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Is the Marlboro man the only alternative? The role of gender identity and self-construal salience in evaluations of male models

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Abstract

This research examines how men react to male models in print advertisements. In two experiments, we show that the gender identity of men influences their responses to advertisements featuring a masculine, feminine, or androgynous male model. In addition, we explore the extent to which men feel they will be classified by others as similar to the model as a mechanism for these effects. Specifically, masculine men respond most favorably to masculine models and are negative toward feminine models. In contrast, feminine men prefer feminine models when their private self is salient. Yet in a collective context, they prefer masculine models. These experiments shed light on how gender identity and self-construal influence male evaluations and illustrate the social pressure on men to endorse traditional masculine portrayals. We also present implications for advertising practice.

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Notes

  1. We thank a reviewer for this suggestion.

  2. The distribution of participants by consumer gender identity for study 1 was as follows: 64 masculine males, 58 androgynous males, 45 feminine males, and 31 undifferentiated males. For study 2, participants comprised 82 masculine males, 74 androgynous males, 60 feminine males, and 20 undifferentiated males.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editors, the anonymous reviewers, Cristel Russell, David Griffith, and Simon Pervan for the helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marketing Group School of Management, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

    Brett A. S. Martin

  2. Department of Marketing, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Juergen Gnoth

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  1. Brett A. S. Martin
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  2. Juergen Gnoth
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Correspondence to Brett A. S. Martin.

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Martin, B.A.S., Gnoth, J. Is the Marlboro man the only alternative? The role of gender identity and self-construal salience in evaluations of male models. Mark Lett 20, 353–367 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-009-9069-2

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