Representation of women in sports ads: The case of Nike and Adidas newspaper ads in Taiwan

• Main Author: 陳怡安
• Other Authors: 蔡麗玲
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/39788852669770475305

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 性別教育研究所 === 101 === Abstract Men have been the major consumers in sports market. Yet, as women have been increasing participating in sports in Taiwan since last decade, women have gradually been targeted in the marketing. As a response to the rise of postfeminism, the purpose of this study was to examine the representation of women in both Nike’s and Adidas’ sport ads and in which gender ideology underlay. A semiotic analysis was adopted in this study. Data were collected from both Nike’s and Adidas’ sport ads in Taiwanese newspaper from the year of 2000 through 2011. Thirty-three related advertisements were found in the newspaper but only nine advertisements can be taken as material resources in this study. Four major themes were found; they were, 1) the modes of women’s representation in sports advertisements; 2) the relationships between sport and gender as well as representation and ideology; 3) the redefinition of postfeminist sensibility as a strategy to address female autonomy and rights of participating in sport; and 4) the postfeminist sensibility themes that appeared in the context of Taiwanese sports marketing. One of the limitations of this study is that the conclusion is based on few cases. In spite of this limitation, it still can apply to future studies of sports ads with the method of analysis and theoretical perspectives which used in this study. Keywords: Postfeminist sensibility, sports advertisements, semiotics, Nike, Adidas