results suggest that there were definite shifts in appropriateness judgements, mainly among male subjects. The main point to emerge was that those boys who viewed the ‘female actor’ advertisements were more likely to indicate that the toy was appropriate for both genders than those boys who saw the ‘male actor’ advertisements, in which case the toy was seen as a ‘boys only’ play object. The magnitude of change in terms of gender judgements made by girls was not as great as those made by boys. Exposure to ‘female actor’ advertisements, for example, tended to make the girls less inclined to believe that the toy was appropriate for ‘boys only’. Effects of Voice-over Gender on Advertisement and Product Evaluations Kolbe and Muehling found that not all children correctly identified the gender of the adult announcer (only 74% made the correct identification). When children incorrectly identified the gender of the adult announcer, they tended to assume that the female announcer was male. Perhaps the predominance of male voice-overs generally means than most children will assume that the voice is male rather than female; the power of expectation and convention over-riding actuality, to the point where the audience becomes presumptive. Indeed, the pattern of incorrect voice-over gender identification was found to be the case for both boys and girls in this study. In terms of product evaluation, Kolbe and Muehling found no significant differences, except in the way that a male voice-over tended to result in a more favourable response to the advertisement and the product. Similar attitudes are echoed in my own work with children, in that the prevailing mentality was that ‘boys toys are best’. Discussion and Conclusions The questions addressed in this study have raised the issue of whether children see and internalise gender-role information in television advertisements. The pr...
