A Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Men in Safaricom Corporate Advertisements

ABSTRACT: Previous research on gender portrayals in advertisements has focused on the portrayal and stereotyping of women, leaving men in the periphery. To address this gap, this study evaluated the portrayal of men in Safaricom’s corporate advertisements posted on Facebook. Safaricom is a well-established Kenyan brand that regularly releases corporate advertisements as part of its brand campaigns. It was determined that studying Safaricom’s corporate advertisements would increase knowledge on how Kenyan corporates engage with the concept of gender.The theory of social construction was used as a theoretical frameworkspecifically to discuss the mold versus mirror role of advertisements in the social construction of gender. Content analysis research method was used for this study. Advertisements were purposively sampled to select the adverts that fit the study’s definition of a corporate advertisement.Overall, the study found that Safaricom’s corporate advertisements work as a distorted mirror by portraying male stereotypes and idealistic concepts of men, some of which challenge currently held social constructs of male gender roles. This study recommends more research on gender portrayals in corporate advertisements, and especially in the ever-expanding social media space to enhance knowledge in communicating about corporate brands using the gender lens.

KEYWORDS : Corporate communication, Corporate advertising, Gender portrayals, Portrayal of men