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Egyptian Advertising


Advertising in the Islamic world:
The portrayal of women in Egyptian television commercials


Jami A. Fullerton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Advertising
School of Journalism and Broadcasting
Oklahoma State University
206 Paul Miller Building
Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078
ph. 405/744-8276
fax: 405/744-7104
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Azza Ahmad
Candidate for the Degree of
Masters of Mass Communication
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, Oklahoma
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 Advertising in the Islamic world:
The portrayal of women in Egyptian television commercials

Abstract
        This study examines the portrayal of men and women in Egyptian television commercials and provides insight about advertising content in the Islamic world.  It attempts to examine how the content of Egyptian television commercials reflect Egyptian culture and compares the findings to content studies from the U.S. and other countries.  A pool of 306 commercials and 337 primary characters were examined from 18 hours of Egyptian prime time programming. The findings revealed that, similar to studies from the U.S. and other countries, men and women were portrayed in stereotypical sex roles.  Female characters in the commercials were significantly more likely than men to be portrayed as parents, homemakers and doing household chores while men were more likely to be cast in professional roles.  Contrary to the strict cultural restrictions on public expression of sexuality in Egypt, 25% of the female characters in the commercials were suggestively dressed and about 12% of the ads containe
d some form of sexual content.  No female characters appeared in the ads in traditional Islamic dress or veiled. The study concludes that Egyptian advertising reflects neither the expanding role of women in Egypt as professionals nor the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism.  A discussion about the role of women in Islam is also included.

 Advertising in the Islamic world:
The portrayal of women in Egyptian television commercials
Since the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, much attention and interest has been focused on the Middle East and the Islamic world.  One aspect of this attention is the role of women in Islam.  The popular media have produced dozens of stories, documentary films and news reports about women in Islamic countries, many of which portray women existing under horrific conditions in the Middle East and Asia.
The portrayal of women in advertising in the Islamic world has been scarcely examined, however.  Abernathy and Franke (1996) reported in their meta-analysis of advertising content studies that little is known about advertising content in countries other than the United States with no studies examining advertising in any African nation or the Middle East, with the exception of Saudi Arabia.   This paper will attempt to address the lack of information that exists regarding advertising in the Islamic world by examining the portrayal of women in Egyptian television commercials.
Background
Egyptian Culture
Egypt is the largest, fastest growing and among the most modern of the Arab countries.  Located in Northern Africa, its population of 69.5 million lives primarily in the Nile River valley  (Central Intelligence Agency, 2001). Egypt was one of the first Middle Eastern countries to open up to the West.  It is an intellectual and cultural leader in the region exporting a variety of entertainment programming, films, books and music throughout the Arab world.  Arabic is the country's official language, however, English and French are widely spoken and understood (Kamalipour & Hamid, 1994).
Islam is the religion of the state and cultural force in Egypt.  Over ninety percent of the population is Muslim with the remaining being primarily Christian (Central Intelligence Agency, 2001).  The practice of Islam is complex and widely varied in Egypt with different classes and social groups applying Islamic beliefs in different ways.  Some believe that religion should be a private matter for individuals while others would like Islam to be the driving force of public life (Metz, 1990).   The growing presence Islamic extremist in Egypt and throughout the Middle East have threatened the governments and caused general unrest throughout the region  (Crossette, 2001).   Egypt's current government, unlike many of its Arab neighbors, has resisted attempts of Islamic militants to gain power. As a result, Egyptians enjoy a fairly modern and liberalized lifestyle that includes popular movies and music, nightclubs, restaurants and western-style dress (Eltahawy, 1999).
Egyptian media and the advertising industry
The Egyptian press is the most developed in the Arab world with Cairo as the largest publishing center of the Middle East (Kamalipour & Hamid, 1994). Although the country enjoys considerable freedom of the press relative to other Arab countries, all media are under governmental supervision and partial governmental ownership (Metz, 1990).  The media, including television, carries advertising though the government maintains fixed and non-negotiable rates  (Leo Burnett Worldwide Advertising, 1994).
Most multinational advertising agencies have offices in Egypt including Impact-BBDO Egypt, D'Arcy Egypt, Publicis-Graphics, Team/Young & Rubicam, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ama Leo Burnett, and DDB (Leo Burnett Worldwide Advertising, 1994) supporting clients such as Pepsi, Nestle and Procter & Gamble. Additionally there are several Egyptian-based advertising agencies including Direct Advertising, Animation, and Tarek Nour Advertising (SIS, 1992).
Egyptian television follows an "Informal Code of Ethics," which was adopted by the Egyptian Radio and TV Union.   The first article of this code indicates that advertisements shall not include "any material conflicting with religious or moral principles and values or contain any element that would lead to the provocation or disturbance of the society or which would harm the best interest of the nation before other nations." (SIS, 1992)  Advertising of alcohol beverages and medicine are banned in Egypt.  Also the code of dress indicates that no dress appearing sexual is allowed in television commercials. Cigarette advertising is banned from all broadcast media, however, it is allowed in print and outdoor media with a health warning.  (Leo Burnett Worldwide Advertising, 1994)
The role of women in Egypt
        A post September 11 feature story in Time magazine  (Beyer, 2001) reviewed the status of women in Islam and points out that nowhere in the Muslim world are women treated as equals, but that their status varies from relatively liberated in Turkey to severely restricted in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.  The story puts the modern countries of Egypt and Jordan somewhere near the middle of the continuum in the treatment of women.
When examining the role of women in Islamic countries, one must be careful not to look at culture and think it represents the religion. Despite the horrific persecution of women under the Taliban in Afghanistan, not all Islamic countries treat women so severely.   The practice of Islam is hugely different throughout the Arab world, as is the treatment of women.  According to Leila Ahmed, a professor at Harvard University and specialist in women's studies and religion "It really is a combination of the politics of the day and who is in control of the particular country and what did they believe Islam is" (Ahmed, 1992). Though the Arab culture is extremely patriarchal placing the male in the dominant role both inside and outside the home, the Koran, according to many Islamic scholars, does not advance the thesis of women as inherently inferior, only different (Harris & Moran, 2000).
Two powerful yet conflicting cultural forces exist in 21st century Egypt, an emerging feminist movement and resurgent Islamic fundamentalism (Harris & Moran, 2001).   In Egypt and other Islamic countries, laws regarding family and women's issues tend to be influenced by Islamic Law or Sharia'a.  While the interpretation of the Sharia'a varies, it is most often used by Middle Eastern governments to subjugate women and make them the possessions of their husbands (Arabsheibani, 2000).  Primarily due to the long-time efforts of the women's movement in Egypt, Egyptian women have earned many rights and are, for the most part, considered equal to men under Egyptian law except in regards to marriage, divorce and custody of the children (Metz, 1990).  A recent law has been passed in Egypt making it easier for women to obtain a divorce, but women still cannot leave the country without their husband's permission (Beyer, 2001).
Rural and lower class Egyptians generally believe that women are inferior to men (Metz, 1990).  A study (Ibrahim,1980) about women as production workers in urban Egypt described the gender role in lower-class Egyptian society. Husbands were assigned as the primary breadwinner for the family and responsible for household expenses.  On the other hand, traditional married women managed the household, cared for the children and budgeted their husbands' income to meet all the household needs.  However, gender roles have changed gradually because of the realities of the Egyptian economy since the 1970s.  Women are now working outside the home in greater numbers with about 34% of Egyptian women employed in the work force (World Bank, 2001). Some women hold professional positions as doctors and engineers while others are quite successful in scholarly and public life (Crossette, 2001).  However, most Egyptian working women are employed in low paying, unskilled jobs in factories, offices an
d in service industries (Metz, 1990).
In Egyptian society much value is placed on honor (ird) with sexual behavior and the reputation of the women in the family being an important aspect of a family's honor.  To avoid a bad reputation and possible disgrace for the family, women are often segregated from men.  When in the presence of men from other families women are always on their best behavior because "they are afraid of getting a bad reputation" which could destroy the families social standing and in extreme cases result in death for the woman (Metz, 1990).
        In Islamic countries, including Egypt, both men and women are expected to dress modestly (Al-Olayan & Karande, 2000).  The Koran addresses the dress code for women explicitly.  According to the Koran, woman's hair and body should be covered for two reasons; first, to be identified as a Muslim woman and second to not appearing alluring or as a sex object to men.  Wearing a veil and covering the face is purely optional in Egypt and not practiced by most women, though it is becoming more popular as the Islamic fundamentalist movement spreads (Beyer, 2001).  Some women feel more comfortable veiled or do so because of family and religious pressure.  Many feminists have adopted the veil in recent years, not as a form of repression, but as a way to free themselves from the sexual harassment of men (Ahmed, 1992).
Review of the Literature
        During the last three decades scholars have studied the portrayal of women in advertising. The majority of the research, most examining U.S. advertising, has shown that women are typically portrayed as housewives and mothers, and often used as sex objects and decoration in advertising (Bretl & Cantor, 1988, Courtney & Lockeretz, 1971; Craig, 1992; Dominick & Rauch, 1972).   The typical woman, as seen in U.S. television commercials, is dependent on her male counterpart for making decisions and giving advice or is a sexy spokesmodel.  One study described U.S. advertising as portraying women in one of two roles:  "attracting and attaining a man, and then serving him in the role of housewife and mother" (Courtney & Whipple, 1983).
Theoretical Framework
Cultivation analysis research suggests that over time, people who are exposed to a particular view of the world on television, begin to accept that depiction of the world as reality (Gerbner, 1998).  Given the concern that advertising may influence society's perception of appropriate sex roles, feminists, researchers and others have expressed concern about the roles portrayed by women in advertising (Gilly, 1988).  They believe that these stereotypes serve as poor models and inhibit sympathetic understanding of individual differences.  Pollay (1986) suggested that if there were no other influences to counter the effects of advertising, people would restrict their expectations to those stereotyped roles.
Cross-cultural studies of the portrayal of women in advertising
        Research on the portrayal of women in advertising has not been limited to the United States.  Several studies have been conducted which examine advertising in other countries including such as Britain (Furnham & Bitar, 1993), Italy (Furnham & Voli, 1989) and Kenya (Mwagni, 1996).  A few researchers have looked at gender depiction across cultures by comparing U.S. advertising to that of other countries (e.g. Gilly, 1986; Sengupta, 1996; Wiles, Wiles & Tjernlund, 1996).  These studies have generally concluded that the portrayal of women in advertising varies according to the culture and the status of women in the country's society.  For example, in Mexico, where the women's movement was slower to develop and traditional views of women as wives and mothers are deeply held, the commercials show women in dependent roles (Gilly, 1988).  By contrast, in Australia where the women's movement is more advanced, the television commercials portray men and women more equally.
Studies of the portrayal of women in advertising in Islamic countries
        Studies that examine the role of women in advertising in Islamic countries are limited. Advertising Age (Kline, 1982) reported in the early 1980s that there was considerable debate about the use of women in advertising in some Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia, due to their repressive attitudes toward women.
Wee, Choong and Tambyah (1995) examined sex role portrayal in television advertising in Singapore and Malaysia.  They concluded that the culture of the country and target audience is an important factor influencing the depiction of women in advertising.  In the Malaysian commercials, a country where Islam is the dominant religion, men were portrayed as top executives and in independent roles while women were most often seen as young housewives who stayed at home to care for the house and children.   By contrast, in the ads from Singapore, a more modern society where Islam is less dominant, women were more often employed outside home in white-collar and service occupations.  The female characters in Singaporean advertising were most often attractive, young women who were concerned with looking good.
        Fullerton (2000) analyzed television commercials in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan where Islam is experiencing a resurgence after years of Soviet domination.  Fullerton found that women were portrayed in traditional sex-stereotyped roles most often performing household chores.  Men were portrayed significantly more often than women in professional roles and working outside the home.  The study noted that while women were portrayed in stereotypical female roles the findings did not reflect the extreme male-dominated culture that exists in Uzbekistan.  For example, traditional Asian dress, a symbol of the culture was found in only ten percent of commercials and in a country where open sexual expression is taboo, sexual contact was found in twenty percent of the ads.  The study noted that many of the Uzbekistani commercials originated in Moscow and therefore could be more of a reflection of Russian than Uzbek culture.
        A study of Saudi television commercials (Al-Makaty, et al, 1996) concluded that women were only shown if their presence relates directly to the product and if they are appropriately dressed-head covering and long dresses.  Generally, females were portrayed in traditional roles as mothers and housekeeping and were not allowed to sing.
        Al-Olayan and Karande (2000) investigated differences in content of magazine advertisements from the United States and the Arab world including Egypt. Among the differences that they studied was the depiction of men and women based on the role of religion in forming values.  They concluded that when ads pictured men and/ or women, they were portrayed with the same frequency in both the U.S. and the Arab world.  However, the portrayal of women differed.  Women were used in magazine ads mainly when their presence relates to the advertised product and not as a sex object.  Also, when female models were used, they were shown wearing long dresses covering their body.  The researchers emphasized the importance for advertisers to be sensitive to the religious implications of their creative strategies.
Two studies by Egyptian scholars (in Arabic) can be found dealing with the portrayal of women in the mass media.   Al-Abed, (1983) conducted a study to describe the portrayal of women in Egyptian television drama.  This study concluded that men appeared in 70% of the shows, while women appeared only in 30%.   Also, women were more likely to be housewives, caring for children, and mostly seen as victims.  The study indicated that although women have held highly ranked positions in Egypt for some time, this image was not reflected in most television programming.
        Another Egyptian study (Abdel-Rahman, 1981) examined how women were portrayed in two major Egyptian newspapers.  The study concluded that these papers mostly portrayed women in traditional ways.    The papers emphasized the role of women as mothers and housewives more than professionals and decision makers.
Research Questions
This research study is designed to explore the portrayal of men and women in Egyptian television advertisements by analyzing the content of television commercials in Egypt and comparing the findings to U.S. and other country's advertising, as reported in the literature.  Several variables are examined in order to analyze how men and women are depicted, for example, characters present, setting, voice of primary narrator, male/female relationship roles, degree of dress, primary role, and age.  This study attempts to answer three research questions:
1.      What is the content of Egyptian prime time television commercials in terms of gender-role portrayal?
2.      Does the portrayal of women in the commercials reflect current Egyptian culture?
3.      What are the differences between Egypt and other country's advertising in terms of gender portrayal in television commercials?
Method
        Content analysis is the chosen method for this study.  Content analysis is defined as "a research technique for the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication" (Berelson, 1952, p. 15).  Content analysis is frequently used in all areas of the media including most studies that examine gender portrayal in television commercials (Wimmer & Dominick, 2000).
Sample
Eighteen hours of Egypt's First Channel prime time (7-10 p.m.) programming was videotaped during the last six days of May 2001. The commercials during that period were not influenced by any special events or holidays. First Channel was selected for this study because it reaches 95% of the Egyptian households and is the most widely watched television station in Egypt. First Channel began broadcasting in 1960 and was the first TV station in Egypt  (Egyptian Radio/TV Yearbook, 2000).  As is all of Egyptian television, First Channel is under government control.   Programming on First Channel runs 23 hours per day. It starts and ends each programming day with readings of the Koran followed by the national anthem. According to Islamic custom, programming is interrupted five times per day to announce prayer time.  The station's format is general programming with 90 minutes of commercials daily (Egyptian Radio/TV Yearbook, 2000).
All commercials, public service announcements and promotional announcements broadcast during the 18 hours of programming were analyzed including those that were repeated to provide a complete picture of non-programming content.  For the purposes of this study, the terms "commercials" and "advertisements" will be used in reference to all non-programming spots, paid or unpaid.
 The 18 hours of programming contained 101 distinct commercials many of which were repeated one or more times, resulting in a total pool of 306 commercials.
Coders
        Two female mass communication graduate students were trained as coders.  One student was an English-only speaking American and the other, an Egyptian citizen fluent in both English and Arabic. Since most of the commercials were in Arabic, the Egyptian student translated each commercial into English.  Both coders evaluated the television commercials separately using a pencil and paper coding sheet.  Disagreements were noted and resolved, yielding one set of data.
Instrument
        An instrument of analysis used by Fullerton (2000) in a study of Uzbekistani television commercials and by Fullerton and Kendrick (2000) in a study of U.S. Spanish-language television was also used in this study to provide consistency for comparison across cultures.   The instrument employed variables compiled from different published studies, including from Craig (1992) for "characters present," from Bretl & Cantor (1988) for "setting," and "primary narrator," from Goffman (1976) for "male/female relationship roles," from Soley & Kurzbard (1986) for "sexual content," "sexual contact," and "degree of dress," and from McArthur & Resko (1975) for "primary role."  Sixteen items involved the commercial-as-a-whole (such as whether the primary narrator was male or female), followed by 21 pieces of data for up to two primary male adult characters and two primary female adult characters in each commercial.  Using the guideline set by Schneider & Schneider (1979), a primary character was
defined as one who was on-camera for a minimum of three seconds or had at least one line of dialogue.
Intercoder Reliability
The 101 commercials yielded to a total of 337 primary characters, which resulted in a total of 7,884 judgments.   Disagreements between coders were resolved and intercoder reliability was calculated at .956 using Holsti's (1969) formula.
Findings
(1)     Commercial Content
Type and Length. Of the 306 non-programming spots, 245 were paid product or service spots, 35 were public service announcements and 26 were station promotional announcements. Unlike U.S. television spots, which are generally 60, 30, or 15 seconds in length, the Egyptian television spots varied greatly in length with 30-seconds being most common (29.7%), followed by 60-seconds (11.4%), 20-seconds (10.8%) and 40-seconds (7.8%).  The remaining spots were at various lengths from two to 280 seconds with the longest being public service announcements.
Language. Most of the commercials were in Arabic language (89.5%).  Almost six percent did not contain a spoken language but used only music.  About four percent were in English and only one was broadcast in both Arabic and English.
Commercial Sponsors. The 306 commercials represented a variety of sponsors. Entertainment, such as movies, music, concerts, books and magazines, was the most prominent (35% N=107) followed by packaged food including butter, oil, cookies and candy (11.4% N=35).  Other sponsors included household cleaning goods (11. 1% N=34), PSAs (9.5% N=29), services such as phone cards and banking (8.8% N=27), personal hygiene products (8.5% N=26), soft drinks such as cola, juice, tea, or coffee (6.9% N=21), durable goods (5.9% N=18) and other (2.6% N=8).  There was only one ad for automobile.
Narration. The majority of the spots featured male narrators (61.1%).  Women narrated about fifteen percent (14.1%) of the spots and slightly more than one-tenth of the spots (11.8%) were narrated by both men and women.  Almost 13% had no voices, just music and images or words on the screen.
        Character Sex.  There were more women than men in the Egyptian televisions commercials.  Of the 337 codable characters, 55.2% were women and 44.8% were men.
Character Mix. More than one-fourth of the commercials featured an all-adult mixed-sex cast (28.1%) with an almost equal amount containing no human characters (27.1%).  Almost one-fifth of the spots contained characters with a mix of ages and genders (18%) and approximately another one-fifth contained an all female adult cast (18%), followed by an all male adult cast (10.1%), children or teens (9.8%) and females with children (2.9%).  Only one spot showed a male character with children.
Setting. Almost one-third of the commercials (33%) featured unclear or other settings, followed by commercials taking place in multiple settings (25.8%), outdoors away from home (22.5%), other room in the house (6.5%), in the kitchen (4.6%), in social settings (2.6%), in a business (2%), in a school (1.6%), in the bathroom (1%) and outside at home (.3%).
Goffman's Sex Roles. Using Goffman's (1976) scale of male/female roles, about twelve percent of the commercials portrayed men or women in traditional roles. Less than six percent of the commercials found men and women in reverse roles and about twenty percent featured equal roles. More than half (61.4%) of the commercials did not feature men and women interacting with one another so no Goffman sex role portrayal was coded.
Sexual Content and Contact. Most of the commercials (88%) did not feature sexual content or sexual contact. Within the 39 commercials containing some form of sexual contact 3.9% contained eye contact, 4.2% featured characters holding hands and 4.6% showed other contact such as hugging or dancing.
Degree of Dress. Degree of dress was coded following Soley & Kurzbard's (1986) definitions.  Those dressed normally were coded as fully dressed while those dressed in sexy, tight or low cut clothing or with bare shoulders, stomachs or chests were coded as suggestively clad.  Those in bathing suits or lingerie were coded as partially clad.
In this study, most models were fully dressed and none of the characters were coded as partially clad or nude. Women were significantly more likely to be suggestively dressed than men (X2=37.022, df=1, sig=.0001) with almost one-fourth of the female characters in sexually suggestive clothing.
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Type of Dress.  The majority of the commercials featured models wearing Western or European style clothing (91.1%). The remainder of the models wore traditional Arabic clothing.  None of the female characters were shown with covered hair.
Role of Primary Characters.  Men and women were statistically significantly different in terms of the roles of the primary characters. Men were less likely to be cast as a homemaker (X2=11.752, df=1, sig=.001), parent (X2=8.716, df=1, sig=.003), or performing household chores (X2=4.099, df=1, sig=.043), but more often as a professional (X2=12.988, df=1, sig=.0001). Women were also more often portrayed as autonomous individuals (X2=8.554, df=1, sig=.003).   A high percentage of the characters had roles that were classified as "other."  These characters were in the role of product representatives, models or children.
****************************Insert Table 2 about here ***********************

Age of Characters. For adult characters, there was a significant difference between the ages of the male and female characters with women being generally younger than their male counterparts (X2=23.052, df=4, sig=.0001). Women were more likely to be between the ages of 21 and 30 while men were more likely to be over 50. . Only 3.6% of the primary characters were teens or children with more girls than boys.
****************************Insert Table 3 about here ***********************
 (2) Commercial Content as a Reflection of Egyptian Culture
        The findings of this study are consistent with Egyptian culture revealing that Egyptian commercials contain many stereotyped sex-role portrayals.  Despite the efforts of the women's movement, Egyptian society remains fairly traditional with women subordinate to men and responsible for maintaining the household and caring for children (e.g. Beyer, 2001, Crossette, 2001, Harris & Moran, 2000 ; Arabsheibani, 2000; Metz, 1990; Ibrihim, 1985).  The commercials in this study featured women significantly more often than men as parents, homemakers and doing household chores.  Only one ad showed a male character alone with children.
Reportedly 34% of the women in Egypt are employed outside the home (World Bank, 2001); however only eleven percent of the female characters in the commercials were shown in working roles, primarily in an office or other professional setting.  Some Egyptian women are employed in professional jobs but they mostly work as laborers (Metz, 1990).  In this regard, working women on television appear less frequently than they do in the Egyptian workforce, but have much higher status occupations than do most of the working women in Egypt.
        The commercial character's type and degree of dress does not seem consistent with current Egyptian culture.  Egypt is an Islamic country where women are expected to wear modest dress that covers their bodies and hair (Beyer, 2001), however none of the commercials portrayed women in Islamic dress or wearing a veil.   The majority of female characters were in dressed in modern European-style clothing.  Though the majority of the characters in the commercials were not sexually clad, almost one-fourth of women were suggestively dressed in a way that would not be acceptable in Egyptian culture.  It should be noted, however, that the suggestively clad models tended to appear in commercials for entertainment products, such as movies or music, often as belly dancers or in love scenes.
        In a culture where open sexual expression is rarely witnessed in public, according to the findings of this study, it can be found on television.  More than one out of ten of the ads featured some form of sexual content with significantly more sexual images found in spots for entertainment and personal products (X2=103.681, df=27, sig=.0001)
(3) Comparisons with U.S. and Foreign Television Advertising
        Because this study analyzed only Egyptian television ads, direct comparisons to U.S. and other country's commercials are difficult to make.  Comparisons to other reported studies in the literature that use different instruments, media and methods should be viewed with caution.  However, some comparisons can be made.
Similar to studies of U.S. television commercials during the past three decades (e.g. Dominick & Rauch, 1972; Schneider & Schneider, 1979;  Bretl & Cantor, 1988; Craig, 1992), the findings of this study reveal stereotypical sex roles for men and women with men more likely to appear in professionals roles and women more likely to be shown as parents and doing household chores.  Also similar to U.S. television commercials women are generally younger (Dominick & Rauch, 1972; Fullerton & Kendrick, 2000) and more likely to be sexually clad (Soley & Kurzbard, 1986).  The narrators in the commercials were predominately male in both the U.S. (Bretl & Cantor, 1988; Craig, 1992) and Egypt. Egyptian commercials contained about the same level of sexual content (11.1%) as a recent U.S. advertising study (Fullerton & Kendrick, 2001).
 There were more women in Egyptian television spots than men, a finding consistent with studies from other countries (Furnham & Voli, 1989; Mwangi, 1996; Zhou, 1997) but different from U.S. television commercials, which generally feature more male characters than female (McArthur & Resko, 1975; Craig, 1992; Fullerton & Kendrick, 2001).  Unlike U.S. advertising, which is dominated by automobile sponsors (Fullerton & Kendrick, 2001), the commercials in this study featured only one car commercial.
        Since this study utilized the same instrument used to analyze U.S. Spanish- language television advertising (Fullerton & Kendrick, 2001) and Uzbekistani television commercials (Fullerton, 2000), direct comparisons to these studies are easy to make. Generally speaking, Spanish-language ads, Uzbekistani ads, and Egyptian ads are similar, specifically in terms of the presence of more women than men as primary characters; women being younger than men; women more often being featured in domestic roles and men in working roles; women being more likely to be suggestively clad than men; and the dominance of male narrators.  In the Egyptian spots, there was less sexual content and contact (11%) than in U.S. Spanish-language television (23.9%) or in Uzbekistani (19%) commercials.  However, women in Egyptian commercials (23%) were more often suggestively clad than women in Spanish-language ads (15%), but less often than those in Uzbekistani commercials (33%).
        In the Egyptian spots, about 28% of the commercials aired with no characters compared to only ten percent of the U.S. spots (Fullerton & Kendrick, 2001).  This finding is consistent with Al-Olyan and Karande's (2000) study, which found that people are depicted less frequently in Arabic ads than in U.S. ads.  However, Al-Olyan and Karande's study reported that when female models are used in Arabic advertisements they are shown wearing long dresses covering their body for religious reasons.  This is inconsistent with the current study where over ninety percent of the female models were shown in European-style dress. However it should be noted that Al-Olyan & Kirande's study analyzed magazine advertisements in Egypt and other Arab countries while this study examined television advertising.
Summary and Conclusion
        This study examines the portrayal of men and women in Egyptian television commercials. Though limited by the size and non-random nature of the sample, it provides a profile of advertising content from a part of the world about which little is known (Abernathy & Franke, 1996) and offers some insight about the portrayal of gender in the Islamic world.
The findings are consistent with other gender role studies conducted in the United States and other countries featuring women in stereotypical roles as parents, homemakers and performing household chores. Women were younger than men and more often provocatively dressed in the ads.  Men, by contrast, were twice as likely to be shown as professionals and dominated as voice-over narrators.
In a comparison to Egyptian culture, which is considered modern by Middle Eastern standards, but which maintains traditional Islamic beliefs in terms of the role of women in society, the findings provide some interesting contrasts.  About six percent of the commercials portrayed reverse sex-roles.  Females appeared more frequently than males in the commercials, were portrayed more often than men as autonomous individuals, and were in professional roles about eleven percent of the time.  Such findings are quite a contrast when compared to the severely repressed role of women in Islam that is currently being reported in the Western press (e.g. Beyer, 2001).
While most of the women in Egypt wear European-style clothing, modest dress is expected and Islamic dress and veils are becoming more popular. However, about one-fourth of female characters in Egyptian commercials were suggestively clad and none were veiled.  In a country that strictly inhibits sexual expression, more than one out of ten of the ads contained sexual content.
        The findings of this study indicate that Egyptian advertising reflects neither the expanding role of women in Egypt as professionals nor the growing influence of fundamentalist Islam, which dictates female modesty and subordination. The Egyptian television commercials essentially look like commercials throughout the world, which are generally filled with beautiful, young women tending to the household and children while promoting products that make their homes cleaner and their bodies more attractive.
It may be concluded that advertising in Egypt and throughout the world, portrays a society that really does not exist in any culture, but most resembles the traditional American homemaker of the 1950s.  As Courtney and Whipple (1983) noted, "the images of the sexes in advertising are not keeping pace with the change but in fact reflect the status quo of a time gone by."



Table 1. Degree of Dress of Primary Characters in Egyptian Television Commercials
Degree of dress
Female % (N)
Male % (N)
Fully/normally clothed
76.9 (143)
99.3 (150)
Suggestively clad
23.1 (43)
.7%  (1)
Partially clad
0
0

Table 2. Roles of Adult Primary Characters in Egyptian Television Commercials**
Role
Female  % (N=)
Male (% N=)
Parent*
28  (52)
14.6  (22)
Responsible for the Home
9.7 (18)
6.6 (10)
Homemaker*
11.8  (22)
2  (3)
Performing household chores*
9.7  (18)
4.0 (6)
Advising the other sex
3.2 (6)
4.6 (7)
Autonomous individuals*
17.2  (32)
6.6 (10)
Professional*
11.3 (21)
26.5 (40)
Non-professional worker
4.8 (9)
4.0 (6)
Lover/spouse
8.1 (15)
3.3 (5)
Other*
33.9 (63)
50.3 (76)
*p<.05
**Characters could be coded into more than one role category

Table 3. Age of Primary Characters in Egyptian Television Commercials
Age
Female  %(N)
Male %(N)
Under 20
5.4 (10)
1.3 (2)
21-30
53.2  (99)
33.1 (50)
31-40
31.2 (58)
49.7 (75)
41-50
3,8 (7)
2.6 (4)
Over 50
6.5 (12)
13.2 (20)

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