Audience Perception of the Portrayal of Women in Television Advertising

Abstract

The paper set out to ascertain the perception of the portrayal of women in television advertising. The rationale behind the study is to ascertain the way people, especially the women feel or perceive how they are portrayed in television advertising; two theories were used as theoretical framework; they are constructivism theory and the standpoint theory. The survey research design was adopted, employing the questionnaire as an instrument of data collection. Findings from the respondents show that women are negatively portrayed in television advertising. More so, findings show that women are not satisfied with the way and manner they are portrayed in television advertising. The paper concludes that women perceive the way they are portrayed in television advertising as negative; based on the conclusion, the paper recommends that women should be portrayed in good light when advertising products.

Keywords: Advertising, perception, women portrayal and television advertising