Where's Tamika Catchings? A Content Analysis of Female ...

Where's Tamika Catchings? A Content Analysis of

Female Athlete Endorsers in Magazine

Advertisements

Stacy Landreth Grau, Georgina Roselli, and Charles R. Taylor

Despite Title IX and increased levels offemales' participation in sports, the use of female

athletes as product endorsers has received limited attention. Some observers have suggested

that there may he a media bias against female athletes and other problems related to how

female athletes are portrayed to the public. The purpose of this study is to examine the

frequency and nature of portrayals of female athletes when they appear as product endorsers

in magazine advertisements. Results of a content analysis of a wide range of magazines

indicate thatfemales appear injustl2% ofthe adsfeaturing celebrity athlete endorsers. While

female athlete endorsers are not commonly seen in any type of magazine, they are more prone

to be found in women's magazines and are virtually absent from men's magazines and teen

magazines. Findings also indicate that three-quarters of the female endorsers came from

individual sports, as opposed to team sports. Another key result of the study is that female

athletes were shown suggestively or partially clad 81% of the time.

Athletes as product endorsers are ubiquitous. Endorsing everything from milk, soda, and beer to pain

relievers, sneakers, and fast food, athletes have entrenched themselves into the advertising culture. Some

athletes, such as Michael Jordan, have translated their

athletic prowess into multimillion dollar endorsements. Jordan has endorsed General Mills' Wheaties;

McDonald's Quarter-Pounders; Gatorade; Hanes underwear; and, of course, Nike's Air Jordan sneakers

(Mathur, Mathur, and Rangan 1997), and has proven

that celebrity endorsers can have an impact on Wall

Street. Jordan's return to basketball in 1995 increased

the stock value of related firms by $1,016 billion, leading analysts to dub the event the "Michael Jordan

Phenomenon" (Mathur, Mathur, and Rangan 1997).

In 1995, celebrities in general accounted for approximately 20 percent of all television advertisements, and

Stacy Landreth Grau (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is an Assistant Professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX.

(email: s.grau@tcu.edu)

Georgina R. Roselli (M.B.A., Villanova University) is a control

analyst for J.P. Morgan Chase in Newark, DE. (email:

Georgina.Roselli@villanova.edu)

Charles Raymond Taylor (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is the

John A. Murphy Professor of Marketing at Villanova University in

Villanova, PA. (email: raymond.taylor@villanova.edu)

The authors would like to thank Brett Sullivan and Bryan McGann

for coding and Johnna Schifilitti and Derek Sandier for their invaluable assistance.

athletes accounted for 11 percent of the ads with celebrities (Dyson and Turco 1998). Company expenditures on celebrity endorsers account for a large portion

of the marketing budget of many firms (Dyson and

Turco 1998). Considering that Serena Williams earns

$40 million and Tiger Woods earns $100 million, respectively, from Nike alone (Bagnall 2003), it is apparent that at least some firms believe in the

effectiveness of celebrity athlete endorsers. However,

evidence from research examining the influence that

athletes have on target markets has been mixed. Research shows that celebrity endorsers affect consumer

product choice (Agrawal and Kamakura 1995), consumer attention, and product trial (Miciak and

Shanklin 1994) which makes them appealing despite

the costs. However, despite the positives, research

also shows that only one out of five commercials that

included celebrity endorsers met strategic expectations (Miciak and Shanklin 1994).

Despite gains in women's participation in sports

(Fink 1998), a large majority of athlete endorsers are

male. Women have not made the same inroads in

endorsements as their male counterparts possibly because sports are perceived as a traditionally male role

(Knight and Guilano 2001). A recent Forbes Celebrity

100 list showed that there are no women in the top 50

Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising,

Volume 29, Number 1 (Spring 2007).

56

Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising

highest paid athletes {Forbes June 28, 2004). The 2005

Forbes Celebrity 100 had no change¡ªonly five females

were on the list with the highest female ranking 57

().

Bush, Martin and Bush (2004) found that female

adolescents spread more positive word of mouth about

a product or brand that is endorsed by their favorite

athlete than male adolescents. Females also agreed

that athlete role models influence their purchase decisions for some brands - which can make female athlete endorsers particularly important for strategic

positioning and customer loyalty (Bush, Martin and

Bush 2004). However, it seems that there are few female athlete role models out there who are enjoying

endorsements and press coverage.

Indeed, many media studies have shown that

women athletes are underrepresented in magazines

(Boutilier and SanGiovanni 1983; Bryant 1980; Rintala

and Birrell 1984); newspapers (Miller 1975); and television (Duncan and Hasbrook 1988) and this

underrepresentation gives the impression that females

are absent in the sports world. Despite some recent

improvements in media coverage (e.g., coverage of

the 1996 Olympic basketball team; cable television

coverage of women's sports; magazines for women's

sports), there are still very few female athletes landing large endorsement deals (Fink 1998). While some

of the difference may be attributable to higher levels

of sports viewing by men, the relative dearth of female athlete endorsers seems to be inconsistent with

growing interest in women's sports.

There has been little research on the gender disparity of athlete product endorsers. For the purpose of

this research, we focus on female athletes who have

achieved status in their sport and ideally, therefore,

some aspect of celebrity. We are using McCrackens'

(1989) conceptualization of how celebrity endorsers

work, using athlete endorsers and celebrity athlete

endorsers to mean the same thing. In other words, we

are not concerned with people who are dressed as

athletes in advertisements. The purpose of this paper

is to examine the frequency and nature of portrayals

of female athlete endorsers. The frequency and nature of portrayals of male athlete endorsers will be

used as a basis for comparison. The specific research

questions addressed are:

1) How frequently are female athletes portrayed

as product endorsers in magazine advertising? When female athlete endorsers appear

in advertising, what types of magazines are

they more likely to appear in?

2) Are women from individual sports or team

sports portrayed more frequently?

3) Are female athlete endorsers depicted in ways

that highlight their athletic ability or their

beauty and sex appeal?

4) When female athlete endorsers appear in the

ad are they dressed in a suggestive manner or

a demure manner?

By examining this phenomenon from a marketing and

advertising standpoint, there are clear implications

for firms and their target audiences. So who is Tamika

Catchings? She is a former University of Tennessee

Lady Volunteer who plays in the WNBA for the Indiana Fever. She was named Rookie of the Year for

2001, and in the 2003 season she led the Fever in points,

rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. She played for

the USA Women's Basketball Team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where the team won the

gold medal. In 2005, she scored her 2,000* point, making her the player to score 2,000 career points the

fastest in the WNBA. As of March 2006, she had no

endorsements.

Literature Review

Females in Sports and Media Coverage

The passage of Title IX was the first step in popularizing women's sports. Before the passage of the legislation, only one in 27 females participated in sports.

However, by 1998, one in three women played organized sports, representing an 800% increase. In 1971,

men comprised of 92.5% of all high school athletes. By

1996, 39% of all high school athletes were female, a

dramatic increase from the 7.5% participation rate only

25 years earlier. Females of all ages, races, and economic backgrounds overcame historical obstacles that

once thwarted their participation in organized sports

(Women's Sports Foundation 2001). McCinnis, Chun,

and McQuillan (2003) argue that females have been

able to close the participation gap due to pivotal

changes at the institutional level.

Although the 1960 Olympics were the first time that

women's events were televised in the United States, it

was in 1996 that NBC declared the emergence of

women's team sports (Tuggle and Owen 1999). This

declaration was especially interesting, given the fact

that NBC aired only a few minutes of the U.S. women's

soccer team gold medal victory over China and did

not even have a reporter present at the softball team's

gold medal game (Tuggle and Owen 1999). Women's

team sports have been slow to gain acceptance com-

spring 2007

pared to individual sports. Television coverage of

women's Olympic sports tended to center on individual events. During the 1996 broadcast, 61% of

women's coverage was devoted to the individual

sports of swimming, diving, and gymnastics (Tuggle

and Owen 1999). Tuggle (1997) also found that ESPN's

SportsCenter and CNN's Sports Tonight only devoted

5% of non-Olympic coverage to women's sports. Nationwide data indicated that coverage of women's

sports comprised 8.7% of total sports coverage even

though females accounted for almost 40% of all sports

participants (Women's Sports Foundation 2001). According to Veltri and Long (1998), many female athletes leave the United States to play their sport in

countries where they will be offered greater endorsement opportunities and financial security.

Print media coverage has been consistent with the

broadcast media coverage. Reporting in The New York

Times and USA Today suggests favoritism towards

men's sports and male athletes (McGinnis, Chun, and

McQuillan 2003). Duncan, Messner, and Williams

(1991) argue that the under representation of women

athletes in the print media is a result of the attitudes,

opinions, and practices of the sports editors. The reason that editors may be opposed or reluctant to cover

women's sports is because many "grew up in a time

and culture in which the abilities of women who play

sports were devalued" (Women's Sports Foundation

2001). As of 2003, in the five-year history of ESPN the

Magazine, only two female athletes had appeared alone

on the cover¡ªMarion Jones and Serena Williams. One

cover featured cheerleaders; another had groupies. A

third cover portrayed a male athlete's girlfriend. Sports

Illustrated did not feature female athletes any more

prominently. According to Women's Sports Foundation (2001) research, in 1999, Sports Illustrated featured

four women on the cover: a swimsuit model, tennis

star Serena Williams, soccer star Brandi Chastain and

the U.S. women's World Cup Team. In 2000, seven

covers featured females, but in 2001, the only females

featured on the cover were the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders (Women's Sports Foundation 2001). More recent Sports Illustrated covers were not much better.

Women were on three covers in 2002, four covers in

2003, two covers in 2004 and two covers in 2005.

Gender Schema and Sports

According to Bem's (1981) gender schema theory,

individuals tend to encode and organize incoming

information in terms of a gender schema, using the

concept of bi-polar masculinity and femininity dimensions to organize the schema. Non sex-typed indi-

57

viduals, however, use nongender specific dimensions

to organize information (Schmitt, LeClerc and DubeRioux 1988). This idea may guide the strategy behind

including more men than women as product endorsers. McCinnis, Chun and McQuillian (2003) argue that

while the postmodern era should experience a breakdown of traditional views of sex and the rise of multiple categories of gender, within the sports context,

this has been slower to occur. They cite the example

that while the WNBA tries to empower and invigorate women, it also steps back from postmoderrvism

by emphasizing the heterosexuality and family orientation of the players.

The idea that individuals try to conform to this traditional modernist view of gender is the foundation

for gender schema theory. While most of its use has

been through testing individuals' orientation towards

gender, this idea forms a theoretical context for understanding the dearth of female athlete endorsers in

advertising. Therefore, despite the increasing numbers of female participants in sports, we argue that

there has not been a commiserate increase in female

endorsements. Therefore, we expect the following:

HI: There are significantly more male athletes

endorsing products in magazine advertising compared to female athletes.

As mentioned earlier, team sports such as basketball and soccer have not been covered despite their

growing popularity. Coverage of women's sports has

traditionally been skewed toward individual sports.

McCinnis, Chun and McQuillian (2003) argue that

there are some sports and leisure activities that are

considered more masculine and some more feminine.

Generally, the individual sports (e.g., ice skating, gymnastics) are considered more feminine. Consistent with

the little attention given to team sports and focus on

individual sports, we expect the following:

H2: Female athletes appearing as endorsers

are more likely to be from an individual

sport compared to team sport while male

athletes chosen for endorsements are

more likely to be from a team sport compared to an individual sport.

Portrayals of Female Athletes

by Magazine Type

Given that women's magazines appeal largely to

female audiences and advertisers tend to use

spokespeople who they believe the audience can relate to (Ohanian 1990; Till and Busier 2000), there

should be a higher percentage of female athletes endorsing products within the pages of women's maga-

58

zines relative to men's magazines, sport magazines,

or general interest magazines. Thus:

H3a: Female athlete endorsers are more likely

to be found in women's magazines than

any other type of magazine.

H3b: Female athlete endorsers are least likely

to be found in men's magazines compared to other types of magazines.

Our third research question addresses whether female athlete endorsers are chosen more as a result of

their ability or sex appeal. In order to develop a hypothesis, we draw from literature about celebrity endorsers.

Conceptual Foundation for the Athlete

Endorser Effectiveness

According to McCracken (1989), "The celebrity

world is one of the most potent sources of cultural

meaning at the disposal of the marketing system and

the individual consumer" (p. 318). Kamins (1990) argues that the fame of the celebrity endorser attracts

attention to the product, leading the consumer to purchase the endorsed product because of their aspirations

to be more like the celebrity. Athletes are considered to

be one type of celebrity endorser and thus should be

examined in the same manner as other celebrity (e.g.,

movies, music) endorsers. Consumer aspirations are

manifested in three source characteristics: physical attractiveness; trustworthiness; and expertise (Ohanian

1990; Till and Busier 2000) which accoimt for three dimensions of source credibility. Research has shown that

highly credible sources have been able to produce more

positive attitude changes and induce behavioral changes

more often than less credible sources (Ohanian 1991).

Below, we focus on what research has told us about

celebrity endorsers and two of the three dimensions of

source credibility.

The degree of physical attractiveness of the endorser

necessary for effectiveness may vary depending on

the product being endorsed. This combination or

"matchup" (i.e., between physical attractiveness and

product type) may ultimately affect the

communication's effectiveness (Bower and Landreth

2001; Joseph 1982; Kamins 1990; Lin 1998). Kamin's

(1990) match-up hypothesis states that when a product is attractiveness-related, the use of an attractive

celebrity endorser leads to more positive attitude towards the advertisement and higher spokesperson

credibility. Similarly, Joseph (1982) contends that celebrity attractiveness may be more important as a cue

for unknown brands as opposed to known brands,

since consumers have more knowledge about the

known brand and do not have to rely on peripheral

Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising

cues when forming product evaluations. Therefore,

the attractive spokesperson would contribute in a limited way toward increasing the effectiveness of the

communication. Research has shown that "physically

attractive communicators are more successful at

changing beliefs than are unattractive communicators" (Ohanian 1991, p. 47). This is important for athlete endorsers since prior research suggests that

females are usually chosen for their sex appeal as

opposed to their athletic prowess (Stamler 2000).

Second, firms will use celebrity endorsers because

in instances where the life experiences of the endorser

fit the advertising message, a sense of expertise is

conveyed (Mathur, Mathur, and Rangan 1997). This is

particularly impactful if the product being endorsed

has contributed to the endorser's celebrity (Dyson and

Turco 1998). Till and Busier (2000) studied the effectiveness of a spokesperson type for a candy bar and

an energy bar. Subjects were shown identical pictures

of the spokesman and told that he was either a "stage

and screen actor" or a "U.S. Olympic Track and Field

athlete." The results of the study showed that regardless of whether the spokesperson was the actor or the

athlete, there was no significant difference in brand

attitude towards the candy bar. However, brand attitude was significantly higher for the energy bar when

the endorser was an athlete. Moreover, the athlete

endorser had a significant effect on the belief that the

energy bar would "give extra energy." Through this

study. Till and Busier (2000) suggested that "expertise, rather than attractiveness, may be more appropriate for matching products with celebrities" (p. 11).

Furthermore, according to Ohanian's (1991) research,

expertise was most closely associated with a

consumer's intent to purchase the endorsed product.

Prior evidence illustrates that physical attractiveness of the endorser can be an advantage in some

product categories (Bower and Landreth 2001). Additionally, the traditional views of female roles in society may compromise the level of expertise some

consumers associate with female athlete endorsers

based on their athletic prowess alone. Female athletes, then, go against the the sex typed gender

schemas, which are well-ingrained and are "consequently perceived more negatively than people who

are schema-consistent" (Knight and Giuliano 2001, p.

219). Despite Title IX and the postmodern view of

gender (McGinnis, Chun and McQuillian 2003), consumers are presented with an inconsistent view of

female athletes¡ªone that is athletic and feminine (Ireland 2002). According to McGinnis, Chun, and

McQuillan (2003) participation in sports for boys is

considered the norm, w^hile girls' participation is con-

spring 2007

sidered exceptional. Boys are supposed to be athletic

and have numerical skills, while beauty and popularity are the ideal characteristics for girls. For women,

being an athlete is contradictory to the modernist view

of gender and therefore "media coverage emphasizes

other aspects of their 'femaleness'" (Knight and

Giuliano 2001, p. 219). In other words, the female athlete is portrayed first as a woman and second as athlete,

while male athletes are presented solely as athletes

(Knight and Giuliano 2001). In the case of the WNBA,

females participating in a male-appropriate sport have

to challenge traditional gender role stereotypes.

So based on the arguments regarding source credibility, we make the following hypotheses regarding

female and male athlete endorsers:

H4: Male athlete endorsers will be associated

with clothing and sporting good product

types more often than women while

women will be associated with diet and

exercise and personal care product types

more often than men.

Appearance of Models in the Ad

Our fourth research question addresses a related issue, which is whether female athlete endorsers are suggestively clad. If female athletes are being chosen based

on sex appeal, it stands to reason that they will be portrayed in a sexy manner. Thus, our conceptual framework for celebrity endorsements would suggest that

the appearance factor may matter more for women and

may be more heavily emphasized. However, some additional rationale for possible reasons why females might be

portrayed in a more suggestive manner is provided below.

Consistent with the feminization of women athletes,

the attractiveness of a female athlete tends to not only

be highlighted, but sometimes exploited. Being attractive softens the female athlete's perceived gender

role inconsistency (Knight and Giuliano 2001). From

a theoretical perspective, it may help some viewers

resolve schema incongruity between traditional roles

and the depiction of a powerful female athlete. For

example, the media tends to focus on the attractiveness of volleyball player Gabrielle Reece, tennis player

Anna Kournikova, and figure skater Katarina Witt as

opposed to their athletic abilities.

When Kournikova was featured in Sports Illustrated,

she was widely criticized for her "cheesecake layout"

and for perpetuating the stereotype of women as sex

objects (Stamler 2000). According to McGinnis, Chun,

and McQuillan (2003), women athletes are posed passively, while men are in active, athletic poses. Some

analysts have contended that female athletes are posed

59

in manners that could be considered soft-core pornography (McGinnis, Chun, and McQuillan 2003).

According to the Women's Sports Foundation (2001),

female athletes are usually portrayed without muscles

or sports skills. Due to this phenomenon of using

female athletes for the sexuality and attractiveness,

we make the following hypothesis:

H5a: For female athletes there will be a

greater likelihood that they will be

dressed either suggestively or partially

clad than demurely.

H5b: For male athletes there will be a greater

likelihood that they will be dressed

demurely than either suggestively or

partially clad.

Methodology

Sample

A content analysis of advertisements from six types

of consumer magazines was conducted. A broad range

of magazines were chosen for inclusion in the sample

in order to examine athlete endorsers who typical

members of the public might be exposed to when

reading magazines. Therefore we chose the following: sports publications (ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Tennis, and Runner's World), general magazines {People

and Time), general women's magazines {Cosmopolitan, Glamour, O!, and Good Housekeeping), general men's

magazines {Gentleman's Quarterly and Maxim),

women's fitness magazines {Shape and Fitness) and

women's teen magazines {Seventeen and YM). The last

two categories were chosen to assess whether female

athletes are more prominent in fitness and teen magazines as opposed to other magazines.

Sampling frames for each sample of these general

categories were developed by examirung Advertising

Age's Top 300 Magazines and only those with a high

ranking in their respective categories were considered for inclusion. Approximately six (monthly) to

eight (weekly) issues of each magazine were chosen

from the time period September 2002 to February 2005

in order to obtain a sufficient number of ads. Only full

or double page spread ads were included in the

sample. Double page spreads were counted as one

ad. Of the ads in the sample, only those with athletes

(male and/or female) were included. Athletes were

defined as individuals who had excelled at their sport,

were considered professional and were generally recognizable using either simple recognition or cues from

the ad copy. All ads that depicted anyone considered

an athlete were first collected. Those ads that featured

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