Exploring advertising literacy digital paths: comparison between gender approaches among chilean students

Abstract

In a world full of signals and messages surrounded by mass medias as well as digital media, advertising literacy is considered a powerful tool for social communication. Based on today’s context, this exploratory research compared two advertising approaches: (a) the global phenomenon of femvertising, which empowers women in advertising, and (b) the emergence of the conception of a new man towards a more inclusive society. Drawing from Schema Congruence Theory, both paths were studied considering the importance of ads in the representation of gender roles and stereotypes, as value perceptions of justice, impartiality, traditional acceptance, cultural acceptance, family acceptance, and morality among young people in Chile. Participants were 110 students mainly from communication studies, who were exposed to six advertising messages shown on hybrid type of media, including social media. Quantitative statistical analysis was performed. Overall, findings revealed a favorable tendency of congruence between roles and stereotypes that students expected to be represented in both approaches, as well as with values that they associated with both types of perspectives. However, it is important to consider differences found among gender, student´s age and student´s school year variables for each approach. This study opens new paths to continue exploring further aspects of digital advertising literacy such as affective components, visual elements, among others.