What is the effect of gender stereotypes on portrayals of men and women in alcohol commercials aired during the Super Bowl from 1990-2023?
In 1967 American football began a sports tradition in our society that took off running and has yet to slow down (Osmanski 2023). Fifty six years later, it still remains atop the sports world. The fifty seventh annual Super Bowl kicked off Sunday, February twelfth and television viewers tend to tune in for more than just the big game. The Super Bowl annually averages around ninety million viewers (Sanders 2023). Year after year, the game is well known for more than just crowning a football champion after the four quarters of play. It’s hard not to be looking forward to the commercials that are being aired for the first time by different companies, brands, corporations and industries. Advertisers know that viewership is high and they want to get their product out on the screen. They use many approaches to deliver their message. Many feature celebrities, while others use music or comedy to highlight their goods.
Coors Light – Football 2012 by Roger W. Flickr by CC-BY
A popular and consistent type of Super Bowl commercial is that of alcoholic beverages. Having a focus on alcohol commercials and their popularity is one thing, but a main point to be made is that gender stereotypes can be portrayed within these well known alcohol commercials. For clarity, a stereotype can be defined as a widely held, simplified, and essentialist belief about a specific group (Schiebinger 2023) and portrayal can be simply known as the representation or something or someone. In the data collection process, I started by gathering twenty five media examples of alcohol featured Super Bowl commercials within the timeframe of 1990-2023 to examine and utilize to answer my research question.