GENDER STEREOTYPING TOWARDS CHILDREN: A
QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CRAYOLA
TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS

By

AmberMae D. Krautter, B.S.
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in
Communication to the office of Graduate and Extended Studies
of
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania

December 19, 2020

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ABSTRACT

A Thesis in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of
Science in Communication Studies to the office of Graduate and Extended Studies
of East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania.
Student’s Name: AmberMae Krautter, B.S.
Title: Gender Stereotyping towards Children: A Qualitative Content Analysis of
Crayola Television Advertisements
Date of Graduation: December 19, 2020
Thesis Chair: Andrea McClanahan, Ph.D.
Thesis Member: Cem Zeytinoglu, Ph.D.
Thesis Member: Margaret Mullan, Ph.D.
Abstract
Capitalizing on gender stereotypes in television advertising is a highly used
practice. The purpose of this research is to explore how boys and girls are
represented in Crayola commercials to uncover whether or not gender stereotypes
are still used to sell what many would consider a gender-neutral product. This
research is important because as society progresses towards an accepting stance
regarding children stepping outside of gender norms, television advertisements
should be reflecting this progress. Through the use of qualitative content analysis,
Crayola commercials over a 10-year period are examined to identify reoccurring
gender stereotype themes, trends, or patterns. The findings were consistent with
previous research in that television advertisements are still very gender biased, even
when advertising what is considered a gender-neutral children’s product. Even
though the stereotypes may not be super obvious or excessive, they are still present
and constructing messages to its viewers in various degrees.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
I.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………...1
Creativity within Children…….…………………………………………….1
Healthy Competition.……………………………………………………….3
We Love Our Television…………………………………………………...3
Check Out this Product…………………………………………………….4
Gendered Advertising………………………………………………………7
Gendered Colors……………………………………………………………9
Social Learning Theory…………………………………………………….9
Crayola…………………………………………………………………….11
Going Forward…………………………………………………………….12

II.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………….….……13
Introduction to the Literature Review………...……………………………13
Gender Stereotypes in Advertising: A Review of Current Research………13
Gender Roles and Children’s Television Advertising……………………..15
Sex Role Stereotyping in Children’s Advertising:
Current and Past Trends……………………………………………………17
Gender Stereotypes in Advertising on Children’s
Television in the 1990s…………………………………………………….19
A Longitudinal Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Children’s Television
Advertisements…………………………………………………………….21
Gender Stereotyping and Intended Audience Age…………………………23
Interactions, Activities and Gender in Children’s
V

Television Commercials…………………………………………………...24
Children’s Responses to Gender-Role Stereotyped Advertisements………28
Boys will be Boys………………………………………………………….30
A Longitudinal Analysis of the Changing Roles
of Gender in Advertising…………………………………………………..32
A Meta-Analysis of Gender Roles in Advertising…………………………34
Gender Roles and Humor in Advertising………………………………….36
Summary…………………………………………………………………...38
III.

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY………………………………….40
Introduction to Methodology………………………………………………40
Qualitative Content Analysis………………………………………………40
Ideological Criticism……………………………………………………….41
Research Questions………………………………………………………...42
Crayola Television Commercials…………………………………………..43
Stereotypes of Gender……………………………………………………...43

IV.

CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS…………………………………………...45
Introduction to Analysis……………………………………………………45
Crayola Outdoors 2006…………………………………………………….45
Crayola 2007……………………………………………………………….47
Crayola Beginnings 2010………………………………………………….48
Crayola Holiday Gifts 2011………………………………………………..49
Crayola Glow Book 2011………………………………………………….50
Crayola Digitools 2012…………………………………………………….51
Color Explosion 3D 2012………………………………………………….52
VI

Made in America 2012…………………………………………………….53
Melt N’ Mold Factory 2013……………………………………………….54
Marker Maker 2013………………………………………………………..55
Crayola Dry Erase Light Up Board 2013………………………………….55
Crayola Dino Destruction 2013……………………………………………56
Crayola Outdoor Colorful Beats 2014……………………………………..57
Crayola Cling Creator 2015………………………………………………..58
Crayola Crayon Carver 2015………………………………………………59
Crayola Thread Wrapper 2015……………………………………………..59
Crayola Color Wonder 2016………………………………………………60
Crayola Sketch Wizard 2016………………………………………………61
Summary of Analysis………………………………………………………62
V.

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION………………………………………….63
Findings……………………………………………………………………63
Limitations…………………………………………………………………66
Future Directions for Research…………………………………………….67
Suggestions for Advertisers………………………………………………..68
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………69

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………….....70

VII

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Creativity within Children
“Wow, I like your use of color!” “What are you making? It looks great!” “Let’s hang this
up on the fridge.” Phrases like these are typically heard by most children at some point in their
life. What are these remarks in reference to? Artwork! Whether it be drawing, coloring, building,
painting, or simply playing, children’s creativity shines through when given the opportunity.
Engaging in creative conduct can start at a young age and include a variety of environments from
outdoor sidewalk chalk art, bathtub soap painting, to canvas painting. Being given the chance to
get creative can have positive impacts on a child’s cognitive and physical development. Drawing
and painting specifically can help lay the groundwork for reading and writing, not to mention
their role in developing fine motor skills. This opportunity to express their feelings and emotions
through artwork also plays a role in their personality development and self-esteem (“The
Importance of Art…”).
Because there are multitudes of ways for children to engage in creative activities, some
brands were created to capitalize on this commonality in childhood. One of these brands is
Crayola. The Crayola brand’s purpose is “to help parents and educators raise creatively-alive
kids.” They describe achieving that purpose through believing in “unleashing the originality in

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every child,” “offering tools that inspire kids to express what they’re thinking,” and “creating
products that will help kids free their “what-if?” questions” (“Brand Essence.”). Crayola was
started in 1885 by Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. They began by making red oxide
pigments for barn paint and carbon for black automobile tires. Years later, in 1900, they opened
a mill in Easton, Pennsylvania to produce slate pencils for schools before they realized there
would be a market for wax crayons. In 1903, they produced their first box of eight crayons.
The production of these wax crayons was a huge development and became the reason
Crayola turned out to be a household name (Rubinkam, 2003). Crayola has continued to improve
its brand through the development of an assortment of children’s art products from markers,
washable crayons and twistable crayons, to a window cling maker, the Melt ‘N Mold Factory,
airbrushing kits, and more (“History.”)! The invention of new products is not the only way that
Crayola has worked to improve itself. In 1958, they changed the color “Prussian Blue” to
“Midnight Blue” after Prussian history was no longer relatable. Crayola continued color name
changes in order to be politically correct with “Flesh” being changed to “Peach” in 1962 and
“Indian Red” changed to “Chestnut” in 1999 (Smith). In 1992, Crayola introduced “Color Your
World,” an assortment of skin-tone based colors to help children color themselves more precisely
(“History.”). Crayola followed this up in 2020 with the release of its 24 new “Colors of the
World” crayons. These crayons were specifically designed to represent over 40 skin tones from
around the world, with the hopes to “increase representation and foster a greater sense of
belonging and acceptance” (Setty, 2020). Always looking to refresh the ways in which children
can get creative, many of Crayola’s products continue to be ranked #1 in 2020 (Skryp, 2020).
Even though they’re continuously #1 and take up other ranking slots, brands besides Crayola
also take rankings throughout these lists. They do have competition and this is because

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capitalism is a staple in the United States.
Healthy Competition
Capitalism is “an economic system where private entities own the factors of production,”
which include entrepreneurship, capital goods, natural resources, and labor (Amadeo, 2020).
Through capitalism, consumers are given choices between different brands for each product they
would like to purchase. Businesses, brands, or companies aim to provide customers with a
product at the highest price they’re willing to pay. At the same time, these prices must also be
kept low enough to persuade consumers to purchase one brand’s product instead of another
brand’s similar product (Amadeo, 2020). The United States is mostly a capitalistic nation;
however, it is typically considered a mixed economy. This is due to the fact that the United
States has characteristics of both capitalism and socialism due to the economy having
regulations, taxation, and subsidization (“Capitalist Countries 2020”). With this consumer
competition going on, brands must use additional sources to gain popularity or attraction to
themselves. One source that can be used is already a commonality to American households: the
television.
We Love Our Television
If you look in the typical American home, chances are you will find a “living room” with
a television. It is estimated that in 2019-2020 about 120.6 million households have televisions
(Watson, 2019). According to a 2015 Statista study, the most common number of televisions
used in households was two. This was then followed by one, three, then four, and five or more.
The least common number of televisions was zero, or not having any (“Number of
Television…”). Given the technological nature of our society and the children growing up within
it, it seems reasonable to guess that those numbers would change to three, four, or even five or

3

more being the most common number of televisions within a household by 2020.
The necessity of having a television in an American household isn’t a new phenomenon.
Once they became available and affordable to most American homes in the 1950s, the need and
desire for them skyrocketed (“Land of Television”). Studies on the impact that television media
has on individuals began at this time. These studies found that television has a stronger influence
on the general public than anything else. Researchers at the time found that television media has
a huge impact on people’s attitudes, feelings, or behaviors while simultaneously making it
difficult to determine which information is actually factual (Mitu, 2010). Because of the reach
and the influential role television has the ability to play, it reshaped and increased the way in
which people are exposed to racial, gender-oriented, or class-based stereotypes (Mak, 2020).
These stereotypes can contribute to our understandings of the world, teaching us how we should
live and behave based on what is portrayed to us. One industry that capitalizes on the use of
stereotypes that play into our perceptions is the advertising industry. Because brands need a
source to get their product out there and television is popular in our society, commercial
advertisements on television is the way to go.
Check Out this Product
The beginning of advertising cannot historically be pin pointed to one specific event or
thing as various signs, symbols, product displays, or town criers could be considered advertising.
However, the rise of advertising in the United States can be dated back to the 17th century, with
the promises of the “New World.” Once the British colonies were established, even though most
families supplied their needs for themselves, if their crops produced a surplus, they could find
buyers in the village marketplace or barter these goods. Decades later, the first documented
advertisement appeared, in The Boston News-Letter, advertising a plantation for sale in what

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would become Long Island, New York. Advertising started to take off in newspapers, typically
focused on land, transportation, miscellaneous goods, slaves, and searching for runaways. After
the United States had become independent from Britain and loved feeling self-sufficient. The
citizens wanted to buy American made goods, so the economy depended on the local nature of
things. Advertising during this time consisted of flyers, posters, and newspaper advertisements
that typically revolved around slaves/runaways, land, and transportation (Mendelová, 2018).
The end of the 18th century brough about the first Industrial Revolution, followed by the
second industrial revolution in the late 19th century and early 20th century, then the third
industrial revolution in the 1960s, and the fourth at the turn of the new Millennium. With these
industrial revolutions, new mechanical, technological, communication-based, and economical
advances were taking place, allowing society to progress greatly as a society of consumers was
born. Factories made it cheaper to buy a product rather than make it yourself and new
developments in transportation and communication allowed for a much faster exchange of
information. As the population increased, the literacy rates rose, and with this so did the demand
for newspapers and magazines. These demands brought many different newspapers into
circulation, including the penny press. The penny press was named as such as a way to describe
just how much cheaper this paper was than the other newspapers, making them accessible to a
larger portion of the general public. Because this paper was very inexpensive, the primary source
of income to produce and make a profit off of it wasn’t from selling the papers themselves, but
from selling advertising spaces. This contributed to the first job of an advertising agent coming
into place and soon after, the first advertising agencies being established (Mendelová, 2018).
This rise of advertising influenced the practice of branding goods. “With the development
of manufactured goods and establishment of specialized companies, advertising’s ability to

5

create imaginary differences between near-identical soaps (or other products for that matter)
began to emerge rapidly” (Mendelová, 2018). The use of advertising was able to take a
commodity that was unnamed and turn it into a social symbol. Soon, consumers were more
likely to pay a higher price for a brand name product rather than purchase the unmarked one.
Since being brand name became increasingly important, all companies felt the need to
differentiate themselves from their competition with memorable names and striking
packaging/trademarks. Some problems involving dishonesty and over the moon advertising
arose, leading to some control over advertising being necessary. While gaining control over the
advertisements, advertising companies also wanted control over the content of the
advertisements. Thus, the full-service advertising agencies were in bloom, providing creative
ways of presenting and copywriting advertisements, along with the process of planning, creating,
and placing advertising campaigns. The advancing and organizing of the advertising industry
helped to legitimize the profession as a “mirror of societal metamorphose occurring in different
periods of the human history” (Mendelová, 2018).
The advertising industry has evolved over time, finding newer and better ways to
advertise products to the largest population or the most relevant viewers. Different mediums for
advertising now include platforms like social media, magazines, newspapers, billboards,
television. One of the most common forms of advertising most people think of is probably
television advertisements, or commercials, but these didn’t always exist. Advertising on
television was actually banned until the Federal Communications Commission gave commercial
licenses to 10 stations on May 2nd, 1941 which allowed the airing of television commercials to
begin on July 1st, 1941 (Newman, 2016). By 1955, television was the leading advertising
medium in the United States with over $1 billion in advertising revenue. The practice of

6

television advertising continued to advance along with technology and society while the revenue
and costs of advertising increased accordingly (“Television”).
Despite how well television advertising has done since its beginning, according to
eMarketer, television advertising has reached its peak in 2018. Many people are “cutting the
cord” as they subscribe to streaming services and discontinue their traditional television services.
This is the root cause of the forecast that advertising spending will continue down a road of
decline for years to come (Sterling, 2019). This being said, many big companies still choose to
advertise on television, as well as on social media or through streaming services. Commercial
director Laurence Shanet runs down a list of reasons why big companies still advertise on
television, with the top reason being that it still works. It is still an effective medium to use when
trying to reach the largest and most diverse audience. One other reason he listed that really stood
out was that it is not a matter of this or that, but rather a matter of this and that. Advertisements
are usually a portion of a larger advertising and marketing plan that television still plays a part in.
It is crucial to use different mediums for advertising purposes because each one can be used in
their own calculated ways for the best results (Shanet, 2019). Not only do advertisers and
marketers calculate what mediums to use for the best results, they also analyze who should be
featured in certain situations within their advertisements.
Gendered Advertising
When deciding the content of or characters within advertisements, it’s not a random
process. Instead, it is a well thought out plan introduced on the basis of relatability. Using
stereotypes within your content is an easy way for your audience to make connections with the
product or service being advertised. One of the more common stereotype categories is that of
gender roles and norms. Eisend defines gender stereotypes as the belief that “certain attributes

7

differentiate women and men,” making note that there are four components of gender
stereotyping including: trait descriptors, physical characteristics, role behaviors, and
occupational status (Eisend, 2010). It would be safe to say that most adults could name at least
one stereotype for each gender, but why is this? It is reasonable to credit our lives within a
patriarchal society and how the media uses these stereotypes that are ingrained into our being to
their advantages.
One of the more taken advantage of groups when it comes to media exposure are
children. Children spend many years gradually learning their place in society from an assortment
of sources. One of these sources being is television, but what happens when the content of this
medium is full of gender roles and stereotypes? Research has shown that programmers,
producers, and advertisers aim to create their content to appeal to boys. Because of the social
status differences that are deep-seated in our society, females increase their status if interested in
something directed at males while males would be decreasing their status if interested in
something targeted at females. Therefore, most advertisements feature primarily male characters,
who are constructed to be adventurous, problem solving, knowledgeable, and tough while the
secondary female characters stay on the safe, passive, and helpless side (Merskin, 2002). As
society continues to progress with equality for all, one would hope that these stereotypes have
also progressed. Sadly, previous research has shown that despite some slow changes, a lot of
gender roles and stereotypes continue to exist in our television advertisements. The
representation of gender stereotypes would be easier to see in children’s commercials for brands
such as Barbie or Hot Wheels because those products themselves are extremely gendered, but
what about other children’s products? How are male and female characters represented in
television commercials for more gender-neutral brands or products?

8

Gendered Colors
What is something else that anyone can enjoy but has become gendered? Colors! Pink if
the baby is a girl, blue if it’s a boy! It hasn’t always been this way though. In centuries past, all
children wore white dresses up until the age of six. Because white cotton can be bleached when
washed, this was practical and acceptable. The mid-19th century introduced pink and blue along
with other pastel colors for baby clothing. Suddenly, in June of 1918, a trade publication called
Earnshaw’s Infant’s Department decided that pink, a strong color, is for boys and blue, a delicate
color, is for girls. Other sources followed suit with Time magazine in 1927 printing a chart
showing sex-appropriate colors for boys and girls according to the leading United States stores.
Boys in pink, girls in blue (Maglaty, 2011).
This preferred color set up didn’t change until the 1940s. Some say it was a result of how
manufacturers interpreted America’s preferences (Maglaty, 2011), while others say it was
influenced by traditional French culture and the fashion industry (Wolchover, 2012). A clear
switching point doesn’t seem to exist. Unisex clothing became the rage along with the feminist
movement in the mid-1960s, with all the new clothing taking on a more masculine style. This
unisex clothing remained popular until about 1985, when prenatal testing came into the picture.
Excited expectant parents learned the sex of their unborn babies and then went shopping for
either “girl” things or “boy” things. Thus, gendered colors took off once again (Maglaty, 2011).
Social Learning Theory
Social learning theory is used to explain human behavior as learned through the
observation and evaluation of others. Albert Bandura’s take on social learning theory emphasizes
the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of
others. Bandura adds two important ideas to the social learning theory:

9

1. Mediating processes occur between stimuli and responses.
2. Behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning.
One group of people who are easily imprinted on are children. Children are surrounded by
many influences to model their behavior after such as parents, family, friends, teachers, and
characters on children’s television programs. When children watch these models, they encode
their behavior and may later imitate that behavior. They may wish to imitate certain models
because these models have a quality that the child would like to have themselves. Even though it
is possible for children to model behaviors that are not ‘gender appropriate,’ there are processes
in life that make it less likely that children would stray from what society has decided is
appropriate for their gender (McLeod, 2016).
First of all, children are more likely to pay attention to those models that they find similar to
themselves, resulting in modeling same gender behaviors. Secondly, those around the child will
respond to the behavior. This can result in either reinforcement for the behavior or punishment
for the behavior. Obviously, children are more likely to continue the behavior that received
positive reinforcement and discontinue behavior that received negative reinforcement. An
example would be a little boy putting on mommy’s makeup. He may be scolded for such a
behavior whereas his sister may be praised, reinforcing what is ‘gender appropriate.’ It is likely
that the little boy will not do something that is ‘for girls’ again, while the little girl will. Third, is
vicarious reinforcement. Children pay attention to the consequences of another person’s behavior
when they determine whether or not they will copy that person. If a child sees someone they
want to model after being rewarded for certain behaviors, the child is more likely to repeat this
behavior (McLeod, 2016). Children are involved in a nonstop learning process to figure out who
they should be and what their place in the world is.

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Crayola
As mentioned earlier, the Crayola brand has been helping all children, regardless of
whether they are male or female, show off their creative side with the countless array of artistic
products they have available for purchase. Even though Crayola provides “gender-neutral”
products, this does not necessarily mean that these products are advertised without gender
stereotypes. This thesis will explore how boys and girls are represented in Crayola commercials
to uncover whether or not gender stereotypes are still used to sell what many would consider a
gender-neutral product. Focusing on a gender-neutral brand such as Crayola makes this study
different from previous studies done. Earlier studies have analyzed other aspects of gendered
advertising such as adult perceptions, children’s reactions to gendered stereotypes, and
advertising specifically marketed on children’s networks. Therefore, while there are many
studies looking at gender stereotypes in advertising, this is different in that the focus is on how a
gender-neutral product used by people of all ages is marketed via television advertising in a
gendered manner.
Because society as a whole is progressing towards a more accepting stance towards
children stepping outside of what were considered gendered norms, our television advertisements
should be reflecting this progress. Due to the younger and younger audiences that television has,
this progress is vital. These children are still learning the way of the world and where they fit
into it, with television being one of their biggest muses. When children see characters in
television advertisements that they believe looks like them, they will pay attention to what that
character is doing, saying, or how they are behaving. Ultimately, these stereotypes that exist
within the media get ingrained into the children’s sense of being. Figuring out how people,
explicitly males and females, are portrayed in advertising can help advertisers determine whether

11

or not they need to actively make some changes to these portrayals.
Through the use of online video platforms such as YouTube, I will be examining Crayola
television advertisements over a 10-year period, from 2006-2016 to examine how Crayola’s
television commercials are portraying their male and female users. Research questions I would
like to answer include:
RQ1: Despite being a gender-neutral brand, are “male” gender stereotypes present in the
commercials examined?
RQ2: Even though Crayola is a gender-neutral brand, are “female” gender stereotypes present in
the commercials examined?
RQ3: Has there been a decrease over time in the amount of gender stereotypes portrayed in the
Crayola commercials examined?
Going Forward
This thesis will be made up of four additional chapters, which will include: a literature
review, a methodology segment, the textual analysis, and the overall conclusion and discussion
of this study. For the literature review, I will be reviewing twelve other studies that revolve
around gender, stereotypes, and advertising. In the methodology segment, I will go into detail
about how my analysis will be conducted. My textual analysis will contain descriptions of each
commercial watched along with my analysis on the commercials as individuals. Lastly, the
conclusion will focus on my textual analysis findings as a whole, as well as suggestions for the
focus of future research, and how advertisers may need to alter their approach to progress with
our societal norms that are changing.

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction to the Literature Review
This literature review will focus on past research studies regarding the use of gender roles
or stereotypes in advertising. Some of the samples are more similar in nature, as they focus on
the same portion of the population such as children, while others are more general. A look at past
research will help support this current study, while demonstrating that this is a topic worth
looking into, with the hope of opening the eyes to advertisers about how they are using gendered
stereotypes in their advertisements. Although previous researchers dive into different aspects or
specifications within the studies selected, each article was chosen based on their unique
perspective on gender roles and stereotypes in advertising. We will begin with a more general
review of gender stereotypes in advertising overall, leading in to research specifically on
advertising targeted at children, and ending with studies done on advertisements that show nontraditional and non-stereotypical gender roles.
Gender Stereotypes in Advertising: A Review of Current Research
“Gender Stereotypes in Advertising: A Review of Current Research,” examines the
‘what,’ ‘why,’ and ‘now what’ of using gender stereotypes in advertising by looking at research
done from 2010-2015, and providing a better direction for the medium to go in the next five

13

years. This examination begins with briefly discussing three social and historical changes that
have sparked the research regarding stereotypes. The three social and historical changes are: the
rise of feminism, changes in the labor force, and the changing role structure in the family. The
researchers continue by explaining the ‘mirror’ versus ‘mold’ debate. This is a long debate
between advertisers and sociologists about the role that advertisements can play within society.
The ‘mirror’ point of view suggests that advertising reflects the values that are already present
and dominant within society. This view sees advertising as a magnifying glass that already
shows dominant concepts that are already held. Since it just reflects what is already there, this
view doesn’t value advertising as having a significant impact on those who view it. On the other
hand, ‘mold’ suggests that society’s social reality is shaped by what is portrayed in the
advertisements. This point of view follows cultivation theory, due to the perceptions of social
reality being shaped by the media after incorporating what they see in advertisements into their
own system of beliefs (Grau & Zotos, 2016).
Reviewing recent research in this area has shown that gender stereotyping in advertising
still exists in many countries around the world such has China, Germany, Belgium, and the
United States. Despite the results that this phenomenon of gender stereotyping is very present in
many societies, progress within each country is also showing a decrease in the use of traditional
gender roles and stereotyping. Some places, such as in the EU after receiving an increasing
number of consumer complaints, began to update their ethical guidelines on gender portrayals in
advertising because their already existing self-regulation practices were clearly not seen by
consumers as successful at regulating their gendered content (Grau & Zotos, 2016).
Grau and Zotos have some suggestions for future research on this topic. First of all, the
researchers state that most research on gendered advertising only exists if viewing print and

14

television advertising, claiming a lack in studies involving advertising on online platforms.
Because of this, they propose that future research existing coding schemes be modified as well as
new ones developed in order to examine the digital advertising market. The second suggestion is
to take a close look at the stereotypes of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) consumers
within advertising, and see whether or not members of this community are being fairly
represented. The last suggestion that Grau and Zotos offer is a detailed examination of
femvertising, or ‘pro-women’ and empowering advertising, to figure out what elements of
femvertising make those messages meant to positively impact the self-image of females more or
less effective.
Gender Roles and Children's Television Advertising
Kolbe and Muehling noticed something was lacking in the increasing amount of studies
done around advertising directed at children, so they took it upon themselves to try and fill that
gap. “Gender Roles and Children’s Television Advertising,” aims to examine whether or not
children are aware of traditional and nontraditional gender roles when exposed to commercial
advertisements containing them. Researchers then continue to try and determine if these gender
role portrayals influence the child’s perception of the product (Kolbe & Muehling, 1995). While
conducting this study, four research questions where established:
RQ1: Do children attend to gender-role portrayals in television commercials?
RQ2: Does the gender of the person appearing in an ad affect how children evaluate the
advertised product?
RQ3: Does the gender of the person appearing in an ad affect how children evaluate the
ad?
RQ4: Do children recognize the gender of the person serving as the offscreen announcer?

15

If so, does this affect their evaluation of the product and/or advertisement?
In order to get children’s perspectives, the researchers needed child participants. Two
elementary schools in rural college towns (with written parental consent) allowed 170 children to
be used for this study. The children were in the first or second grade, chosen specifically because
this age group is expected to have already developed certain views relative to gender. Of the
58% of first and second graders in this study, 60.9% were male and 54.9% were female. Four
versions of a television commercial for a remote-control car were created, containing either a
male or female child actor handling the toy with either a male or female adult voice-over. Each
commercial was identical to the others, with the only difference being the swapping out of male
or female. The children were assigned at random to one of the four groups, taken to the
experiment room, watched the 30-second advertisement, and then answered a series of questions
posed by an experimenter. These questions were asked in order to best measure advertisement
recall, gender appropriateness, advertisement evaluation, and product preference. Each child was
given stickers as a reward for their participation (Kolbe & Muehling, 1995).
The results for advertisement recall concluded that most of the children were aware of the
gender of the child actors in the advertisements. When it came to gender-appropriateness of the
child playing with the toy in the commercial, the boys’ and girls’ responses were similar. The
commercial sample featuring the female child actor playing with the toy made both male and
female students believe that the remote-control car could be a good toy for boys and girls.
However, those male and female students viewing the sample with the male child actor stated
that they believed the remote-control car is only appropriate for boys. Effects of actor’s gender
on product preference found that, surprisingly, the actor’s gender didn’t have much of an impact
on whether or not the children would prefer the product. As one could have guessed, boys did

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give the remote-control car toy higher ratings for preference than girls did. Similar results were
displayed on the effects of actor’s gender on ad evaluations, showing that both male and female
students generally liked the advertisement with a slightly more favorable view from the boys.
The male and female voice-over difference didn’t yield any significant results either, with a good
portion of children thinking the female voice-over was actually a male voice-over (Kolbe &
Muehling, 1995).
Ultimately this study found that children are in-fact aware of whether television
commercial actors are male or female. The results also suggest that because male and female
students considered the toy to be for both male and female children when seeing a female in the
commercial, it may be beneficial for advertisers to take note of. Despite the effect being small,
having a nontraditional character within a commercial is capable of changing the toys
classification for gender appropriateness (Kolbe & Muehling, 1995), leading to a bigger
consumer market.
Sex Role Stereotyping in Children's Advertising: Current and Past Trends
The article, “Sex Role Stereotyping in Children’s Advertising: Current and Past Trends”
defines sex-role stereotypes as “classificatory schemata that children and adults use to organize
and make sense of their social environment” (Macklin & Kolbe, 1984) which lead to, of course,
expectations of how males and female should behave in society. Macklin and Kolbe want to
know if sex role portrayals in the media are reasonably realistic or whether they are restrictive
and have a negative connotation. Advertisers have expressed the same concern, with the National
Advertising Review Board preparing a self-regulatory checklist asking the following:
Am I implying in my promotional campaign that creative, athletic, and mind-enriching
toys and games are not for girls as much as for boys?

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Are sexual stereotypes perpetuated in my ad?
Are the women portrayed in my ad stupid?
Does my ad use belittling language?
Does my ad make use of contemptuous phrases?
Based on previously done research, Macklin and Kolbe predicted that male and female
characters would appear in commercials together, however males would be more dominant in the
commercial. They also predicted that male-oriented advertisements would feature more activity,
higher aggression levels, and louder soundtracks while male voice-overs would be used more
frequently than female voice-overs. To test their predictions, a content analysis would need to be
completed. Using three major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) 64 commercials were recorded from
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on three consecutive Saturdays. After training six undergraduate business
students (three male judges and three female judges), each individually evaluated the
commercials. The assessments were based on the five dimensions mentioned earlier:
advertisement dominance, active/passive behaviors, aggressive behaviors, voice-overs, and audio
track/background music (Macklin & Kolbe, 1984).
As the researchers expected, in terms of advertisement dominance, a majority of the
advertisements were gender neutral, meaning that both male and female characters were
together. However, 63.9% of the dominant characters within these commercials were male,
showing no real differences from past studies. The results of this study didn’t show any
significant difference between male and female featured advertisements on the dimension of
active/passive behaviors. For the dimension of aggressive behaviors, only 12.5% of the
commercials under examination were judged as containing some kind of aggressive acts. Due to
a lack of percentage data from previous studies, no trends on this dimension could be stated. The

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findings of the dimension on voice-overs was right on track with previously noted trends with
male voice-overs dominating in commercial advertisements. The final dimension, audio track/
background music, yielded results similar to previous research with female oriented
advertisements containing softer sounds than the gender-neutral advertisements. Inconsistent
however, is that these results showed little difference between female oriented advertisements
and male oriented advertisements (Macklin & Kolbe, 1984).
Overall, Macklin and Kolbe’s study found that few changes have occurred when
comparing their results to previously done studies. The continued lack of change should be an
invitation to advertisers to try some new advertising strategies instead of continuing the same
stereotypical trends that appear to be occurring within the content for a variety of brands and
services (Macklin & Kolbe, 1984). As most studies do, this study is missing other dimensions
that could be put under examination. One dimension that could be considered missing and should
be used in future studies is the presence of stereotyped personality traits, such as toughness and
weakness.
Gender Stereotypes in Advertising on Children's Television in the 1990s
“Gender Stereotypes in Advertising on Children’s Television in the 1990s: A CrossNational Analysis,” examines how sex role stereotyping in television commercials in the 1990s
that are meant for children in both the United States and Australia through the use of content
analysis. These stereotypes can be problematic as they potentially set the stage for how children
see themselves or others. Browne defines gender stereotypes as, “general beliefs about sexlinked traits (collections of psychological characteristics and behaviors characterizing men and
women) and gender roles (activities differentially appropriate for men or women)” (Browne,
1998).

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Previously done research shows some patterns of stereotyped advertising targeted
towards adults as for example women are portrayed as passive, dependent, and respectful while
lacking intelligence and credibility. Men however, are shown to be constructive, powerful,
independent, and able to accomplish anything. Research on advertising aimed towards children
had very similar results to that of adult’s stereotyped advertising, featuring twice as many boys
as girls and showing boys in dominant and active roles. Male characters are shown working
outside of the home while women are shown inside of the home. All of these details within
advertisements promote the stereotypes of females being weaker, softer, and passive while males
are active, inventive, and aggressive.
Do these stereotypes in children’s advertising even make an impression on the children?
Research from 1978 shows that children as young as two-years-old are able to associate different
traits with a male or female, softer traits belonging to females while harder traits go to males. A
1990 study found the same results with five-year-old children. Study after study presented
evidence that children do in fact pick up on and have influenced beliefs about gender stereotypes.
Although some parents may try to modify these stereotypes, what children are exposed to on
television takes a greater hold on them. Browne’s hypothesis are as follows:
H1: Gender portrayals in TV commercials have less stereotyped content than has been
indicated by previous research.
H2: Ratios of male and female characters, voiceovers, product usage, credibility, activity,
aggression, roles occupied and format characteristics in TV commercials are more
consistent with traditional gender stereotypes in the United States than in Australia.
H3a: Stereotyped body language in TV commercials does not differ between countries.
H3b: In a total sample, girls exhibit more withdrawal behaviors (such as shyness, eye or

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head aversion, snuggling, and hiding) than boys.
H3c: Boys exhibit more dominance behaviors and girls exhibit more deference behaviors.
H3d: Boys engage in more verbal and physical directing than girls.
H3e: Girls exhibit more gentle touching of people and objects and boys exhibit more
direct manipulation of people and things.
H3f: Adults' self-presentations are more ritualized than children's.
To complete the content analysis, three-hour blocks of commercials (pre-Christmas and
post-Christmas) during Saturday morning cartoons was recorded. One female and one male were
hired by Browne for coding the samples. They were provided instructions that defined the
variables to be coded, explained the coding sheet, and instructed use for the video equipment
used to view the advertisements. To ensure that the coders were confident in what they were
doing, practice sessions were conducted. The results of this study concluded that there is very
little difference from the results of previously done studies. For example, more male characters
continue to be shown in commercials, voiceovers were still more likely to be male than female
regardless of the target audience for the product being sold, and male characters were more likely
to demonstrate or explain products (Browne, 1998). These consistent results continue to
emphasize the need for change within the advertising industry.
A Longitudinal Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Children’s Television Advertisements
The article, “A Longitudinal Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Children’s Television
Advertisements: A 27 Year Review. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising,”
compares gender roles and stereotypes in children’s advertising with various studies that have
been conducted over the past 27 years at the time this article was written. Maher and Childs,
explores how children may be more vulnerable to stereotypic gender expectancies due to their

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lack of clear self-perceptions and repeated exposure to advertising through a content analysis of
children’s television advertisements. Their sample of children’s commercials was gathered
through taping five television networks after school for five days and on Saturday and Sunday
mornings during one week in March of 2000. After filtering through 215 commercials, 90 was
the final number of commercials targeted towards children for the sample size. The following
content variables were used during coding: ad orientation, voice-over, dominant product user,
and main character. The coders included one male undergraduate student and one female
undergraduate student who underwent brief coding training (Maher & Childs, 2003).
The results of this study suggest that gender stereotypy is still present in children’s
television commercials. The current analysis finds that there seems to be an equal number of
commercials directed towards girls and boys, however males outnumber females in the major
aspects of children’s television commercials that were examined such as who is the dominant
product user, who is the voice-over, and who is the main character. When it comes to looking at
this study from a longitudinal analysis, comparing the 27 years of different research studies, they
found that there has been an increase in gender neutrality as well as a movement towards using
more females or more “mixed” genders in dominant product user roles, voice-overs, and main
character roles. Even though this has shown that over time children’s advertising has been deemphasizing gender preferences, males still outnumber females. This is problematic because
expectancy theory suggests that the gender stereotypy in children’s television advertising, being
that television often acts as an important socialization agent in learning, can be instrumental in
molding children’s expectations of their and others’ gender roles in a social context (Maher &
Childs, 2003).

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Gender Stereotyping and Intended Audience Age
In the research article “Gender Stereotyping and Intended Audience Age: An Analysis of
Children’s Educational/Informational TV Programming,” Mark Barner aims to examine the
different levels of gender stereotyping in programs with different intended audience ages. Child
development theorists believe that children develop their sex roles at various stages during
childhood and that one of the ways in which they learn sex-role behavior is by observing models.
These models can include those of whom children see on television. Studies have found that
children tend to want to be like the same-sex models on television, which is why it is worth
looking into the potential impact that television characters can play on the sex-role development
of their viewers. The following is hypothesized: male and female characters in child-oriented
programs (6-11 age range) will contain more traditional stereotypical behaviors than those in
teen-oriented programs (Barner, 1999).
Using the mandatory three-hour educational core from five broadcast networks, a sample
of television programs that featured a storyline plot were selected for analysis for three
consecutive weeks. Out of the eleven shows that were selected for this study, seven were
considered child-oriented (ages 6-11) and four were considered teen-oriented (ages 12-16). For
coding purposes, eight categories of social behavior were used including: construction,
dominance, aggression, autonomy, deference, harm avoidance, dependence, and nurturance.
Each of these behaviors were then categorized has “male’ or “female” based on “Bakan’s (1966)
dualistic view of masculine and feminine stereotyping” (Barner, 1999). Construction,
dominance, aggression, and autonomy are stereotypical “male” behaviors while deference, harm
avoidance, dependence, and nurturance are stereotypical “female” behaviors. Only two trained
coders coded the programs.

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The results found that male and female characters in child-oriented shows displayed a
significant amount of gender stereotypic behaviors. The female characters showed more than
twice as many stereotypical “female” behaviors than the males did and the males showed almost
twice as many stereotypical “male” behaviors than the female characters did. On the other hand,
the teen-oriented shows did not display as many stereotypical gendered behaviors. The female
characters did show more “female” stereotyped behaviors significantly more than the males did,
but the male characters did not noticeably display more “male” behaviors than the female
characters.
The hypothesis, which suggested that programs for young children would contain more
gender stereotyping than programs for teens, was supported by the results of this study. Despite
that, both child-oriented programs and teen-oriented programs displayed gender stereotypes.
When comparing the age range programs, female characters in both showed about the same
amount of stereotypic behavior. The male characters in the two age range programs however,
displayed more stereotypical behavior in the child-oriented program than they did in the teenoriented program. Barner credits this to plot differences between the age groups since teenoriented programs take one a more “feminine” plot dealing with romance and relationships.
Barner hopes that this study can help parents see the potential power that is messaged very subtly
in their children’s programming (Barner, 1999).
Interactions, Activities and Gender in Children's Television Commercials
Mary Strom Larson’s article, “Interactions, Activities, and Gender in Children’s
Television Commercials: A Content Analysis,” aims to examine the “nature of the interactions
and activities of girls and boys portrayed in television commercials place in television
programming targeted at very young children.” This examination will be done through

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answering the following research questions that were created after reviewing previous research
on this topic:
RQ1: What is the proportion of girls to boys in commercials aimed at children?
RQ2: What is the proportion of commercials that feature girls only, boys only, and boys and girls
together?
RQ3: Are there differences in the settings of commercials that portray girls only, boys only, or
boys and girls together?
RQ4: Are there differences in the types of interactions featured in commercials that depict girls
only, boys only, and boys and girls together?
RQ5: Are there differences in the types of activities featured in commercials that depict girls
only, boys only, and girls and boys together?
RQ6: Are there differences in the nature and amount of aggression in commercials that depict
girls only, boys only, and boys and girls together?
RQ7: Are there differences in the types of products featured in commercials that depict girls
only, boys only, and boys and girls together?
In order to complete this study, 13 ½ hours of commercials were recorded by research
assistants from July of 1997 to July of 1998. The goal was to collect a year’s worth of
commercial samples so as to include all seasons of the year to ensure no seasonal toys or gift
advertisements were favored. These commercials came from channel’s programming that was
rated TVY or TV7, suitable for the youngest of viewers. Although this could lead to biases, the
one main researcher coded all of the commercials after two afternoons of training with the
coding system. Commercials had to have an image of at least one real or animated child and
reoccurring commercials were coded for each time they aired. Several variables were identified

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to be used for coding these television commercials. First was the number of identifiable girls and
boys featured in the commercials. This was followed by setting, dominant type of interaction, the
type of activity being engaged, presence of aggression, and lastly the type of product being
advertised (Larson, 2001).
This study yielded a variety of results that answer all of the research questions and are
worth taking in to consideration. Out of a total of 892 identifiable children in the featured
advertisements, 457 were girls and 435 were boys. There was no significant difference in the
proportion of girls and boys in commercials, however the researcher also wanted to examine how
many advertisement spots had girls only compared to boys only. Out of 284 single-gender
commercials, 117 of them featured girls only while 167 featured boys only. This study also set
out to find how often girls and boys are shown in commercials together, resulting in 292
commercials portraying boys and girls together out of the 595 total commercials (Larson, 2001).
When concerning the setting in which girls and boys were located in the commercials,
only 12% of boys only commercials were in an identifiable setting at home while 39% of girlsonly commercials were in an at home setting, reifying the stereotype of females belonging in the
home. Next, researchers want to see if there were any differences between the interactions that
boys and girls have within these commercials. They found that the characters in girls-only
commercials were extremely cooperative whereas the boys-only commercials featured a lot of
competitiveness (Larson, 2001). This is once again, staying right with gender trait stereotypes
that exist in our society. Also, on the list was to observe any differences in the activities that boys
and girls are portrayed doing in the television advertisements. In all of the commercials, the main
activity portrayed was playing. About 75% of the girls-only commercials showed the girls
playing while only 45% of the boys-only commercials showed the boys playing, and 33% of the

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commercials with both boys and girls showed them playing. The next dominant activity shown
was eating, with boys being shown eating in commercials significantly more than girls or both of
them combined (Larson, 2001).
The next question was a question of violence and aggression within commercials aimed
toward children. About 35% of commercials contained aggression, most of which were
commercials with both boys and girls. Within the commercials containing aggression, girls-only
commercials featured very little violence while boys-only commercials often featured more than
one type of violence. Lastly to be looked at, is the types of products advertised. Food items were
the most advertised product, while also being the product advertisements that featured boys and
girls together the most often. The second most heavily advertised product was toys, which also
happens to be the product type in which boys and girls were rarely portrayed together (Larson,
2001).
The findings of this study suggest that single-gender advertisements featuring boys are
still favored significantly. However, the increase in the use of female characters give girls more
actively present models to look up to, while also showing young children that it is perfectly
natural for boys and girls to play together. The results also found that, consistent with past
studies, girls are still portrayed as belonging within the home which keeps up with traditional
gender expectations. Another traditional gender expectation that was still present was the
cooperativeness of the female characters as opposed to their competitive male counterparts
(Larson, 2001).
In addition to those, the activity in girls-only commercials were more so displaying what
the toys do, rather than actively role playing with the toys, giving off the impression that this is
how calm, quiet, and unimaginative girls should be playing. A concerning find was that out of

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the 595 commercials, only three (the same one commercial aired three times) featured girls-only
eating. Of course, it would be a stretch to suggest that this means it is good for girls to not eat,
but the lack of a healthy eating portrayal for young girls can be a cause for concern. Another
concerning aspect of these commercials is that 34% of the commercials featuring children also
contained a variety of aggressive acts which, according to cultivation theory, can cause children
to develop expectations of the violence or aggression that awaits them in their lives. The results
found an increase from what previous studies have found in the amount of toy commercials that
aired on television. However, these commercials continue to be gender-stereotyped with boys
playing with video games and action figures and girls playing with Barbies and fashion figures
(Larson, 2001).
Overall, this study found that some things in the world of children’s advertising has
changed, such as the numbers of boys and girls featured in commercials together. Despite the
small changes that have occurred over time, there is still a large amount of differences in the
interactions, activities and gender portrayals in these advertisements geared towards children.
This means there is still plenty of room for continued research and many pathways down which
the research can go to find answers on whether or not boys and girls are continuously being
portrayed in television commercials through gender stereotypes.
Children's Responses to Gender-Role Stereotyped Advertisements
“Children’s Responses to Gender-Role Stereotyped Advertisements,” investigates
whether preadolescent boys and girls have different attitudes towards advertisements that include
gender-role characteristics. Numerous television networks, magazines, and websites exist that
directly target children, giving marketers the chance to jump at the opportunity to appeal to these
capitalist consumers in training. Previous research has found that adults’ gender-role stereotypes

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influence their responses to advertising and purchasing behavior, so the researchers in this study
question what the relationship is with this phenomenon in regards to children (Bakir, et al.,
2008).
In this study, stereotypes are defined as a “fixed general belief, characteristic, etc. that a
lot of people believe to represent a particular type of person or thing.” Using stereotypes is a
common practice in popular culture that marketers have relied on for effective advertising. One
of the more commonly used stereotypes involves the differences between men and women,
specifically their roles in society or the traits they possess. Prior research has shown that
understandings of gender-role stereotypes varies by age as well as gender. Girls have been
shown to be more accepting to take on both gender roles than boys are, indicating to advertisers
that what might appeal to young girls probably won’t appeal to young boys, but what appeals to
young boys can also appeal to young girls. Due to earlier gender differences studies, the
researchers hypothesize that young boys will find agentic advertising more alluring that
communal advertisements while young girls will see communal advertisements more favorably
than agentic advertisements (Bakir, et al., 2008).
In order to complete this study, researchers needed samples of younger and older
preadolescent boys and girls. A mix of 280 children in kindergarten and children in the 3rd and
4th grade from an elementary school in the southern United States were used for this study (with
consent from their parents). Students got to pick a prize for participating. The students were
presented with advertising storyboards, one agentic and one communal, that had a voice-over
about a “gender neutral” product such as crackers. After being independently exposed to the
advertisements, the children had to answer a few questions that the researcher read to them and
indicate their response through the use of a smiley face scale.

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This study found no real differences in what the older preadolescent boys and girls found
more alluring between an agentic message and a communal message. There was no huge
difference between the views of the kindergarten boys and girls either. The only difference that
appeared was when comparing the kindergarten girls to the 3rd/4th grade girls, as the kindergarten
girls did find the communal advertisement more compelling than the older girls. This can help
marketers curve their strategy based on the specific gender and age they are trying to appeal to,
knowing to use more nontraditional roles for advertisements targeting the older preadolescent
females while using more traditional communal role advertising to appeal to the younger
preadolescent females (Bakir, et al., 2008).
The biggest limitation of this study is that it was only done once. Studies on children can
be difficult to conduct, especially when large groups of them are needed. More studies of this
kind would have to be done to enhance the quality of this research and provide more reliable
results. Another limitation is on behalf of the students. Students may have been experiencing
what is described as a “halo” effect. Getting escorted individually, watching something on a
laptop, wanting to be a “good subject,” and knowing they can pick a prize are all things that
could have influenced children to view the advertisements in a more positive light no matter how
they might have actually felt about them (Bakir, et al., 2008).
Boys will be Boys
The article “Boys Will Be Boys: A Content Analysis of Gender and Race in Children’s
Advertisements on the Turner Cartoon Network,” looks to figure out how race and gender are
portrayed in advertisements on the specific children’s cable channel, Turner Cartoon Network.
According to Merskin, this research is important for three reasons; little attention has been paid
to the advertisements that children are exposed to since the 1970s and 1980s, there is a lack of

30

research on the content within advertising that runs on cable television, and being exposed to this
content provides the foundation for a child’s self-conception and understanding of stereotypes.
Some stereotypes that children will be exposed to can revolve race and gender. In fact, previous
research called the Annenberg study pointed out that programmers, producers, and advertisers
create content to target boys. This is due to the social status differences between males and
females that is already integrated into our society. If a girl wants to watch a “boy” program,
that’s looked at as an increase in status whereas a boy wanting to watch a “girl” program is seen
as a decrease. Having this mindset is comparable to how girls are glorified as “tomboys” when
they like “boy” activities, but boys are harassed and may be called a “sissy” when they enjoy
“girl” activities (Merskin, 2002).
These messages that get portrayed on television screens set up societal norms, status
positions, and institutional functions within society, preparing children for the roles they may
play later in life, including the gender roles they may be expected to fulfill. Advertisements that
target children feature mostly male characters who are shown as central active participants in
society while the female characters are portrayed as passive and secondary, reinforcing to
children the gender stereotype that males hold more power and legitimacy. The use of male
voice-overs more than female voice-overs, even when the content is targeting girls, is credited to
reinforcing societal views of males being more knowledgeable and in-charge. On the note of
preparing children for the roles they may play later in life, most children’s commercials were
found to feature primarily white characters, showing non-white children that they do not really
have a place in society (Merskin, 2002).
To study whether the results of past studies still reins true, Merskin gathered 28 hours of
Turner Cartoon Network programming from 2-6 p.m. on weekdays since these are the hours that

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children arrive home from school and are likely to watch television before their parents take over
to watch something such as the 6:00 news. There ended up being a total of 381 commercials that
were coded on dimensions such as: product category advertised, target audience, sex of the
narrator, setting, gender of cast, and the race of the cast. The researcher found that
advertisements feature an all-male cast more than an all-female cast while a mixed cast was the
most common, supporting the notion found in past studies that advertisers feel safe created
products that boys will like since girls may be interested as well rather than products that girls
will like. Also consistent with previous research is the use of male voice-overs more than female
voice-overs, upholding the view that men are more knowledgeable, in-charge, or superior.
Another consistency found was where girls were compared to boys setting-wise. Advertisements
targeting girls featured girls in indoor settings such as their bedrooms while boys are in
adventurous outdoor settings, establishing the mindset that a girl’s place is in the home while a
boy is able to have adventures outside of the home. In terms of race, nonwhite children featured
in advertisements tended to either be accompanied by white children or marginalized with girls
in advertisements that girls are more likely to pay attention to than boys (Merskin, 2002). As
subtle as these things may be, they are already establishing socially constructed sex roles and
stereotypes about race and gender in children’s heads, keeping the white male at the top of the
world.
A Longitudinal Analysis of the Changing Roles of Gender in Advertising
The purpose of the article, “A longitudinal analysis of the changing roles of gender in
advertising: a content analysis of Super Bowl commercials,” is to examine gender
representations within a variety of product categories in Super Bowl commercials over a 20-year
period (1990-2009). Super Bowl time is thought to be one of the most important television

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advertising events in the United States, and the costliest with a 30-second commercial costing
$4.5 million in 2015. Prices like that emphasize how important Super Bowl advertising is to both
marketers and consumers. Previous research has studied the effectiveness of Super Bowl
advertisements, but not how gender is portrayed nor how those portrayals have shifted over time.
Given the crucial role that advertisements can play in the social construction of gender roles, it is
important to study whether or not they are progressing along (Hatzithomas, et al., 2016). The
researchers pose the following questions to explore this situation:
“RQ1: How do female and male stereotypes in Super Bowl commercials before the
millennium (1990-1999) compare with those after the millennium (2000-2009)?”
“RQ2: How do these stereotypes vary for the five most advertised product categories?”
Content analysis is the research method used for this study, as it is commonly used for
analyzing advertising messages. Using Adland, the world’s largest collection of Super Bowl
advertisements, 447 commercials were analyzed for 1990-1999 and 2000-2009. Prior research
helped to identify several product categories: food and (nonalcoholic) drinks, alcoholic
beverages, services, auto and related products, and financial services. Every commercial was
analyzed by one male coder and one female coder, all of which were trained and received lists of
the product categories, lists of gender stereotypes and their definitions, and instructions on how
to categorize. Later, chi-square tests were conducted to observe whether or not male and female
stereotypes have changed before vs. after the millennium (Hatzithomas, et al., 2016).
The researchers found that despite the increase in women’s viewership of the Super
Bowl, they are still highly underrepresented in Super Bowl commercials. This can suggest that
advertisers are still targeting a male audience, consistent with previous research. However, there
was a shift in the representation of male and female stereotypes, leaning away from the

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traditional patriarchal norms, and steering towards a more egalitarian portrayal. To answer the
first research question posed, male and female stereotypes changed after the millennium and the
changes made were consistent with fluctuations in American society. A second research question
can also be answered that stereotypes in the product categories have changed as well, particularly
in the category’s food and drinks, alcoholic beverages, and auto and related products. The
changes present here can also coincide with the nontraditional changes in American society
(Hatzithomas, et al., 2016).
A Meta-Analysis of Gender Roles in Advertising
The article, “A meta-analysis of gender roles in advertising,” looks to contribute to the
study of gender stereotypes in advertising and the longstanding debate regarding the relationship
between advertising and values in society. Eisend begins by giving an understanding of gender
stereotypes as the belief that “certain attributes differentiate women and men,” with four
components being trait descriptors, physical characteristics, role behaviors, and occupational
status. Trait descriptors which are personality traits commonly associated with either male or
female and can include things such as self-assertion or concern for others. Some physical
characteristics thought to be typical of males or females include hair length, body height, and
body width. Examples of role behaviors or roles in life that should be taken on by a male or a
female can include leadership or child caretaking. Lastly, occupational status is comprised of the
jobs or occupations associated with male or female such as a truck driver or housewife (Eisend,
2010).
Eisend also points out that stereotyping is not solely a negative thing, as it helps us with
expectations in life. However, when the knowledge provided by stereotypes is oversimplified or
applied to situations inappropriately, they are problematic and can restrict life opportunities

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Because stereotyping can be positive or negative, it is vital to understand how they are used in
the advertising that millions of people are exposed to on a daily basis. For this study, 37
manuscripts that covered 64 independent studies were found to be appropriate to analyze. Each
study was coded in comparison to the others. The categories used for coding gender role
variables included the sex of the central figure, basis for credibility, role, location, arguments
given on behalf of a product, type of product advertised, mode of presentation, background, end
comment, and age. Each gender role coding category fits into the components of stereotyping
mentioned earlier: trait descriptors, physical characteristics, role behaviors, and occupational
status. Because the studies still differ in a variety of ways, substantial moderator variables also
had to be coded. These included: country/masculine index, year, and interaction between
masculinity index and year. Method factors that are used as controls include: TV vs. radio, time
of day, total sample vs. subsample of central figures, central figures per advertisement,
duplicates, and credibility coding/role coding/ age coding (Eisend, 2010).
The results of this study showed that gender stereotyping has continued to be present in
advertising. The odds of females being stereotyped were between 1.5 – 4 times the odds for
males. However, in countries that are considered “high masculinity,” results show that there has
been a gradual decrease in stereotyping over the years. “Low masculinity” countries have already
resolved gender issues to a greater extent, which is why they do not show dramatic improvement
over time like “high masculinity” countries do. Occupational status was the component with the
highest degree of stereotyping in advertising. This is important to note because of how
advertising is still depicting females, despite how far they have come in the workplace and in
education within society. Results also suggest that gender stereotyping in advertising is
dependent upon the developments related to gender equality within that society. Marketers pay

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attention to gender developments and use existing values in society to sponsor their brands. Even
so, they indicated that cultivation effects of television advertisements need to be further studied
through various methodological approaches and that this study has bias due to picking through
studies to sample rather than doing a random sampling (Eisend, 2010).
Gender Roles and Humor in Advertising
A research study done by Martin Eisend, Julia Plagemann, and Julia Sollwedel, explained
in the article “Gender Roles and Humor in Advertising: The Occurrence of Stereotyping in
Humorous and Nonhumorous Advertising and Its Consequences for Advertising Effectiveness,”
uses content analysis and experimental studies to examine how humor affects depictions of
gender-role portrayals in advertising. Sollwedel defines gender stereotypes as “beliefs that
certain attributes, such as occupations or role behaviors, differentiate women and men,” which
can lead to the production of “oversimplified conceptions and misapplied knowledge
evaluations.” This article emphasizes that gender stereotyping can be directly used as a source of
humor in advertising or may be combined with humor in advertising in an attempt to improve the
advertisings effectiveness (Eisend, et al., 2014). The research questions for this study are as
follows:
RQ1: Is gender stereotyping the same in humorous versus nonhumorous ads?
RQ2: If not, how do humorous versus nonhumorous ads differ with respect to
stereotyping?
RQ3: Do humorous depictions of gender stereotyping in advertising influence advertising
effectiveness, and does this influence depend on the gender of the audience members?
RQ4: Is there a difference in the way women and men are stereotyped between humorous
and nonhumorous advertising?

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To complete this content analysis, two of the most popular private television channels in
Germany were assessed for four nonconsecutive days, randomly chosen from a two-week period.
All advertisements on those two channels from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. were recorded to be coded by
one female coder and one male coder. If a problem arose, it was discussed and reconciled with a
third coder. The coding categories included: age, argument, background, credibility, hierarchy,
location, product type, role, voiceover, and whether or not humor was used. The results of this
analysis revealed that gender-role stereotyping in television advertisements depended on the use
of humor in the ad. They found that nonhumorous advertisements would show traditional
stereotyping of women, while humorous advertisements would portray traditional stereotypes of
men (Eisend, et al., 2014). Does this use of humor make these advertisements more effective?
This is conducted in the following experiment with three hypotheses:
H1: Humor (compared to nonhumor) in ads increases the favorability of attitudes toward
the ad and attitudes toward the brand, and this effect is stronger for nontraditional
stereotyping then for traditional stereotyping.
H2: Nontraditional stereotyping compared to traditional stereotyping increases portrayal
acceptance and credibility, and this effect is stronger for women than for men.
H3: Humor (compared to nonhumor) in ads produces a greater increase in attitudes
toward the ad and attitude toward the brand for women than for men.
For the experiment, four stimulus print ads were used, containing a product description of a
couch offered by the well-known brand IKEA. These print advertisements showed a male and
female couple in their living room, with one person cleaning and the other person relaxing.
Stereotype manipulation was completed by having the woman cleaning and the man relaxing
(traditional) or the man cleaning and the woman relaxing (nontraditional). Humor manipulation

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was completed by showing different cleaning behaviors, adding a headline to the humorous
advertisements and leaving no headline on the nonhumorous ones. A pretest of 28 students
determined how realistic the stimulus advertisements were, finding the advertisements very
realistic. Those stimulus advertisements were then shown to 196 student participants, a
combination of male and female, who had to indicate on a seven-point scale how humorous they
found the print advertisements to be. The results of this experiment found multiple things. First,
humorous stereotypes increase consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement and the brand,
more so if nontraditional stereotyping is shown. Humorous stereotyped advertisements had a
stronger effect on women than it did on men, and the characters are looked at more favorably and
seen as more credible when involving nontraditional stereotyping. These results show that the
portrayal of gender-roles in advertisements should be looked at separately based on whether they
are humorous or nonhumorous because of the differences in effect that they have on the audience
(Eisend, et al., 2014).
Summary
As this chapter has shown, the practice of using gender stereotypes within advertising is
not a new concept. The chapter began by examining past studies that have been done in this field
that focus on a specific population, the children who are exposed to these gender stereotype filled
advertisements. They looked at whether or not the children notice or prefer particular
advertisements as opposed to others, how prevalent gender stereotypes were, and what some of
the stereotypes used are. Later, this chapter broadened up by taking a look at previous studies
done on the use of gender stereotyping within advertisements in general. There it was discussed
how its use was for humorous purposes, the odds of men or women being stereotyped, how
present gender stereotyping is despite the obstacles that women have overcome in society, and

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what common stereotypes were being used. In the next chapter, chapter three, the methodology
of this paper’s study will be discussed.

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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
Introduction to Methodology
The purpose of this chapter is to outline how the examination of gender portrayal within
Crayola television advertisements over a 10-year period will be completed through qualitative
content analysis. In order to do this, first this chapter will review the research method of
qualitative content analysis. Then will be an explanation of ideological criticism. This will be
followed by a list of the Crayola television commercials that will be used for this study. Finally,
this chapter will go over the stereotypes used for the analysis of the Crayola commercials as
compiled from previous research on advertising and gender.
Qualitative Content Analysis
Content analysis is an easy-to-understand and inexpensive research tool that can be
defined as “any technique for making inferences by systematically and objectively identifying
special characteristics of messages,” (Content Analysis.) This research method is used to
determine the reoccurring presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within a text. This then
allows researchers to use the information from the data that was collected to interpret or make
inferences about the messages that are being portrayed by that text to the audiences of the text by
reducing that data into “concepts that describe the research phenomenon,” (Elo et al., 2014). The

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“text” under analysis can be any occurrence of communicative language such as books,
speeches, discussions, and media texts such as television advertisements, or commercials
(Content Analysis). Qualitative content analysis has a variety of uses however, in the case of this
current study, the use of content analysis is to “identify the intentions, focus, or communication
trends of an individual, group, or institution,” and “reveal patterns in communication content”
(Content Analysis). Collecting the data from a qualitative content analysis will allow
identification of trends regarding gender stereotypes within the advertising industry or if there
are any patterns to be revealed.
Ideological Criticism
Given the topic of how gender is portrayed within the advertising industry, an ideological
criticism will provide a useful frame to have while examining the trends and patterns with the
analysis. What is ideology? “Ideology can be defined as a system of ideas or a pattern of beliefs
that determines a group’s interpretations of some aspect(s) of the world” in order to “look
beyond the surface structure of an artifact to discover the beliefs, values, and assumptions it
suggests” (Foss, 2018). Some subjects that are usually addressed within ideologies include:
membership, activities, goals, core belief, defining event, sacred text, ultimate authority,
values/norms, position and group relations, and resources. Ideologies lead to cooperation and
cohesion within particular groups, however multiple ideologies can exist within the same society.
Typically, some ideologies are more privileged, causing the opposing ideologies to be
repressed. This privileging is called hegemony, which gives the ideologies of more powerful
groups domination over the less powerful groups. Sometimes ideologies become hegemonic in a
culture, serving the interests of particular groups more than it does others. Depending on the
ideologies that are becoming dominant, this can be highly positive for the culture or extremely

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negative as the dominant ideology becomes an established norm, seen as normal, natural, or just
the way it has to be. In order to maintain the dominant position within a culture, the hegemonic
ideology must continuously be reinforced (Foss, 2018).
The reinforcement of ideologies does not need to be blatantly obvious, but can be rather
subtle. Ideologies can be subtly reinforced in a multitude of ways, including television
advertisements. Television advertisements can reinforce the hegemonic ideologies within their
given cultures. Some ideologies that exist and have existed in our culture for a long time have to
do with gender stereotyping. They are often opposing tasks, personality traits, or appearances.
Some female stereotypes include being passive (Browne, 1998), cooperative (Larson, 2001),
dependent, and nurturing (Barner, 1999). Males are stereotypically aggressive, active, (Macklin
& Kolbe, 1984), competitive (Larson, 2001), and independent (Browne, 1998). Thinking of
gender in specific ways that create expectations for men and women have created hegemonic
ideologies within our culture for far too long. Although progress has been made, the ideologies
regarding expectations of gender performance remains present.
Research Questions
In order to analyze the representations of gender in Crayola commercials, three research
questions shape this study. To serve as a reminder of what this study is looking to discover
through the use of qualitative content analysis and ideological criticism, the research questions
framing this study are:
RQ1: Despite being a gender-neutral brand, are “male” gender-stereotypes present in the
commercials examined?
RQ2: Even though, Crayola is a gender-neutral brand, are “female” gender stereotypes
present in the commercials examined?

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RQ3: Has there been a decrease over time in the amount of gender stereotypes portrayed
in the Crayola commercials examined?
Crayola Television Commercials
In order to examine a 10-year span of Crayola commercials from 2006-2016, the popular
online video platform YouTube was used to search for commercials. By searching in YouTube’s
“search” bar, a total of 18 different Crayola advertisements were found for the years 2006-2016.
Some of these commercial advertisements are just generally about Crayola as a brand for art
supplies; these were typically “back to school” or “holiday” themed. Other commercial
advertisements found were to specifically advertise new products that Crayola was offering at
the time such as Melt N’ Mold Factory or Dino Destruction. These commercials will be reviewed
and analyzed in order by year, starting with 2006. The list of Crayola commercials that will be
examined are as follows: “Crayola Outdoors 2006,” “Crayola 2007,” “Crayola Beginnings
2010,” “Crayola Holiday Gifts 2011,” “Crayola Glow Book 2011,” “Crayola Digitools 2012,”
“Color Explosion 3D 2012,” “Made in America 2012,” “Melt N’ Mold Factory 2013,” “Marker
Maker 2013,” “Crayola Dry Erase Light Up Board 2013,” “Crayola Dino Destruction 2013,”
“Crayola Outdoor Colorful Beats 2014,” “Crayola Cling Creator 2015,” “Crayola Crayon Carver
2015,” “Crayola Thread Wrapper 2015,” “Crayola Color Wonder 2016,” “Crayola Sketch
Wizard 2016.”
Stereotypes of Gender
In order to be able to answer the gender stereotype-oriented research questions being
posed for this study, some gender stereotypes need to be established. The stereotypes that will be
used for this study are compiled from some of the previous research that was reviewed in chapter
two. In addition to common gender stereotypes, attention will be paid to the colors that the

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children in the television advertisements are using. As aforementioned, even colors have been
gendered with pinks and purples being “girl colors,” and blues and greens being “boy colors.”
The gender stereotypes that will be looked for involving female characters include: being
in the home (Browne, 1998), harm avoidance, dependence, nurturance (Barner, 1999),
passiveness, respectful/submissive, lacking intelligence (Browne, 1998), cooperative, displaying
a toys function, quiet, calm, unimaginative, and playing with fashion figures or dolls (Larson,
2001). The gender stereotypes that will be looked for in regards to the male characters in
children’s television commercials include: being outside of the home (Browne, 1998),
construction, aggression (Barner, 1999), dominant appearance, high activity, loud (Macklin &
Kolbe, 1984), powerful, independent, able to accomplish anything (Browne, 1998), competitive,
and likely to play with vehicles, action figures, and video games (Larson, 2001).
As this chapter briefly established, qualitative content analysis will be used to identify
reoccurring gender stereotype themes, trends, or patterns that follow our culture’s hegemonic
ideologies to be able to make inferences about the messages being communicated by advertisers
to children. This will be completed through the use of YouTube to watch 18 different Crayola
advertisements spanning from 2006-2016. To answer the research questions posed, a list of
stereotypes that was created from previously done studies will be used. The next chapter, chapter
four, will be the textual analysis. The textual analysis will contain descriptions of each
commercial, along with an analysis of each individual commercial.

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CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS
Introduction to Analysis
This analysis will introduce 18 different Crayola commercials that aired on television
between the years 2006-2016. The times of year that these commercials aired is completely
random as some are holiday commercials, some back-to-school, and others more general. One by
one, the commercials will be analyzed. First, with a description of the events and characters
featured in each Crayola commercial. This is followed by an examination of these events and
characters to discover whether there are reoccurring themes present. Specifically, themes
regarding messages being constructed within the advertisement about particular groups of
people.
Crayola Outdoors 2006
This 2006 commercial features some of Crayola’s outdoor products that were available
for purchase at the time of airing. The commercial opens with two little girls running through
some flowers while holding a few of the same flowers in their hands. It then quickly changes to a
variety of summer-like scenes. First, children (genders unidentifiable) running barefoot through a
sprinkler, a boy smiling with flowers in the background, two boys using some of Crayola’s
outdoor sprinkling chalk paint products, the girls checking out and painting one of the flowers

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they previously picked with Crayola’s super brush, and a little boy in the grass just spinning in
circles to show what a beautiful day it is to be outside playing. Then they go back to the two little
boys, decorating an entire driveway in fast motion with a couple of different Crayola outdoor
products right before the two boys “clean the canvas” while laughing and spraying the driveway
and each other with hoses. The commercial uses calming music and a male voice telling viewers
to “help them create memories outdoors with Crayola,” as they show the different outdoors
products available (Feldman, 2012a).
A couple of observations were made about this commercial. First, there was a male
voiceover. There were only two perceivable female characters while there were four
recognizable male characters. Perhaps the reason this commercial featured more boys is because
the setting of the commercial was outside of the home. The girls in this commercial are only
shown being active for a brief moment while they were running through the flowers. After that,
they were sitting idle while drawing those flowers with their Crayola super brushes, which
appears to be the simplest product available in this commercial as it is essentially an outdoor
paintbrush that doesn’t require much assembly or activity for use. Idly drawing seems to keep up
with the stereotype that girls play calmly and quietly. They were even shown being
stereotypically cooperative as one girl drew the flower stems while the other makes the flower’s
petals. Even what the girls are drawing, flowers, are a stereotypical “girly” thing.
On the other hand, the boys in the commercial (besides the one sitting and smiling) are
shown in a constant state of motion. They are running around while using the products in fast
motion, spinning in circles, they are loudly laughing as they competitively spray each other with
the hoses. The boys are also shown using the more complicated looking products which could be
a nudge at the stereotype of boys being constructive because they have to put these products

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together, or at the stereotype of boys being more knowledgeable because they need to know how
to use these products. Although the two boys are shown creating pictures in the same space, they
are not creating pictures together like the two girls mentioned earlier were. The boys are not
being cooperative and working together, they are just independently creating within close
proximity of each other. One instance that occurred that does not follow stereotypical gender
behavior is the one little boy shown using pink chalk paint in a close-up. Because of the use of
the close-up on the little boy’s hand, some distance is created between the boy and the color
pink.
Crayola 2007
This back to school advertisement opens with a “tomboy” dressed girl drawing and
creating a swing, while another little girl in a pink flowery outfit is laying in the grass while
drawing and coloring a variety of flowers, sunshine, and butterflies. She then gets distracted by a
butterfly (looks like one she just drew coming to life off of the page) flying up around a tree that
many children seem to be doing activities on. The scene changes to showing a little girl drawing
and creating an apple on the tree, picking it, and then tossing it up into the air. After that we see a
little boy writing “imagination” on a tree branch before blowing the word away, right off of the
surface he wrote on. The apple that was tossed up by the little girl earlier appears before a little
boy dressed as a pirate as he slices it in half. He then appears to yell “argh” along with two
additional little boys dressed as pirates. The commercial shows children (genders unidentifiable)
playing on the tree with a song about “a colorful world” sung by a male singer playing softly in
the background. We see a girl helping a little boy, as she is dressed like a scholar with a cap and
gown on and appears to be teaching him. Using her pointing stick, she whooshes away alphabet
letters that have come off of a page, which then go down into a book that a boy is holding while

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dressed in school uniform type attire. A male voice over then tells parents that their kids
“deserve all of the tools they need to create futures,” (Wu, 2007).
This commercial advertisement uses a male voice-over along with a calm sounding song
sung by a male. There are four identifiable female characters, one of which could be seen as
more of a tomboy as her apparel is not as noticeably “girly” as the others. The other girls are
wearing pink shirts, jean skirts, bracelets, necklaces, and hairbands, while the tomboy is wearing
a red hat sideways, brown knee-length plaid shorts, and a red long sleeve shirt underneath a blue
polo shirt. This commercial featured six identifiable male characters. Only a girl was shown
drawing flowers and butterflies, things that are stereotypically the interest of girls. On the other
hand, only boys were shown pretending to be pirates making it seem as though pretending to be a
pirate is more of a “boyish” thing. The one girl being shown as a teacher could either be
following a stereotype as teaching being a female role because of working with children or
Crayola’s way of trying to show a female in an intelligent role. Although the characters within
the entire commercial are actually silent, viewers can see that they girls are playing and drawing
quietly, while it can be implied that the boys playing pirates are being loud and rambunctious
even though you cannot actually hear them behaving that way. Other characters like the girl
drawing an apple or a boy reading his book appear to be rather neutral behaviors.
Crayola Beginnings 2010
This 2010 commercial advertises Crayola’s new Beginnings line of products that are
made specifically for babies. It starts by showing a baby girl ripping tissues out of a tissue box
all over the floor before her mother picks her up and sits her down to play with a new baby toy,
Crayola TaDoodles Slide & See. Viewers then see a baby boy and his mother playing with a
different baby product, the Crayola TaDoodles Drop & See. The scene then shows another baby

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girl and mother using new markers, the Crayola TaDoodles First Marks, which are made to be
easily gripped by a baby’s hands. This commercial is short and simple as a female’s voice
describes how the products being used helps to open up a baby’s mind (Feldman, 2012b).
Unlike the two previously analyzed commercials, this one features a female voice-over.
This could be a tactic used to appeal to moms. Moms are the only caretakers present in this
commercial with each baby, and they are stereotypically the primary caretaker of children,
especially babies due to their assumed nurturing nature. The babies themselves feature two baby
girls and one baby boy. Two of the babies are perceived to be girls due to one wearing purple
pants and a girly looking blouse while the only one is wearing a flowery blouse and pink pants.
One of the babies is perceived to be a boy because he is dressed in a blue shirt and tan pants. The
previously viewed commercials featured more boy characters than female, this one however
features a total of five female characters and only one male character. This more feminine
dominant approach could be again, to try and appeal to those more “feminine” people in life,
mothers. Even though it is a little harder to see gendered stereotypes with babies besides the
clothing they are put in, the baby boy is shown using the one more active toy while the product
used by the baby girls are more of an idle play thing.
Crayola Holiday Gifts 2011
This commercial opens up with a Christmas morning scene. Viewers see the outside of a
large opened package with presents and wrapping paper all over and a Christmas tree in the
background. A little boy in his pajamas then runs towards another little boy and little girl who
are also in their pajamas, coloring inside of the large box. The girl is drawing a big star with
yellow, pink, purple, and orange markers while the boy is drawing a big green alien. The
commercial continues to show the children drawing and playing with their new gifts as they do

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close ups on the products including a 150-piece Crayon Tower, the Dry Erase Activity Center
set, and the 86-piece Ultimate Art Case. A female voice-over describes the products and ends
with “this holiday, give more than presents. Give the gift of wonder and adventure” (Crayola,
2011).
This commercial uses a female voice-over. Two identifiable male characters are used
while only one identifiable female character is featured. One boy is wearing blue and white
pajamas while the other is wearing red and white pajamas. The girl’s pajamas are pink and white.
The girl’s side of the cardboard box shows that she has drawn flowers and more colorful images
with “girly” colors while the boy’s side is predominantly green with his big alien. Although all
of the children in the commercial are laughing and playing, the one little boy jumps up and yells
“roar,” which could be a hint at the stereotype that little boys are louder than littler girls. Overall,
both the boys and the girl are engulfed in drawing their outer space scene, a scene that may
typically be seen as “boyish” due to the perception that boys are more interested in science and
technology.
Crayola Glow Book 2011
This Crayola Glow Book commercial is another holiday commercial, that takes place
inside what we can imagine is a darkened child’s bedroom. Immediately we see a little boy
displaying a feature of the glow book with a count up he drew on the screen with little boy
voices counting “1, 2, 3, 4” before showing two other little boys “drumming” on the glow book
with a drum set that they drew while a little girl watches over. The commercial is loud, fun, and
exciting. Then the girl “blows a bubble” that pops with the glow book, really trying to emphasize
the motion that the product can create. It continues to show little boys drawing on the clear glow
panels of the glow book, while describing how to use the product. A girl eats pretend candy from

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the glow book by shaking it above her open mouth as the different panels light up, and then we
see a changing sign made with the glow book that reads “we need some pizza.” A girl is then
displaying her face behind the glow book while a series of masks they drew are featured one at a
time on her face. The commercial ends with the kids watching fireworks that they created on the
glow book (SavingsToysDeals, 2011).
The commercial uses a male child for the voice-over. There appears to be two identifiable
boy characters and two identifiable girl characters. All of the children are shown actively using
this product, making this commercial come off as truly gender neutral. However, the boys in this
commercial are slightly more active or take on more rambunctious roles than the girls. The boys
actively and loudly “play the drums,” actually draw on the glow book, and shout numbers while
the girls are primarily shown using the glow book by just holding it close to their faces. Though
the difference is pretty subtle, it is still present and can be a consequence of gendered stereotypes
that already exist like boys being loud and active while girls are calmer and more passive.
Crayola Digitools 2012
This 2012 Crayola Digitools holiday commercial opens by showing the product in either
purple or green. A boy walks over and picks up a pen from the green set before plopping down
on the couch with his iPad. It starts to show how these digitools can be used on an iPad to draw
as the boy draws a lightning bolt. A close up shot of the boy’s hands shows him rotating between
using the green kit’s tools and the purple kit’s tools, as the different kits have different tools
available. The commercial zooms back out to show the boy using the green kit once again with
green 3D glasses on with another boy next to him as he displays the different effects that can be
made using digitools. It shows the boys creating a jungle scene and then a picture of an octopus
before zooming out once again to show that a woman, whom we can assume is their mother has

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joined in by checking out the digitools. The commercial ends by showing the four different
digitools packs to choose from: effects, 3D, deluxe, or airbrush. Each pack has its own color:
purple, blue, green, and orange (Crayola, 2012a).
This commercial uses a male voice-over while featuring two male main characters. The
only female character present appears for a very short amount of time, and is assumed to be the
mother of the two boys. Males dominate this commercial as no female children and only one
female total shows up in the commercial at all. The boy in the commercial uses the green
Digitools kit the most, even though he also has the purple kit. This could be because green is
more of a “boy” color. Perhaps the advertisers wanted to show that both a “boy” color and a
“girl” color are available for purchase, which is why the boy was alternating between the two
colors. Then focusing on the green kit towards the end may create an appeal to other boys who
may be picturing themselves in the character’s shoes and would want to be using a “boy” color.
At the end of the commercial, when they show the different kits available for purchase, the kits
colors are purple, blue, green, or orange. Each kit has its own unique features, so they want all
children to want each kit. Notice there is no pink kit. Mostly “boyish” colors like blue, green,
and orange are used with one darker “girly” color. This coincides with the practice and belief
that girls will use products that are made to appeal to boys, but boys will not want products that
appeal to girls (Merskin, 2002). In this case, girls will have no problem receiving the blue, green,
or orange kit just like the boys won’t. However, the boys might be a little more skeptical about
the purple kit or if there was a pink kit whereas the girls would not be.
Color Explosion 3D 2012
Crayola’s Color Explosion 3D commercial from 2012 opens by showing a boy in red 3D
glasses exclaiming “woah," who is then joined by a girl also wearing the glasses as they appear

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to be fascinated by something. The commercial then shows different pictures being drawn by a
different boy and girl at a coffee table, followed by how those pictures appear when wearing the
3D glasses. The children who appeared using the product in the commercial first are shown again
“grabbing at the pictures” in the air. The male voice-over then exclaims “see everything you
make explode into the air,” as a third boy finishes hanging pictures on his bottom bunk so he can
see a fireworks scene in 3D when he lays in bed (Crayola, 2012b).
As mentioned earlier, this commercial is another male voice-over. There are two different
identifiable female characters in the commercial, while there are three different identifiable
males used in the commercial. The male characters make more exclamatory commentary
throughout the commercial, but that is the only big behavioral difference between the male and
female characters featured in this commercial. The product packaging itself features only male
characters using the 3D glasses to look at menacing looking creatures.
Made in America 2012
Crayola’s “Made in America” commercial, also from 2012, opens with a boy drawing a
portrait of Abraham Lincoln followed by someone drawing the Statue of Liberty. Then we see a
girl drawing Rosa Parks, which is followed by a circle of children holding up drawings of their
“inventions” with a little girl in the middle of the circle. We see two boys and a girl drawing a
big mountain scene with one boy using purple, the girls using green, and the other boy using
blue. It cuts to two children, one boy and one girl, getting to sit at a table full of crayons as they
prepare to draw and color like everyone else in the classroom. There are multiple shots just of
kids coloring before showing at least ten children coloring a giant American flag, followed by six
children drawing and coloring the United States map. This back to school commercial really
emphasizes that their products are “made in the USA” (Crayola, 2012c).

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This commercial uses a male voice-over. The scenes within the commercial feature a lot
of different children. From what the viewers are able to see, equal amounts of male and female
characters are shown throughout the entirety of the commercial. This commercial even shows a
boy using a “girly” color like purple (purple mountains majesty), while a girl uses a “boyish”
color like green (screamin’ green). It seems as though because this commercial is trying to be
patriotic, they made sure that different children were equally represented within the
advertisement and nothing was overly gender stereotyped.
Melt N’ Mold Factory 2013
This holiday commercial opens with a girl running up to two boys with her broken up
crayons saying “they’re barely alive, can you fix them?” The one boy responds with “no, but I
can make them better. To the Melt N’ Mold now!” The three kids then rush the crayons,
imitating a hospital emergency, to the Melt N’ Mold. Continuing as if they are in an operating
room, the one boy uses the Melt N’ Mold on the crayons. Holding up her new big diamond ringshaped crayon in shades of pink, the girl is pleasantly surprised and excited about what the Melt
N’ Mold created. The one boy shows some swirled crayons that he recreated in mostly hues of
greens and yellows, while the other boy is excited about his new racecar shaped crayon that has
swirls of blue and red together. The commercial ends with a male voice-over, telling viewers this
would make a good holiday gift (KidsToysVideos, 2013c).
This commercial has a male voice-over which is consistent with the findings of previous
research. There is one identifiable female character and two identifiable male characters in this
commercial. The girl desperately needs help and goes to the boys for it, enforcing the stereotype
that females are dependent on males and do not know what to do. Stereotypically, the boy has
the answer for her problem because he is independent and powerful. When they use the Melt N’

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Mold on the crayons, the girl gets a “fashion” based crayon (stereotypically a female interest) in
the shape of a ring in “girly” colors. The boys receive either the gender-neutral colored crayons
or the race car shaped crayon (stereotypically a male interest).
Marker Maker 2013
This 2013 Marker Makers commercial opens with three kids coloring inside what appears
to be a bedroom or playroom area. The boy shares that his favorite color is blue, so the one girl
responds that she likes pink. The other girl then says “my favorite color is electric pineappleopolis.” After the two other children tell her that is not a real color, the scene changes to the girl
looking like a scientist as she uses the marker maker to carefully combine colors and make her
own special colored markers. Then the scene goes back to the three of them as she shows the
other two kids some additional colored markers that she made and named. They exclaim “woah”
as they grab the markers to use for their drawings (KidsToyVideos, 2013b).
This commercial uses a male voice-over. Unlike most of the other commercials analyzed
thus far, this commercial features two female characters and one male. Stereotypically, the boy
says his favorite color is blue while the one girl says hers is pink, following the gendering of
colors that exists in our culture. A non-stereotypical instance in this commercial is the little girl
being shown as a scientist, using a machine to make markers. Both science and using machinery
are thought to be stereotypically male things, so featuring a female character in this way goes out
of the norm.
Crayola Dry Erase Light Up Board 2013
This holiday commercial opens with a boy sneaking away with the dry erase light up
board, as he erases an old picture and gets ready to draw a new one. He draws monster eyes to
enable him to sneak up on and scare his sister from behind the couch with a “roar!” Then his

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sister takes it and draws an alien looking bug and has it “flying” around an unidentifiable adult
while they are working on a computer. The boy then has a boat “sailing” around a doorway,
followed by a rocket ship. This is followed by the children using the dry erase light up board to
draw silly hats and glasses that the girl puts in front of her face. They erase that and draw a
variety of other things such as a bird and a shooting star. The commercial ends with a mom
shutting a bedroom door with the dry erase light up board hanging on the door with “genius at
work” written on it (Christmas Toy Commercials, 2013).
A female voice-over is used for this commercial. Overall, the commercial is pretty gender
neutral. It takes place inside of a home with one male main character and one female main
character. Both children draw a variety of neutral creations, whether it be bugs, birds, silly faces,
or stars. None of their creations were stereotypically “girly” or “boyish” in nature. The only
instance within this advertisement that may hint at any stereotype would be the boy loudly
yelling to scare his sister while she quietly sits and watches television. The girl quietly sitting is a
stereotypical behavior, as is the boy being loud.
Crayola Dino Destruction 2013
This advertisement for Crayola’s Dino Destruction opens up like a preview for a new
movie. First it shows the ruins of a destroyed city before shadows of dinosaurs appear. This is
followed by showing the actual dinosaur product. The dinosaur toys are shown crushing clay
cars in their mouths, knocking down clay “brick” walls, catapulting at walls, anything that is
considered “complete dino destruction!” They then show how you can build, launch, and smash
with this playset before the commercial zooms out to show three little boys playing with the
product in what appears to be a bedroom (KidsToyVideos, 2013a).
This commercial uses a male voice-over, along with the only three characters being all

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male. Some stereotypes present with this playset match up with the “boys only” feel that this
commercial offers. They show construction as they build and create shapes with the clay. The
playing is loud and aggressive as the boys literally create things to destroy them with the
dinosaurs. Dinosaurs themselves are typically considered a male interest, which is reinforced by
not including any females within the commercial.
Crayola Outdoor Colorful Beats 2014
The Crayola Outdoor Colorful Beats commercial from 2014 is an upbeat and fun
summery scene. It opens to a boy beatboxing and singing into a piece of chalk as a boy
skateboards by and two girls draw a dinosaur. Then, it shows a girl drawing a big toad followed
by the boy singing next to a girl drawing a big flower. She then draws a hummingbird that has
special zapping powers with the help of another girl. The boy highlights the different and unique
colored chalk being used for each of these pictures. Three girls are shown playing double Dutch
jump rope right before a girl starts rapping and singing. She shows a boy drawing a boat and then
a water monster. Then they highlight the 48 different colors of chalk that Crayola offers as the
original boy dances in the center of five female back up dancers. The boy and girl who have both
done the rapping and singing are shown drawing a windmill together and making plans to draw
an alien right before their mom calls them in for dinner. All of the children run home (Crayola,
2014).
This outdoor setting commercial has a female voice-over and can be considered female
dominant as there are more perceivably female characters than there are male. It is pretty
stereotypical for a girl to be the one drawing things such as flowers and humming birds, as is the
girls double dutching because jumping rope is historically considered a “girly” activity. It is also
stereotypical to have a boy skateboarding by as this is more of a dangerous “boy” activity. What

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is not very stereotypical is showing girls only drawing dinosaurs and toads, both of which would
typically be considered the interests of a boy. Even though this commercial had more female
characters than male, a male character was still the leading role of the commercial. He played a
dominant role, despite the fact that the male presence overall was not dominant. The commercial
ends with a mom calling the kids in for dinner. This alone suggests that moms, or females, are
the ones cooking and handling the childcare within the home, reinforcing a gendered stereotype.
Crayola Cling Creator 2015
This advertisement is for Crayola’s window cling maker. The commercial opens with a
boy picking up a glass of orange juice and noticing a fake bug stuck to the bottom of is while he
is mid-drink as a voice-over says “bug cling,” “snake cling” showing a window with a bunch of
fake snakes on it, followed by “glitter cling” as a girl is shown holding up a music note covered
in glitter. It then shows another girl using the cling creator machine, a bug being made by an
unidentifiable character, and then a girl making a flower and then a heart. The scene changes to
the boy from earlier waking up to two star clings with googly eyes being stuck to his glasses,
spooking him. Then the girl makes herself a monocle and mustache with the cling creator, along
with other shapes. The commercial ends with two children, a boy and a girl, looking up at their
window full of a variety of window clings that they had made (Crayola, 2015a).
This commercial uses a male voice-over while featuring two identifiable female
characters and only one identifiable male character. The girls in this commercial are shown
making all sorts of different shapes with the cling creator, not just stereotypical “girly” shapes
such as the flowers, butterflies, and hearts. A girl character is the one showing viewers how to
use the product, while even creating a more “boyish” shape of a bug. The boy and the girl in the
commercial both behave in some not so stereotypical ways, such as the boy getting scared and

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the girl being the one doing the scaring instead of being quiet. This commercial is relatively
neutral overall, but definitely defies some cultural stereotypes of gender.
Crayola Crayon Carver 2015
This advertisement opens with an older looking boy and girl standing at a table as they
say “let’s carve.” Each of them sits down at the table with their own Crayola Crayon Carver. The
whole atmosphere of the commercial at this point feels like a western showdown. Then they
show you how the product works while a voice-over explains what is happening. The boy shows
his message on the crayon saying “noob,” to which the girl shows him up with “smoked” carved
into her crayon. He follows that up with “killin’ it,” but she wins with her crayon that says
“sick.” The scene pans out to show a pile of crayons that the two have already carved as they
both remark that they are going to need more crayons (Ogalala World, 2016).
An indoor setting is used for this commercial, along with a female voice-over. There is
very obvious competition between the boy and girl in this commercial, but the girl appears to
win each round of competition that we are shown. It follows the stereotype for boys that he is
being competitive however, it is not stereotypical for the girl to also be engaging in competition.
Because their behavior is extremely similar in this commercial, there is a feeling of equal
representation. The most stereotyped instance within this commercial is actually in the
background, where you can see a mom doing stuff in the kitchen. Including this small detail
helps make the commercial feel more real, but it enforces female stereotypes by having a female
or a mom in the kitchen.
Crayola Thread Wrapper 2015
Crayola’s 2015 commercial for their thread wrapper opens showing the thread wrapper
sitting on a table. It then pans out to two girls at the table saying “let’s do this.” Girl number one

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puts her hairband into the thread wrapper and pulls it back out all threaded as she then puts it in
her hair. Girl number two responds by putting her belt into the thread wrapper to be threaded and
then shows it off around her waist. Then girl number one threads and shows six threaded Crayola
markers. Girl number two threads and wears her necklace. Girl number one follows this by
threading her bracelets, and girl number two threads her sunglasses. Girl number one threads her
headphones, but before girl number two can come back with threading something even better,
they run out of thread. “We’re totally going to need more thread,” they remark (Crayola, 2015b).
This commercial has an indoor setting and uses a young sounding female voice-over.
There is a competitive nature to this commercial, which goes against the stereotypical norms for
girls as boys are using the ones behaving in a competitive manner. This product as a whole is
more of a “girly” product than a gender neutral one, which would explain why the commercial
only uses two female characters. What makes it a “girly” product though? The fact that threading
is crafty in a fashionable way and fashion is a subject of interest for girls, not boys. In both this
commercial and the commercial for the crayon carver, the commercial ends with the users
needing more of something to be able to continue use of the product. The only difference is that
in they crayon carver commercial, the boy and girl both say that they are going to need more
crayons. In this commercial, with two girls as the main characters, they say, “we’re totally going
to need more thread.” The “totally” gives the statement more of a Valley Girl feel, as a word that
someone who could be seen as fashionable at some point such as Paris Hilton would add to a
sentence.
Crayola Color Wonder 2016
Crayola Color Wonder’s commercial opens up with a few scenes of children making
messes. First, the audience sees a little girl on a white bed who is eating and absolutely covered

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in what looks like jelly from a pastry. This is followed by a little boy finger painting; whose
canvas went from the actual canvas and onto the white wall beside it. Lastly, we see a boy
getting ready to brush his teeth, as he squirts this toothpaste on his toothbrush, and the floor, and
his feet as he mushes into it. Then the camera pans back to the painting boy and back to the jelly
covered girl. The commercial shows the Crayola color wonder before showing a little boy and a
little girl sitting on a white couch and coloring with the product. As they go off of the page with
their markers, no marks are left on the white couch. A mom walks away triumphantly thanks to
this mess free product (Crayola, 2016).
This commercial is all indoors with a female voice-over. The characters in this
commercial include two young females and one adult female and three young boys. Both the
young females in this commercial are not very active as they sit still either drawing or eating.
The boys on the other hand are in more active roles as one is up finger painting and one is
stomping around in toothpaste. The one girl gets a close up of what she is drawing with her color
wonder and it appears to be a flower, which is very stereotypical for a little girl to be drawing.
Other than those differences, the children in the commercial are partaking in messy behavior
regardless of whether they are male or female. Of course, as mentioned earlier, a mom appears in
this commercial. She is not only a background character as she is seen walking away very happy
and triumphant that her children are playing with something that is mess free. This goes right
along with the stereotype of females or moms being the caretakers of the children, or nurturers
who will end up cleaning the mess that the kids make.
Crayola Sketch Wizard 2016
The final commercial being analyzed is Crayola’s 2016 sketch wizard commercial. This
commercial opens by showing viewers two boys and two girls waiting at the bottom of a

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treehouse as a basket lowers down to them. Inside the basket is a stuffed animal and a welldrawn picture of that stuffed animal. “Thank you sketch wizard,” a little girl calls out when
retrieving her things from the basket. A boy then sends up a toy robot for the sketch wizard to
draw. As the basket goes up, it is revealed that there are two boys in the treehouse using the
Crayola sketch wizard to draw or trace anything they are given. They send it back down to an
impressed little boy as the two boys in the treehouse use a megaphone to call down to the other
children and keep the whole sketch wizard gig, they have going on (ToysRUs Hong Kong,
2016).
This commercial has an outside setting, with a female voice-over. Two female characters
are used in this commercial with four male characters, making it a more male dominant
commercial. The items that the children sent up can be viewed as stereotypical as robots are seen
as more of a “boyish” toy and a stuffed animal would be more of interest to a little girl. Both the
boys and the girls in this commercial are impressed by the sketch wizard, but the fact that two
boys are playing the powerful role of sketch wizard keeps up with loud and powerful stereotypes
of male characters.
Summary of Analysis
This entire chapter was dedicated to providing descriptions as well as an examination of
18 Crayola commercials over a ten-year period. This was done in order to determine whether or
not a gender-neutral brand such as Crayola withstands from including gender stereotypes within
their commercials selling products meant for anyone regardless of gender. This analysis has
revealed some key stereotypes shown within Crayola’s commercials. Boys are active, leaders,
and interested in masculine things while girls are idle, passive characters, and interested in
feminine items.

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CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION
Findings
There are some notable findings from this analysis. First, consistent with previous
research, a male voice-over was used more often than a female voice-over. The difference in
numbers between the use of male and female voice-overs was not as staggering as one would
expect. Out of the 18 commercials analyzed, ten of them used a male voice-over and the
remaining eight commercials had a female voice-over. However, what seemed to determine
whether a male or female voice-over was used was the overall nature of the commercial.
Compatible with their stereotyped traits, the commercials with a passive nature were more likely
to have a female voice-over while the more active commercials used a male voice-over. Another
component previous research had used for analysis is whether there are more identifiable male
characters, more identifiable female characters, or an equal amount of identifiable male and
female characters featured in the commercial. After analyzing the 18 Crayola commercials from
2006-2016, male presence dominated. In the 18 different commercials, nine of them contained
more identifiable male characters while only five contained more identifiable female characters.
Only four commercials had an equal amount of identifiable male and female characters.
Crayola is considered a gender-neutral brand that provides products for all children.

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Despite this, the answer to RQ1: “Despite being a gender-neutral brand, are “male” gender
stereotypes present in the commercials examined?” is yes. Yes, “male” gender stereotypes are
present within Crayola commercials. Some of the key stereotypes that Crayola commercials
tended to show are boys as active, as leaders, and as preferring more masculine items. The male
characters in many of the commercials are shown running around, being energetic, and actively
interacting with the products and each other. While having more physically active roles in the
commercials, they are also more likely to be the leaders in the commercials. The male characters
are typically the leads in the advertisements while also being more in charge of situations than
their female counterparts. When there is a problem, a male character is consulted. If a character
is portrayed in a power position that others look up to such as in the “Sketch Wizard,” it is a
male character. The last key stereotype is showing boys as preferring more masculine items.
Boys in these advertisements are shown pretending to be pirates, drawing monsters and aliens,
using “boy” colors, playing with dinosaurs, and using a racecar shaped crayon. These are all very
masculine interests.
The answer to RQ2: “Even though Crayola is a gender-neutral brand, are “female”
gender stereotypes present in the commercials examined?” is also yes. “Female” gender
stereotypes are also present within Crayola commercials. When counting the number of
commercials in which stereotypes occurred, it was challenging for many. Some commercials
featured both an identifiable female character drawing something she stereotypically would, but
also an identifiable female character drawing something that she stereotypically would not.
Overall, there are a couple of key stereotypes present for the female characters as well. Crayola
commercials tended to show girls as idle, and as preferring more feminine items. Many of the
commercials showed the girls sitting. Sitting and drawing, sitting and painting, simply not

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partaking in very active roles. What are these girls idling creating? Hearts, flowers, butterflies.
They double Dutch jump rope, they use a thread wrapper to make fashionable accessories, they
use “girly” colors, all interests that are feminine in nature.
RQ3 asked: “Has there been a decrease over time in the amount of gender stereotypes
portrayed in the Crayola commercials examined?” The answer is no. A commercial from 2012
does a great job with having an equal representation and no use of stereotypes, but then a
commercial from 2013 features both male and female stereotypes within it. This continues,
jumping from stereotypes present to no stereotypes present throughout the entire ten-year span of
the commercials analyzed. It is as if Crayola is actively trying to balance out some of their
stereotypical portrayals with some not so stereotypical portrayals. It would be better to say that
Crayola still has gender-stereotypes present within their commercial advertising, but to various
degrees. Some are severely evident, while others are very mild. After analyzing the 18
commercials, a majority of commercials that contained male stereotypes, also contained female
stereotypes. There were a few exceptions, such as the “Dino Destruction” commercial or the
“Thread Wrapper” Commercial as those specific products had a specific gender they wanted to
appeal to. About eight of the 18 commercials analyzed, almost half, had more of an equal
representation of the children featured in the commercials than any male or female stereotypes
present.
One finding that was discovered, although not looked for was parental portrayal. The
products that this brand sells are aimed towards children, so it would make sense that children
are the primary and dominant characters within the advertisements. However, one parent does
make an appearance in some of the commercials: moms. Of the 18 commercials, six had an
appearance of a female adult that viewers can assume is the mom. Six out of 18 does not seem

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like much, but no fathers or male adults were shown in any of the commercials. Viewers see a
mom in the background in the kitchen, moms playing with their babies, a mom calling to her
children that dinner is ready, a mom closing a bedroom door after tucking the children in, a mom
looking triumphant after introducing a mess free product, and a mom interacting with her
children and a new product. Where are the fathers? The fact that commercials feature a mother
and not a father can be sending a message itself that coincides with gender-role stereotypes. The
stereotype is that women are in the home and nurturing. They serve as child bearers and care
takers. They are the ones in the homes, playing with their kids, making dinner, doing bedtime,
and happy that a product saves them from cleaning up a mess. Despite the strides that women
have made in the workforce, the six of the commercials that showed a mom are from the most
recent years. Despite the equal and more active roles that men and women are taking on at home,
at work, and with their children, Crayola commercials are still showing moms in a more
stereotypical light. Whether they are trying to or not, this is sending a message to children of
where their mother should be.
Limitations
This study has some limitations. First of all, the number of commercials used is a
limitation. Perhaps the 18 commercials analyzed are not enough for the ten-year period to truly
determine the messages being portrayed by Crayola. A big reason that those 18 commercials
were chosen is because they were freely available for viewing on YouTube. Perhaps using a
different video viewing platform with more or better-quality Crayola commercials accessible
would have yielded changed results. Having the analysis of only one person is also a limitation
of this research. Additional people doing the analysis may have found different commercials
having more or less stereotypical representations than what was found in this study. This could

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ultimately alter every single finding this research has concluded. The last and biggest limitation
is the presumption of gender in a commercial. From simply watching characters in a commercial,
there is no way to know the biological sex of the children. All that is shown is how they are
physically portrayed to the viewers, which is either as a boy or a girl. Viewers and researchers
alike have to make an assumption about who are boys and who are girls based on the clothes
they are wearing or how their hair is styled.
Future Directions for Research
From here, research can go in a few directions. One direction would be to study whether
or not these portrayals or constructed messages are actually affecting the children. Do they notice
the stereotypes? Do they agree or disagree with some of the things they are seeing? Does a little
girl love or feel indifferent towards a girl drawing both a dinosaur and a flower? Research could
focus on how the children watching these Crayola commercials feel about the children within the
commercials. It could also determine whether or not the children would be interested in buying
the product. If the “Thread Wrapper” commercial featured two girls and two boys, would boys
be interested in the product? Future research can also focus on other products that could or
should be considered gender-neutral and whether or not they are portraying stereotypes of
gender. An idea of a good brand to analyze the commercials or products of would be Lego. Lego
pieces are little bricks that can be assembled in many ways to build a multitude of things;
however, they created a “girl” version of this in 2012 called Lego Friends (Ulaby, 2013). Why
did they need to make a distinction between “boys” Legos, and “girls” Legos?
While analyzing the commercials, it was hard not to notice that the characters are
primarily white. Yes, some of the commercials have at least one child from a different racial
category, but white is dominant. Future research could look into the diversity of the children

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featured in these commercials and examine whether or not diversity is actually shown. Along
with examining the lack of presence of other races, future research could look at how many
commercials use nonwhite dominant characters. What messages does a lack of representation
send to the children who are viewing?
Future research could also examine the issue of parental representation, as mentioned
above. Why are there no fathers playing with their children, worrying about cleaning up a mess,
or featured in a parenting role? Are they featured in other commercials that Crayola has done, or
any other commercials that are aimed towards children? Only showing mothers as the ones being
parents sends an entirely different message itself about what the children may be expected to do
when they are adults or parents themselves, falling right into old society stereotypes that many
have been working hard to eliminate.
Suggestions for Advertisers
In order to do better, advertisers should be looking at all of the research, while also
making an effort to encourage equality on all fronts within our society. They should use their
platform to break down any stereotyped norms that are dominant within our culture in order to
portray to children that they can be or like whatever they want. They need to stop constructing
messages to children about what mold they need to fit into. In Crayola’s case, it can be as simple
as featuring a diverse cast, showcasing fathers in a parental role, having the main characters
within a commercial any other race but white, and portraying actions that are not stereotypical
without feeling the need to pair it with something stereotypical. In a commercial for the product
“Dino Destruction,” Crayola could feature two boys and two girls in the commercial, just like
they did for their other products. The same could be said for the “Thread Wrapper.” By only
putting girls in the commercial for something crafty that can relate to fashion, they are telling

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boys that they should not be into such a product or topic. By only showing boys playing with a
dinosaur set, the message is that girls should not be interested in dinosaurs causing demoli tion.
The initial interests of young children are very much molded based on what they are shown as
something they should like or something they should not like.
Conclusion
Overall, despite being “gender-neutral” as a brand, Crayola jumps on the bandwagon
with other brands and uses gender specific stereotypes within their commercials. Although
Crayola does seem to make attempts to have inclusive commercials by featuring a variety of
children and even behavior that is not stereotypical, stereotypes are predominantly present. Also
present is the preference for male voices and male characters within the advertisements. Crayola
is not making as many non-stereotypical strides as one would hope for a neutral product, but they
are still doing a relatively decent job at trying. As noted above, they are not all “in your face”
super obvious and excessive stereotypes, but they are still looming there in various degrees while
constructing messages to its viewers.

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