Mapping the Portrayal of Females in Contemporary Indian Advertisements

The role of advertising as an effective vehicle of communication has long been acknowledged. It has become the important ‘part of the cultural and economic fabric of a society and continues to be a primary tool for marketing communication’ (Lane et. al., 2005). The current study examines the portrayal of women in contemporary Indian magazine and television advertisements in various product and service categories. The present study is an effort to fill the gap of limited research on gender representation in Indian context. Using content analysis, a total of 275 advertisements comprising print and television ads were examined. The result reveals the dominance of female stereotyping in Indian advertising where females were mostly depicted as a housewife, predominantly endorsing household products and mostly young female models were preferred for brand promotion by advertisers.