Abstract
This dissertation seeks to address the following overarching questions: How is gender portrayed in Chinese ads and how does it affect ad creativity? through two studies. In Chapter 1, the study first delves into the definition of representation, how representation applies to the institution of advertising, and an overview of its relationship with advertising creativity. In Chapter 2, the dissertation introduces gender representation and sociocultural drivers in the institution of advertising in the Chinese cultural framework. The first study is proposed and developed in Chapter 2 to fill the gap of how gender has been portrayed in recent Chinese ads created by various types of advertising agencies within their complex advertising environment. Findings revealed the gradual progress in Chinese ads to portray gender and address gender issues more equally and inclusively, while improvements need to be continuously made toward more genuine and practical gender equality messaging in these ads. Chapter 3 further delves into the advertising creativity subject for consumers, proposing and shedding light on the influence of gender representation in ads on Chinese consumers’ evaluation of ad creativity. The study’s findings indicate that how gender is portrayed in ads can affect not only how Chinese consumers perceive creativity in an ad, the ad, and the brand, but also their emotions and well-being. To summarize findings of the conducted research, Chapter 4 synthesizes the important insights and implications of these studies, and how they can contribute to advertising creativity and gender literature, institutional theory, advertising creativity framework, the broaden-and-build theory, and advertising and marketing practices.