Browsing by Subject "Elintarvikemainonta"

Aims. There are many ways to increase sales when advertising food. One way is to take advantage of gender when making advertisements. Advertising uses gender usually as binary and also gender stereotypes are used. The target group of the advertisement is usually the same gender as the character used in advertisement. Also some groceries may be gendered, like meat is considered manly and sweets more as womanly. In this research the main area of investigation was consumer opinions about Finnish food marketing and especially how gender is used as part of advertising. The study analysed how consumers connect gender to groceries and how representations of gender are experienced in food advertising. The study also examined the advertising literacy of the interviewees. Data and methods. The research was qualitative. Ten 27–42-year-old interviewees living in Helsinki metropolitan area took part in the study. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Four Finnish food advertisements were used to stimulate the conversation in the interviews. Interviews were recorded and the recordings transcribed. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results and discussion. The interviewees found many connections between male and female gender and food advertisements. This was influenced by gender representations and possible target groups. Also signs that were connected to masculinity and femininity were found in the advertisements. As in previous research, also in this research meat product was connected to male gender. Sweet products were connected to both male and female gender. When specifying target groups gender was in dominating role. Interviewees’ advertising literacy was transpired in many ways. The strategies behind food advertisements were understood and devices such as humour, stereotypes, images and irritation were noticed. Also some codes were found in advertisements that were aimed at specific target groups. It is possible to state that young townspeople understand the methods of influencing that are used in advertising and they can challenge those as well.