Depictions of racial and gender stereotypes in Super Bowl 2018 commercials Introduction Due to the importance of Super Bowl advertising and the overall influence that this sports event has on its consumers, it is essential to note and examine the current portrayal of racial and gender stereotypes in these advertising commercials. Likewise, a research study of these particular standards of racial and gender behaviors are imperative to understand the needed measures to make better advertising decisions for future Super Bowls. The purpose of this study was also to detect shifts in gender and racial stereotypes in the advertising messages to the culturally diverse audience of the Super Bowl. Literature Review Super Bowl Advertising Previous studies …show more content…
Another factor worth noting is that the Super Bowl reaches various demographics. McAllister (1999) claims that the Super Bowl demographics tend to be more balanced compared to any other programming. With the representation of ethnic groups in advertisements increasing drastically, advertising firms are trying to capture a larger share of targeted minority markets. However, many of these firms worry that the use of minority actors will somehow cause nonminority consumers to have an unfavorable evaluation of the advertised product ads (Qualls & Moore, 1990). Additionally, these authors make the argument that white actors are generally perceived more favorably by white observers than ads featuring black actors, and ads with black actors are perceived more favorably by black observers than ads with white actors. Similarly, Henderson and Baldasty (2003) observe prime-time TV commercials through noting the amount and type of representation of people of color. They discovered that although people of color appear regularly in ads, they usually appear as secondary (not primary) …show more content…
Building on this research, our class decided to observe racial and gender stereotypes in Super Bowl 2018 commercials since no one has yet to combine racial and gender stereotypes. To better understand how advertising portrays individuals, our research focuses on observing the depictions of white men and women as well as men and women of color. Significantly, our research centers on examining these racial and gender stereotypes in Super Bowl 2018 commercials to obtain information for advertising purposes. Our hypotheses are formulated as