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LCOM Papers 2 (2009), 57 – 76
Older people stereotypes
in Hong Kong’s print advertisements
Nicole Chui Shan Chan
The University of Hong Kong
In response to some recent studies which suggest that the elderly are negatively
portrayed in the mass media in many Western countries, this paper aims at
investigating whether the same happens in Hong Kong. By studying 10 print
advertisements collected from Oriental Daily, it is found that the elderly are positively
portrayed in the print advertisements in general. Thus, it can be concluded that
positive stereotypes and ideologies of older people are reinforced. These positive
stereotypes and ideologies are attributed to Chinese Confucian culture.
Nicole Chui Shan Chan 58
1. Introduction
This paper aims at examining the older people stereotypes portrayed in advertisements
in Hong Kong print media. With lower birth rates and longer life expectancy in Hong
Kong, the elderly population will reach 26% of the total population in 2036 (HKSAR
Planning Department Strategic Planning Section, 2006). In spite of the growing aging
population in the world, their portrayal in advertisements is rather limited in number
as compared to other age groups (Robinson et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2006; Robinson et
al., 2007; Umphrey and Robinson, 2006). Also, a vast number of recent research
studies in Western countries found that negative stereotypes of older people are
commonly found in media (Robinson et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2006; Robinson et al.,
2007; Umphrey and Robinson, 2006). With the influence of Confucianism in Chinese
culture, it is expected that a more positive portrayal of older individuals should be
found in Hong Kong’s advertisements. A content analysis of 10 advertisements
collected in the local leading newspaper, Oriental Daily, was conducted to examine if
people in Hong Kong share the negative stereotypes of older people found in many
Western societies.
2. Literature review
2.1 Definition and social functions of stereotypes
Prominent stereotyping refers to the process that all members of a group are
characterized with certain common qualities (Scollon and Scollon, 2001). Lakoff
(1987) suggests that prototype effects take place when one subcategory stands
metonymically for the whole category. Stereotypes define cultural expectations and
only focus on one or two salient qualities of a category. Therefore they are not
comprehensive which limit people‘s understanding of the genuine picture (Lakoff,
1987). Despite the fact that stereotypes are over-generalized, they are valuable in
defining hidden cultural expectations. For example, a stereotypical mother should be a
housewife; foster or surrogate mothers are deviants from the housewife-mother
example (Lakoff, 1987).
Since social stereotypes define cultural expectations, they are commonly used in
advertisement. Many studies have shown that advertisements which reflect local
Older people stereotypes 59
cultural values are more persuasive to consumers (Cho et al., 1999; Gregory and
Munch, 1997; Han and Shavitt, 1994; Taylor and Stern, 1997). Moreover, individuals’
attitudes and beliefs toward older people will be influenced by continuous exposure to
mass media (Lee et al., 2006). Therefore, media stereotypes play an important role in
shaping our perception toward older people in our society. Three research studies on
the portrayal of older people in the media will be introduced in the following. They all
share similar conclusion that older individuals are underrepresented in terms of
proportions of the actual population in the mass media, and older people are
negatively portrayed.
2.2 Three research studies of older people stereotypes in mass media
Robinson et al. (2007) conducted a content analysis on how Disney animated films
represented older people to children. 34 Disney animated films were collected, and 93
older characters were coded. The results suggested that while the majority (58%) of
the characters were portrayed positively as happy, wise, capable, healthy, alert, and
active, a large percentage (42%) of older characters were portrayed negatively as
bored, miserable, lonely, neglected, and sad, and they are typically peripheral to the
story. It is concluded that this could explain why children often have negative feelings
toward older people in general.
In 2006, a cross-cultural study of the portrayal of older people in television
advertisements was conducted by Lee, Kim and Han. A content analysis of prime-time
television advertisements from the United States (859) and South Korea (1,436) was
collected to examine differences in the portrayal of older people. The problem of
under representation was still prevailing in both countries but older people played a
relatively more significant role (86.1%) in Korean prime-time television
advertisements than in the U.S (36.5%). Besides, Korean prime-time television
advertisements were more likely to depict older characters positively as more vital,
generous, and independent, and as actively pursuing their goal and participating in
social life. The research concluded that the Confucian culture played an influential
role in shaping the portrayal of the elderly in mass media. In addition, it was found
that young people are more affected by the negative stereotypes portrayed in the mass
media.
Umphrey and Robinson (2006) found that young people are prone to internalizing the
stereotypical idea of older people as closed-minded, ineffective, and dull, and these
Nicole Chui Shan Chan 60
negative stereotypes influenced the way they perceive the elderly in daily life. Older
people also felt offended by the negative stereotypes used in advertisements.
The results of these studies are consistent in the sense that older people are
underrepresented in terms of proportions of the actual population in the mass media
and that older people are stereotypically portrayed as negative members of the society
in some Western countries. The negative stereotypes influenced the image of older
people, especially for the young people that they believe it was the way they are in
real life. On the contrary, positive stereotypes are found in Korea television
advertisements, which underlie the Confucian cultural value that emphasizes respect
for the elderly.
3. Methodology
Content analysis is conducted to examine the portrayal of older people in Hong
Kong’s media. Print advertisements with appearance of older people are collected
from the leading local newspaper – Oriental Daily. Older people are defined as
individuals aged 60 or above who have typical features of aging like grey/white hair,
and/or wrinkles. 10 advertisements with images of older people are collected from 1st
April to 31st May 2008 (see Appendix 1).
Factors from Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) are used to measure attitudes and
negative stereotypes towards older people in the advertisement (Intrieri et al., 1995).
Negative stereotype Positive stereotype
Idle Busy
Passive Active
Conservative Liberal
Disorganized Organized
Uncertain Certain
Indecisive Decisive
Uncooperative Cooperative
Dejected Hopeful
Sad Happy
Unpleasant Pleasant
Older people stereotypes 61
4. Findings
4.1 Advertisements (see Appendix 1 for details)
No. Brand/ Product Description Stereotype
1 Hong Thai Travel
Agency
A daughter cuddling her mother Happy
2 Supplement for joints An old actor (Mr.Woo Fung) aged 70
or above, with a thumb-up and a big
smile
Happy
3 Health bank – Chinese
medicine in pill
A child sits on an old man’s lap, with
his wife, another child and 2 younger
adults behind him
Pleasant
4 Siemens – hearing aid A young woman cuddling an old lady
with wrinkles under the sun
Pleasant
5 Chinese medicine in
pill
A famous old actress (Ms. Liza
Wang), aged 60 or above, dressed in
traditional Chinese gown, looking
elegant
Pleasant
6 Arthro Strong –
supplement for bones
An old man dances with an old lady
with one leg up
Active
7 Ho Choi Catering
Group
An old lady smiles Happy
8 Medicament A old man bends down, looks
miserable
Dejected
9 Mortgage An old man smiles, with 3 other
smiling younger people
Pleasant
10 Compleat nutrient
supplement
A young woman holds an old man,
trying to help him to cross the gap
over the stream
Active /
Cooperative
Nicole Chui Shan Chan 62
5. Discussions
Not surprisingly, seven out of ten advertisements are health products or medicine (#2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10). This finding confirms Carrigan and Szmigin (1999) who note
that older characters usually appear in advertisements of health products or medicines
for overcoming infirmity or disability caused by aging. With a growing aging
population, marketers are targeting this so-called silver market. An overwhelming
majority of the advertisements whose targeting consumers are older people used older
characters to portray the results of after using the products.
However, this does not coincide with the phenomenon observed in some Western
countries, where even when the products are targeting older people, the advertisement
tended to use younger people more often (Robinson et al., 2008). Hence, it is
important to note that the positive images of older people in the Hong Kong media
could be prompted by the mother’s day promotion. Since the advertisements were
collected around Mother’s Day, advertisers may have used these positive portrayals to
arouse consumers’ desire to purchase their products. Another explanation for the
different stereotypes found in the Hong Kong and the Western advertisements may be
Confucianism. The notion of respect for the elderly is deeply embedded in the
Chinese society as exemplified by numerous Chinese proverbs that reinforce the
notion of respect for the elderly. The Chinese word 老 /lao/, meaning old is the key
word to search for proverbs related to the elderly. Six key proverbs that promote the
positive image of elder people are listed below.
5.1 From Lin Yutang’s “Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage”
Example 1 家有一老老老老 如有一寶
An older person at home, as valuable as a jewelry holds.
Example 2 敬老老老老尊賢
Honor the aged and the wise.
Example 3 老老老老吾老老老老以及人之老老老老
To honor the aged of other people, as we honor our own.
Example 4 老老老老馬識途
Experienced people know the ropes.
Older people stereotypes 63
Example 5 養兒防老老老老
Raise children to provide against old age.
Example 6 老老老老而彌堅
Become more firm as one grows old.
In Chinese society, children are taught to respect the elderly. It is considered that the
older you are the wiser you should be. So the younger people should always listen to
the wisdom of the elderly. This idea contradicts the negative stereotypes of elderly
people found in many Western countries. Lee et al. (2006) found that prime time
television advertisements in the U.S. portrayed the majority of the older people as
weak and helpless. In our examples, the advertisements portrayed older people as
happy, energetic and healthy. The notion of respect for the elderly that we learn from a
very young age could be the reason for these cultural differences.
Five of the Hong Kong advertisements depicted older characters together with
younger characters as family members or friends. This implies the continuous support
from the family members. As the time I collected the advertisement was around the
Mother’s Day, a lot of products were targeting the younger generation to buy their
products as a gift for Mother’s Day. However, this is only part of the reason why
young characters appeared in the advertisements. What is really prominent in the
advertisements is the notion of filial piety, 孝 /hao/. It is considered as a duty of
every child to show filial piety, even when the senior is dead (Ting-Toomey, 1999).
And that is the reason why millions of people go to the graveyard during the Ching
Ming festival. In the examples, younger characters have close relationship with the
older characters as they cuddled with each other. And in advertisement 10, the young
woman is helping the old man to cross the stream, which symbolizes the youngster
offers help to the elderly to overcome any obstacles in old age as part of the
youngsters’ responsibility. This agrees with the Confucian values that youngsters
should respect older people and show their filial piety.
The majority of the Hong Kong images of older people are positive in the
advertisements, with only one advertisement (# 8) showing a negative image of an old
man who looked miserably and painful because of his back pain. Although most of the
advertisements depict older people positively, over-simplifications of stereotypes
should not be ignored (Robinson et al., 2008). There are still many older people who
collect cardboards in the streets of Hong Kong and a lot of older people who live in
the elderly centre are very lonely. Many older people from China are sent to Hong
Kong and are forced to become beggars so as to earn money by exploiting people’s
Nicole Chui Shan Chan 64
mercy with them. Therefore, these advertisements only show the stereotypical image
of older people in Hong Kong, i.e. the older people are treated decently and they
receive lots of care from younger people.
6. Conclusion
Stereotypical images of older people are not universally applicable. In many Western
countries, negative stereotypes of older people are found in the mass media, including
television advertisements, print advertisements, and Disney films. In these cultures,
older people are considered to be helpless, impaired and weak. These negative
stereotypes influence the perception of younger people toward the older people.
However, nine out of the ten advertisements collected in Hong Kong portrayed older
people positively as happy, energetic, and healthy. The difference in stereotypes found
between Hong Kong and Western countries could be explained by the Confucian
values. Confucianism teaches respect for the elderly and describes older people as
wise and high up in the hierarchy. These advertisements depict the elderly in
accordance with traditional cultural values so as to persuade consumers to buy the
products. The assumption that the stereotypes of older people in Hong Kong would be
different from that of Western countries due to the cultural differences in cultures was
confirmed. And although in real life, not all older people in Hong Kong are treated as
nicely as shown in the advertisements, stereotypes are helpful in defining cultural
values, especially with regards to the stereotypes found in advertisements.
Older people stereotypes 65
Appendices
Source: Oriental Daily News (From April 1 to April 30)
Advertisement 1
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Advertisement 2
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Advertisement 3
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Advertisement 4
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Advertisement 5
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Advertisement 6
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Advertisement 7
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Advertisement 8
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Advertisement 9
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Advertisement 10
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