ABSTRACT
This chapter overviews of the research and analyses which have proved most influential in feminist debates on advertising. Motherhood aside, feminists have long feared the possible effects of advertising on women's life choices, employment prospects and overall self-image. Content analysis is where researchers count the number of times a textual or visual element occurs in their sample. American feminist, Gaye Tuchman, observed later that much of the market research carried out just after World War Two explored mens, not women's, attitudes. In Decoding Advertisements, Judith Williamson combined Roland Barthes theory of myth production with a Marxist and psychoanalytical analysis to reveal the mechanisms by which advertising works on the consumer. A glance at contrasting portrayals of pregnancy and early motherhood in Mothercare catalogues in the 1970s and 1990s might, through content analysis, reveal a more progressive image for women. Dyer points out how dangerous it is to base the analysis of a text solely on the intentions of the sender.
