The overall aim of this chapter is to attempt to provide the necessary background information to address Research Issue 1. It will offer a review of how gender is located in the media and in ‘childhood’, together with a possible framework or model to demonstrate how gender is manifested in society.

The chapter is divided into the three broad yet interrelated issues of ‘identity’, ‘play’ and ‘advertisements’, where gender is seen as the common denominator and central focus in each. Gender identity formation is discussed in terms of cognition and social learning theory, together with consideration of the socially generated notion of ‘appropriate gender behaviour’.

Toy advertisements provide the primary example to illustrate how ‘childhood’ and ‘play’ are represented in the media, and play-types and play-functions are introduced. Gender is once again brought to the fore when the concept of ‘gender differentiated play’ is discussed. A brief introduction to the advertising industry then facilitates a study of how gender is conventionally represented in both adult- and child-targeted advertisements. This is followed by a basic overview of research findings that indicate how young children interpret the mass media. Summarising the main research findings in this context is intended to provide the foundations for the overall shape and direction of this investigation, where the theoretical underpinnings of media-and-identity are diagrammatically summarised for the purpose of clarity.

The literature was divided into various sections as a way to try and impose structure on an otherwise complex and confused mix of theories and considerations. The published research was considered within the broad spheres of (gender) identity, (gender in) play and (gender in) advertisements.

Gender identity formation was viewed as a series of stages within the contexts of cognition and social learning theory. The stage of gender constancy emerged as most crucial within the developmental process because it increases the interest that young children have in same-sex behaviour models and the subsequent tendency to mimic gendered behaviour. A number of studies have revealed that there is pressure on individuals to behave in stereotyped ways and that these behaviour patterns are generally equated with social acceptance. These socially constructed gender patterns are often reflected in the ways that children play with toys, the toys they choose and the way that they interact with one another. Such behaviour patterns are often influenced by the social mechanisms of reinforcement, punishment and imitation. In addition, young children generally embrace gender differences as they forge strong social identities for themselves. A great deal of importance is attached to peer group and family approval, although girls are often allowed more flexibility in their re-enactment of ‘appropriate gender behaviour’ because they are able to align themselves with ‘male’ as well as ‘female’.

It is arguable that advertising creates ‘structures of meaning’ within society, where these structures might include what it ‘means’ to be male or female. To illustrate how gender is conventionally portrayed in advertisements, a number of content analysis studies were reviewed. Significant gender differences were noted in terms of on-screen activities, the stereotyped roles re-enacted by on-screen characters, ‘day part’ variations in gender depiction, and the use of particular formal features. In each instance, gender depictions tended to follow traditional stereotypes and were summarised as a series of classic binary oppositions. It is also arguable that gender stereotypes have a strong purpose and function within the advertisement context, since they are easily recognisable, stylised representations of ‘types’ which facilitates an understanding of product category and target audience.

The postmodern theory of ‘gender performativity’ was then introduced as a way to demonstrate that gender issues have been ‘problematised’ by academics in recent years. Rather than perceiving the idea of ‘gender’ as fixed and definable in the context of stereotypes, the theory of ‘performativity’ emphasises the need to consider it as shifting, dynamic, fragmentary and contradictory within a regulated social framework. Within this context, (gender) identities are ‘acted out’ or ‘performed’ by individuals who have been either ‘boyed’ or ‘girled’ and re-enact gender norms.

It is arguable that media interpretation is restricted, to a certain extent, by the preferred meanings incorporated into the texts. Children, however, are still called upon to draw on their knowledge of the world and their knowledge of the medium in order to interpret these implicit meanings, with the freedom to either accept or reject the suggested interpretation. Other considerations regarding how young children interpret the media might include social predicament, attention, genre recognition, comprehension and recall, as well as viewing purpose and context. The basic proposition is that the complex interrelationship between gender, advertisements and children is one of cyclic, mutual reinforcement.

From the outset, this investigation was intended as an interdisciplinary approach to a field that has previously only been considered in isolated units such as the consideration of media content without any reference to audience interpretation and vice-versa. In order to contribute to an understanding of how young children might interpret media texts, it was vital to approach the question of ‘negotiation’ or ‘meaning making’ from varying perspectives. In this way, the identifiable points of the theoretical triangle Text-Producer-Receiver might be consolidated to offer an empirically strong representation of the processes involved in building gender identities within the commercial marketplace. Therefore, a combination of distinct yet related methodologies were selected based on the two broad categories of ‘text’ and ‘receiver’ or ‘audience’, where the former utilised content and semiotic analysis (cf. Research Issues 2-3), and the latter included ethnography, discourse analysis and ‘art’ (cf. Research Issue 5).

The discussion on methodologies was divided into the two distinct categories of ‘text’ and ‘audience’, with the aim of selecting the most effective approaches to both the (toy) advertisements and the young children’s responses to them.

The first form of ‘textual analysis’ was that of content analysis. It was chosen as an effective means to ‘quantify’ the various elements that combine to make an advertisement text. The tool was particularly suited to this investigation because it facilitated the identification of integral and distinctive gendered patterns of commercial presentation (cf. Research Issue 2), as well as generating a solid framework of toy advertisement conventions. The main cautionary note about this methodology, however, is that it should not be taken as a measure of how the (advertisement) texts might be received and interpreted by the audience.

The second ‘text’ approach was that of semiotic analysis. This method is arguably complementary to the quantitative approach of content analysis, in that it places greater emphasis on the qualitative interpretations of (media) texts. This method was chosen because it seemed particularly suited to a consideration of whether certain advertisement could be described as having gender connotations (cf. Research Issue 3), hence revealing the so-called structures of underlying meaning. Both content and semiotic analyses are effective ways to define and make explicit the so-called ‘grammar of television’, which is an important consideration when studying the media in relation to children. It is reasonable to assume that young children somehow have to learn the ‘grammatical rules’ before they can meaningfully ‘decode’ a text.

When considering how to approach the issue of ‘receiver’ or ‘audience’, ethnographic-style field observations and interviews were chosen as the best way to generate responses from children within the context of a fieldwork study. The flexibility possible within the confines of the methodology was also conducive to working with children in that it would allow them to digress from the major research concerns of the investigator whilst still maintaining a high level of relevance to the investigation as a whole.

A version of discourse analysis was then selected as the most meaningful way to deconstruct the children’s recorded conversations. Perhaps one of the most important acknowledgements when applying this analytical tool, however, is that discourse is often composed of multi-layered strata which may have an impact on the overall conclusions generated. Some key considerations during the process of analysis might include situation, topic, participants and individuals, and an awareness of the relationship between these factors can arguably result in a richer study.

A final method was used with the express purpose of being able to move away from the conventional (over-) reliance on oral communication, where the children were asked to draw their own advertisements. ‘Art’ was seen as a viable alternative form of ‘expression’ since it has been used as a means to measure such things as emotion and family attachment. Children’s drawings have also been used in the study of gender differences and as evidence of children’s abilities to transfer televisual conventions to the static medium of paper (cf. Research Issue 5).

The main aim of this chapter is to clearly identify the ‘formal features’ used in a sample of children’s televised toy advertisements and to formulate a framework that will become the main point of reference throughout the investigation as a whole (cf. Research Issue 2). The premise of the study is that the formal features used in toy advertisements have distinct gender connotations, so a series of content-related hypotheses were generated based on previous content studies for both adult- and child-advertisements. Content analysis was considered the most effective way to code and count all textual elements because the methodology facilitates a detailed study of the less obvious features within a text. In the context of this study, the methodology identified those (gendered) elements that may have a subtle (albeit perhaps profound) influence upon the audience.

A sample of 117 toy advertisements was accumulated during the 1996 Christmas period. Each advertisement was classified according to the most likely target audience (‘boy’, ‘girl’ or ‘mixed’), judged in terms of product type and the sex of any on-screen characters. The investigator and ten independent adult coders classified the most likely target audiences and the advertisement sample was summarised in terms of ‘tokens’ (the total number of advertisements recorded within a given period) and ‘types’ (the number of different advertisements).

The content features were coded in terms of production and camerawork features (shot angle, shot size, camera movement and lens movement), post-production and editing features (transitions, shot duration and voiceovers), and setting and music. Each content category was defined in accordance with industry terminology and illustrated with either stills from the advertisement sample or sketches/diagrams. The content counts were superficially commented upon before undergoing more rigorous comparisons using the Chi-square test of independence. The emergent content patterns were rather telling in terms of the different production techniques and values for the products targeted at the specific audience sectors. A number of ‘marked’ and ‘unmarked’ categories were formally identified before being applied to the initial set of hypotheses, and the overall findings seemed to support existing research in the field.

The process of target audience classification yielded a strong intercoder reliability level of 98.3%. The boy- and girl-targeted advertisements were perceived by the coders to form two distinctive categories and were not seen to overlap on any occasion. The ‘mixed’ classification was used when the target audience seemed less clear-cut. When the ‘tokens’ and ‘types’ counts were considered, it was notable that those advertisements deemed to be aimed at boys were shown more frequently than those for girls, perhaps fostering a sense of ‘male domination’ during a typical commercial break.

Through the counting and coding of specific formal features, a number of initial observations could be made. For example, the level shot was the most frequently used shot angle, while the boys’ advertisements employed more low-angle shots. Male characters appeared more frequently in the girl-targeted advertisements than vice-versa, while the mixed advertisements generally featured more male than female on-screen characters. Furthermore, the girls’ advertisements made greater use of dissolves while the boys’ advertisements more often used cuts.

Strong patterns emerged when the production feature counts were formally tested using the Chi-square test. The boys’ advertisements made greater use of extreme camera angles (high, low and overhead shots), while the girls’ advertisements made greater use of peds. There was no significant difference in the shot sizes used to show the products being advertised but shot sizes featuring characters differed in that the boys’ advertisements used more long shots compared to the greater use of close-ups in girls’ advertisements. The girls’ advertisements used the most number of dissolves, while the boys’ advertisements featured more cuts. Shot duration in both the boys’ and mixed audience advertisements was below the average shot duration for the sample as a whole, while the shot duration in the girls’ advertisements was mostly above the average. The cutting rates were accordingly either faster- or slower-paced for each target audience.

Perhaps the most striking difference in post-production features was the predominance of male voiceovers across the sample as a whole. Rock music and sound effects were employed most often in the boys’ advertisements, while the girls’ advertisements tended to feature product jingles and synthesised music most frequently. Slapstick music was featured almost exclusively in the mixed audience advertisements. There was little difference, however, between the types of settings used in the advertisements. This was the only clear contradiction between the patterns in this advertisement sample and those identified by other researchers in the field (cf. Smith, 1994: 333; Peirce, 1989, and Dominick & Rauch, 1971, both in Courtney & Whipple, 1983: 17). From comparative testing of the content features and using the mixed categorisation as the ‘default form’ or ‘norm’, the girls’ advertisements can be described as the ‘marked’ category in terms of both construction (form) and content. Each of the content features identified and tested in this analysis might arguably carry subtle gender connotations that could be subconsciously internalised by the (child) audience.

The aim of this chapter was to focus on the so-called ‘latent content’ of the toy advertisements in the sample as a way to identify any possible gender connotations in the way that the texts were constructed (cf. Research Issue 3). Semiotic analysis is a qualitative approach to (media) texts and is perhaps the most effective way to consider textual elements that are not quantifiable but never the less significant in terms of the overall ‘feel’ of an advertisement. A number of textual aspects or codes were focussed on in the context of this study, including appeals, characters, attitudes, colours, rhetoric, narratives, aesthetics and overall product philosophies.

The process of analysis began by identifying any possible connotations in a small sample of advertisements – three ‘typical’ girls’ advertisements (art product, fashion doll and feeding doll) and three ‘typical’ boys’ advertisements (train-set, military-based toy and racing car). It then became possible to generate a series of binary oppositions that could be summarised in terms of features with distinct ‘male’ and ‘female’ connotations. It was too complex to analyse the total sample of (117) toy advertisements in such detail, so the sample as a whole was studied in terms of broad thematic codes of construction. In this way, strong patterns could be seen to emerge across the sample, further illustrating those codes that were either frequently or infrequently used in the boys’ and girls’ advertisements.

Once the sample had been considered as a whole, it proved an interesting exercise to compare and contrast the ways in which similar product-types were targeted differently depending on whether the intended target audience was male or female. Two toy types were compared – a ‘vehicle’ product and a ‘doll’ product – and the emergent patterns tended to follow traditional gender stereotypes. Product themes, contexts and details, use of colour and on-screen characters were all considered.

Once the ‘typical’ girls’ and boys’ advertisements had been semiotically analysed, a number of definable patterns or codes emerged. The advertisements aimed at the girls included instances of: constructive play scenarios, product demonstration, dominant use of the colour pink, emphasis on outer appearance and ‘prettiness’, magic and surprise, aspirations to be ‘like Mum’, home and domestic environments, cuteness and the so-called ‘ah-factor’, patience and perseverance, and smiling faces. The boys’ advertisements, in contrast, included instances of: constructive and destructive play scenarios, focus on mechanical and technical features, assumed knowledge about the product, colours to echo product theme, empowerment of the product user, aspirations to be ‘like Dad’, distinctions between reality and fantasy, ugliness and the so-called ‘yuck-factor’, action and rapid movement, facial expressions to illustrate product philosophy, cartoon animation, success, and cross-media tie-ins.

Taken together and compared, the semiotic codes for the boys’ and girls’ advertisements can be summarised into a series of binary oppositions based on male/female, including: destructive/constructive, nasty/nice, cruel/kind, un-co-operative/co-operative, chaos/calm, knowledge/ignorance, mature/immature, bad/good, active/passive and anti-social/social.

The total toy advertisement sample was then studied in terms of the various thematic codes that they used, and some of these codes emerged as being distinctly gendered when ranked in order of occurrence. The most frequently used codes in the boys’ advertisements were structured around gendered (‘male’) interests, mid-action openings, a sense of chaos, depictions of reality play and ‘passive’ characters. The girls’ advertisements, in contrast, were most frequently structured around gendered (‘female’) interests, friendship, slowly unfolding action, constructive play and a sense of order. The least frequently used codes in the boys’ advertisements included the metamorphosis of the product, a sense of order, slowly unfolding action, secrets and magic, and orders from the opposite sex. Similarly, the girls’ advertisements were least likely to include orders from the opposite sex, destructive play, rivalry, mid-action openings, and the fight against evil. These thematic code rankings indicated that the toy advertisements in the sample tended to follow a heavily prescribed gendered approach, despite the fact that there was some balance towards the middle of the ranking.

Some interesting parallels and contrasts emerged when comparing similar products that have been given masculine and feminine ‘spins’ in order to appeal to the appropriate audience sector. These patterns were grouped according to product themes, context and appeals, as well as the use of colour and the roles of the on-screen characters. The products given a masculine ‘spin’ utilised themes of aggression, competition, violence and anger, contrasting with the gentle, fun, friendly and social themes of the advertisements with feminine ‘spin’. Product context was suited to the over-riding theme in both audience-contexts. Product details, on the other hand, seemed gendered in the sense that masculine products were presented as practical, professional, authentic and ‘nasty’, while feminine products were domestic, cute, delicate and ‘nice’. Masculine colours tended to be tonal, dark and gloomy, while feminine colours were (predictably) pink and bright. Finally, the characters in the boys’ advertisements tended to be active, involved and ‘in control’, while the characters in the girls’ advertisements tended to be passive spectators and ‘controlled’. Essentially, the emergent patterns were strongly gender stereotyped.

Previous research into children and the media has tended to focus on either the texts (e.g. Huston et al., 1979) or the ways in which children respond to them (e.g. Buckingham, 1993a). Little attention appears to have been paid to the role of the media producers. It is arguable that it is important to attempt an understanding of the reasoning and planning involved in the production of advertisement texts since these often have strong ‘preferred meanings’ written into them. Before one can present a rounded debate about the portrayal of gender in advertising, one must consider whether advertisement producers intentionally build their texts around a gendered framework (cf. Research Issue 4).

This chapter provides an overview of the creative process from the perspective of the advertising agencies, production teams and toy companies who are all involved with the planning and execution of texts similar to those featured in this study. Through a semi-structured interview with an advertising executive, the operative structure and campaign approach of a ‘typical’ agency is explained and illustrated. Particular attention is paid to the way in which the agency developed a campaign strategy for Scalextric (a product featured in the main sample of advertisements). Details of the industry’s attitudes towards and perceptions of the child sector of the market are summarised from child-specific industry handbooks. Various considerations are stressed, including the importance of understanding child psychology and the (Piagetian) stages of cognitive development, as well as age, gender and social (peer group) demographics.

Focus then shifts from the agency to that of the ‘creatives’ involved in the production of advertisements. Interviews were conducted with a graphic designer and a number of television producers who had worked on advertising campaigns. Questions about the notion of ‘gendered production techniques’ provoked very lively debate amongst the professions and their ‘defensive’ attitudes are discussed in some detail. Finally, the main aims of the toy company are considered, highlighting the importance that is placed on multi-media marketing and the successful development of product-lines. This is achieved through a review of published accounts and the way in which toy companies present themselves and their products on the Internet.

The process of ‘creating’ an advertisement can be represented diagrammatically in what is termed the Advertising Development Cycle. The circularity of the process and the multiple contributions at each stage – client brief, strategic development, creative brief, creative development, production, on-air/print and evaluation – makes the creation of a single advertisement the product of numerous individuals. This continuous cycle makes it near impossible for researchers to trace the origin of ideas.

The child sector of the market emerges as new and relatively unexplored territory when compared with the adult sector. Marketers perceive it as increasingly important in the sense that it is a unique ‘three-in-one’ sector that encompasses ‘purchasers, influencers and the future’ (Industry magazine). Consequently, children’s advertising has become an important means to capture attention and foster (life-long) brand loyalties at an early age. The companies who market to children stress the importance of having a clear understanding of the wants and needs of the target audience. The psyches of young boys and young girls, for example, may share similar elements but these elements manifest themselves in different (gender specific) ways. What is important is that the generally subtle (gender) differences are exploited and ‘amplified’ in advertisements to communicate quickly with the desired audience members.

‘Age’ is not seen in the traditional sense of calendar years, but rather in terms of a marketable attitude that can work in relation to age; the so-called ‘age-tude’. Advertisers realise that selecting the correct ‘age-tude’ is the key to a successful marketing campaign. Peer group is also identified as having major implications for how products should be marketed, with the overriding assumption that children need to feel a sense of ‘belonging’ within their own social worlds whilst also trying to emulate children older than themselves. Gender segregation is also seen as a powerful defining feature of peer group, so marketers aim to substantiate the gendered structures of a child’s social world within the advertisements they create.

There seems to be a fundamental contradiction within the notion of gendered production techniques. While the literature stressed that certain production features such as music, special effects and pacing are carefully considered when creating the overall feel of an advertisement, and the views of the actual creatives (particularly the producers) was surprisingly defensive. They were ‘disturbed’ by the suggestion that some techniques may have gender connotations and routinely denied the use of these techniques to appeal to one gender more than the other. The main production disclaimer was that ‘form follows content’, meaning that certain production features ‘naturally’ work better together in given shot sequences. However, there was also a high level of interest in the fact that strong patterns were clearly evident across a large sample of advertisements for the same product type.

One of the main driving forces behind how product-lines are developed by toy companies is an ever-present appreciation of the vast potential for mass-media marketing and cross-media merchandising spin-offs, to create a ‘product world’ easily recognisable to children. There is also an underlying tendency for toy companies to develop their product-lines with a specific audience in mind, where certain sales pitches are more (gender) appropriate that others. What seems most striking is the way that toy companies rely on children to possess sufficient levels of ‘media literacy’ and ‘knowledge’ to make their own links between products within and across different media genres. ‘Toys’ and ‘television’ are essentially perceived as inextricably linked.

This chapter is split into two distinct sections – ‘oral responses’ and ‘artistic interpretation’ – focussing on the fieldwork conducted with a group of 7- to 11-year-old children in a small rural primary school in West Wales. This chapter looks specifically at the ways in which the children negotiated meaning in and understanding of the toy advertisement sample, considering how they, as the main target audience or ‘receivers’, perceived the advertisements in terms of technical production features and gender (cf. Research Issue 5).

Ten televised toy advertisements were edited onto a video, selected in terms of target audience and shot duration and designed to simulate a ‘typical’ commercial break between children’s programmes on a Saturday morning during the Christmas period. A simple questionnaire was formulated to enable the children to make notes on the five key issues of target audience, level of excitement, speed of movement, music and voiceovers. The children were asked to watch the video and complete the questionnaires before participating in semi-structured discussion about the advertisements. The children’s conversations were recorded, transcribed and then analysed.

To counterbalance a reliance on oral communication skills (especially given the bilingual character of the school), finding an alternative means of investigation was considered vital. Art seemed to be the most effective way to move from the ‘spoken’ to the ‘unspoken’. The children were challenged to design their own toy advertisements. To maintain the focus of the investigation, the advertisement designs were evaluated in terms of how well the children comprehended and manipulated conventional technical production features, and how they targeted their drawings at a given (gendered) audience sector. Where possible, parallels were also drawn between the children’s designs and actual television advertisements.

After viewing the sample of ten televised toy advertisements once only, the children were able to identify the so-called target audience in each instance. This indicated that the target audience was obvious and important to the children as well as a powerful guide to the suitability of the products for them, helping them to understand and negotiate the advertisements they viewed.

The audio effects were the most frequently discussed technical features. The children often judged the music in terms of whether it was suitable or unsuitable for a given product, taking into account the nature of the product and ‘age’. The quality of the music was also judged in terms of whether it was possible to dance to it. The older children tended to make forceful distinctions between the wants and needs of ‘them’ (young children) and ‘us’ (young adults). These distinctions were often expressed in terms of an intense concern with ‘age appropriateness’ (cf. Del Vecchio, 1997: 105 ff.). However, the children did demonstrate the ability to distinguish between the music and the product, where the music was considered ‘good’ even if the product was viewed negatively.

During the conversations, it became apparent that the children were very particular about what they regarded as ‘gender appropriate behaviour’ and they seemed to have strong views about what boys and girls ‘really like’. Gender tended to be judged in terms of the (stereotyped) traits exhibited by the on-screen characters and the nature of the (stereotyped) products, following the conventional ideas of ‘cars for boys’ and ‘dolls for girls’. Essentially, the children would ‘acknowledge the stereotype’ in accordance with ‘boyed’ and ‘girled’ performatives and make their judgements accordingly, which were often in line with how the advertisers perceived and portrayed gender. The children’s views of gender only seemed to demonstrate a little flexibility if they had opposite-gender siblings, where their ‘real life’ experiences challenged the essence of the advertising messages. The children made further gender distinctions that proved both subtle and sophisticated. They emphasised that it was possible for individuals to exhibit varying degrees of masculinity and femininity.

The advertisement designs were carefully studied and a number of interesting patterns emerged concerning composition. The children were clearly able to reinterpret televisual production conventions for the purpose of static illustration. There was evidence that they knew how to create particular effects through shot framing, composition, sequencing, angles and sizes. There were often many obvious parallels between the presentation of toys in televised advertisements and the way they were depicted in the children’s designs. The target gender for each advertisement and the type of products chosen by the children were very revealing. There were a number of identifiable gender traits when comparing the designs and how the boys and the girls chose to target their products, especially in terms of how visual impact was achieved and the apparent themes used.

While the children exhibited impressively clear understanding of the technical production features, their perception of gender was particularly interesting. During their discussions, gender was consistently perceived as ‘natural’ and ‘taken-for-granted’. The children found it a little bizarre to be encouraged to talk about it, almost as though they had never really thought about it before. Of far greater importance to them was the idea of ‘age appropriateness’ and the need to project an ‘old’ public persona. There seemed to be a greater desire to be ‘old’ than to question too closely their positions as either ‘boys’ or ‘girls’, raising questions as to whether ‘age performativity’ was actually regarded as more significant and important to the children then ‘gender performativity’.

During an evaluation of the two different workshop methodologies, observations were made about four key considerations, each having an effect on the outcome of the sessions. Classroom politics were considered significant in terms of conversational flow, focused on how the children perceived one another and interacted as a group, together with acknowledgement of established behaviour patterns and interrelationships. It was also deemed important to consider the ways that the children perceived both the interviewer and the exercise, while also critically reflecting on the success or otherwise of the research methodologies. The way in which the group of seven- to eleven-year-old ‘receivers’ reacted to and negotiated the advertisement texts was both illuminating and intriguing.