ABSTRACT
Are men and women reacting differently to ads with gendered content? This chapter is devoted to similarities and differences between men and women in processing advertising messages. I introduce theories such as Mayers-Levy’s (1989; Mayers-Levy & Loken, 2015) selectivity hypotheses and link it to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) with its two routes to persuasion. I will critically review the claim that men are ‘selective (heuristic) processors’ and women are ‘comprehensive processors’ and present original research testing this possibility utilising ELM in the context of gendered advertisements (Zawisza, 2006; Zawisza & Cinnirella, 2019). Alternative factors to the audience’s sex, such as the gender attitudes and the content of the advertisement, will be considered as triggering factors for in-depth processing (Zawisza, Cinnirella & Zawadzka, 2006; Zawisza & Cinnirella, 2010). In this chapter I also offer a thorough critique of the ELM and directions for further research interested in application of the model to understanding the role of sex and gender in an advertising context.
