Gender Responses to Advertising Content in Male vs. Female Magazines

Presenter Information

Jessica M. Morales, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Heidi C. Doerr, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

27-4-2009 1:00 PM

End Date

27-4-2009 3:00 PM

Student's Major

Psychology

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Emily Stark

Mentor's Department

Psychology

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

This experiment was focused on analyzing whether there was a difference in how males versus females respond to advertisements from either men's magazines or women's magazines. The participants were given an Advertisement Experiment Survey which asked them to rate each corresponding advertisement. The participants were asked to answer how likely they were to purchase the products after viewing the advertisement, how appealing they thought the advertisement was, and how well the advertisement caught their attention. Male participants rated the men's magazines higher than the women's magazines and female participants rated the women's magazines higher than the men's magazines for how likely they were to purchase the products, how appealing they thought the advertisement was, and how well the advertisement caught their attention. The results of this study show how magazines subtly target ads by gender, and can help advertising agencies know which types of advertisements to place in either men's or women's magazines.