One large aspect of what makes a commercial have a specific gender stereotype is the voice or narrator of the ad. “Results were that all-boy ads were characterized by a practical subtext, boy-and-girl ads were seen to have a traditional or normative thrust, and all-girl ads were emotional in tone”(Johnson, Young). This plays exactly to what people would expect and conclude when thinking about these specific commercials. Most girl-ads play to an emotional approach because that is the way to captivate and appeal to the young girls watching the commercials. Along with voice, the number of words used in each commercial also plays into the stereotype as well. “…the number of words in the all-boy ads ranged from 21 to 97, the range for the 16 mixed ads was 57 to 110, and for the 36 all-girl ads 35 to 95”(Johnson, Young). Boys will tend to have a shorter attention span than that of a girl, which makes their number of words less than for an all-girl commercial.
Johnson, Fern L., and Karren Young. "Gendered Voices in Children's Television Advertising."
Critical Studies in Media Communication 19.4 (2002): n. pag. Web. 3 Dec. 2010.
C.M.