Ethical judgments of sexualized ads featuring Women: The role of identification with feminine archetypes

Gwarlann de Kerviler, Caroline Ardelet and Barbara Slavich

Journal of Business Research, 2022, vol. 142, issue C, 899-913

Abstract: Women may react differently to sexualized ads featuring women. Notably, while some women may regard a sexual imagery as empowering, others may perceive it as a sign of objectification. Accurate predictions of women’s reactions to sexualized ads remain limited. Four studies, conducted in the United States and France, reveal that identification with feminine archetypes affects ethical judgment of sexualized ads through differences in perceived male dominance. Results show that women with high self-esteem as well as women preferring intense make-up have a less negative ethical judgment towards perceived male dominance. Findings contribute to research by highlighting the importance of the archetypes framework for segmenting an advertising audience and for determining ethical judgment. This research highlights the role played by perceived male dominance, self-esteem and make-up preference in the relationship between identification to archetypes and ethical judgment. Finally, it provides new guidelines to define relevant targets for advertising campaign.

Keywords: Archetypes; Ethical judgments; Male dominance; Sexualized advertising (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321009188
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:142:y:2022:i:c:p:899-913

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.12.004

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().