmaceutical advertisements, this being the most promoted category of products on TV in the last years. We conducted a content analysis where we included the television commercials of the top ten pharmaceutical companies, as determined by ad ratings, aired on Romanian television during the year 2019. The findings show that more female gender roles than male gender roles have been used in the ads. However, the types of gender roles which have been mostly used are similar, the most common being the career woman/ career man, the mother/ father, the beautiful woman/ attractive man.

Keywords

• female representation; gender roles; male representation; pharmaceutical advertising; tv commercials.