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Introduction
Advertising is one of a company's primary communication links with its customers. To achieve its commercial goal, advertising has to provide images and language that are relevant to its intended audience and keep pace with specific cultural, economic and social changes. On the other hand, advertising may serve as a "distorted mirror" ([20] Pollay, 1986), illustrating certain desirable lifestyles and reinforcing some specific attitudes and values to help promote the products.
Gender role stereotyping is a common strategy used by advertisers. By portraying women as decorative sex objects, younger than men and associated with some special employment status ([12] Hovland et al. , 2005), advertisers believe they can establish a shared experience of identification with the consumers. However, these stereotypical images ignore the diverse nature of modern women's lives and do not reflect the significant progress women have made in society. Nevertheless, the defenders of gender role stereotyping argue that advertising does not live in a vacuum and that it is an integrated part of societal and cultural systems in which they exist. Even though some ideas and attitudes are intentionally concealed or under-represented while others are emphasized and embellished, changes in society and culture will eventually be reflected in advertising ([19] Lindner, 2004).
Research on gender role portrayals in advertising began in the early 1970s and most research has been completed in Western cultures ([15] Kim and Lowry, 2005). There are some cross-cultural studies but few empirical studies on gender role portrayals in Asian advertisements. Crucially, no similar studies have been conducted on Thai advertisements and the most recent study in China was in 1997 ([6] Cheng, 1997). Therefore, it is worth examining gender role portrayals in advertisements from Thailand, China and the USA, since each country represents a unique sociopolitical background: the capitalistic USA (with Judeo-Christian values), socialist China (with weak Confucian values) and capitalistic Thailand (with strong Confucian values). Considering advertising as a snapshot mirroring society and culture, this research tries to determine to what extent the differences and similarities in the cultural, political and economic backgrounds of these nations are reflected in the gender role portrayals in magazine advertisements. This research should aid in better understanding culturally acceptable gender role portrayals in advertising and have important implications for future international...