Comparison of Print Media Health Advertising To Men and Boys Compared To Women and Girls

A cohort of 198 mass-media magazines that parallel the general market such publications was analyzed for health, wellness and health-product advertising density to men and boys in comparison to that for women and girls. Magazines were categorized by target audience gender and magazine genre. Gender targets were determined based on common stereotypes associated with current American culture. Following widely accepted American stereotypes of masculinity and femininity, magazines were categorized as oriented to male (16.2%), female (55.1%) or neutral (28.8%) targeted-readers. All print pages (excluding front covers) were reviewed and all advertisements were analyzed for gender and age targeting. Accepted marketing-based criteria for demographic targeting including font style and size, color palates, rhetorical design and verbosity, gender specific images and ages, sexual innuendos and magazine audience were applied for categorization of ads.

Analysis of 25,202 print pages yielded 7,017 (27.8%) individual health/wellness related advertisements for analysis. Of these 20.2% were targeted to males, 52.9% were targeted to females and 26.8% were gender-neutral. When comparing ad-density targeted to men/boys compared to women/girl there was a statistically significant difference (p=0.05). It is well accepted that mass-media publications are both important windows and shapers of social views and norms. Perceptions, expectations and behaviors regarding health and wellness are no exception. Further research is needed to firmly establish relational links between gender attitudes, behaviors and perceptions of health and wellness and media advertising however these data strongly suggest that the disproportionate mix of health/wellness advertising to women and girls plays an important role.