Gender - toys and roles
Cars for boys and dolls for girls
From the findings, children clearly also see the gender of the model in the advertisement as being important and this could lead to or reinforce specific toys being associated with specific genders. Cars and action toys become associated with boys, whereas dolls become associated with girls.
Looking after a baby is a job for girls This may also translate into occupations later in life. For example action toys may translate into sport. 71% of girls said that being a cricketer was for boys and 86% of girls said that looking after a baby was for girls. Hence for children in television advertising there seems to be a clear rather than a contradictory message regarding gender boundaries.
Aggression
There is far more aggression in advertisements aimed at boys and the language used also suggest this. For example, in 15 advertisements aimed at boys there were 18 words which referred to some kind of fighting such as 'battle', 'attack' or 'destroy'. In 15 commercials aimed at girls, 10 mentioned 'friend' or 'friends'. Hence, this reinforces stereotypes that girls prefer gentle and passive behaviour whilst boys prefer more aggressive behaviour.