Sukupuolen representaatiot lastenmainosten äänimaailmassa

Authors

• Pirkko Martti Turun yliopisto, Opettajankoulutuslaitos, Rauman yksikkö, Finland

Keywords:

music, musiikki, children’s commercials, lastenmainonta, advertising music, mainosmusiikki, gender role, sukupuolirooli

Abstract

Marketing rhetoric uses indirect influencing e.g. non-linguistic elements. Consequently, it is relevant to pay attention to the soundscape of advertisements. The study described in this article examined how the Finnish commercials aimed at children use sound as a medium of influence. The semantic content of speech was excluded from the examination and the focus was on the music, sound effects, and non-linguistic elements of speech such as prosody. The research material consisted of the toy advertisements shown in a Finnish television channel. Quantitative content analysis was used as a research method. While previous studies have shown that the children’s commercials contain gender stereotypes the study aimed to find out how the sound is used as the representation of gender. The speech prosody of the voice-over that was defined based on the research data was often gender-exaggerated. In addition, there were differences in the use of tempos, jingles, and the sound effects that aimed to enhance action. The results showed up different ways to socialise gender roles by means of sound. When the boys were the target group action and power were emphasised. The girls were approached with softer sounds, such as the singing and gentle voice in the voice-over.