CORAL GABLES, FL (December 5, 2011)--The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in the presence of gays in American advertising. The media has transformed the stigmatized stereotype of gays into a new, socially desirable image of stylish consumers with high-end taste. This marketing strategy affects the way gays understand themselves and influences the meaning of gayness for society in general, explains Wan-Hsiu Sunny Tsai, assistant professor of advertising at the University of Miami School of Communication, in a study recently published by the Journal of Advertising .
"The findings illuminate the influential role of advertising in informing and shaping personal identities and highlights the often ignored sociopolitical dimension of advertising, Tsai says. "In other words, when marketers argue that no matter who they target, 'it's just business,' their marketing messages actually have broader, cultural impacts on the minority community."
The researcher uses an interpretive approach to analyze television commercials made by mainstream advertisers. In the study, 25 gay and lesbian participants with different ethnic, age, and professional backgrounds observed 10-15 commercials that "exemplified dominant gay and lesbian portrayals." The participants discussed how the advertising representations were similar or different to how they viewed themselves and provided "vivid interpretations of the media representations."
According to the study, five specific strategies emerged within these minority consumers to interpret the messages catered to them:
The findings are published in an article titled "How Minority Consumers Use Targeted Advertising as Pathways to Self-Empowerment: Gay Men's and Lesbians' Reading of Out-of-the-Closet Advertising" Journal of Advertising Vol. 40 No. 3 Fall 2011.
Currently, the researcher is working on a project about gay and lesbian consumers' political consumption to understand how they would respond to political appeals in advertising messages (e.g., companies advertising themselves as a gay-friendly work place, or a long-time sponsor of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community).
The University of Miami's mission is to educate and nurture students, to create knowledge, and to provide service to our community and beyond. Committed to excellence and proud of our diversity of our University family, we strive to develop future leaders of our nation and the world. www.miami.edu
Journal of Advertising