Representation of Women in Iranian and American Tv Commercials

Media are not only reflection of realities but also shape them and are effective on our knowledge of world around us. Women in recent decades, along with their traditional roles, have approached new social activities, which were considered exclusively masculine in the past, and have created a stable status for themselves there. But it seems that this change is not considered by T.V. advertisements. Advertisements are still representing a kind of stereotypical images of women and emphasis more and more on their traditional and constructed characteristics. In this study we are interested in knowing how women in advertisements are represented in Iran and USA. First a review of some pieces of research in the subject is presented in which the manner of representation of women is described according to case of USA. Then some comparable categories are derived from those investigations and are applied to the case of Iran. The findings show that the difference between the representations of women in TV advertisements of both countries is very slight. In most cases these advertisements are similar and both attribute stereotypical roles and characteristics to women.