More than food: A comparison of ad images from German and American culinary magazines

Visual messages provide society with models for behavior, including what to eat and which gender does domestic and professional cooking. Review and comparison of advertising images from two countries highlight differences in culture and gender roles which otherwise seem natural and mainly go unnoticed. In this study images from 1,250 advertisements found in 30 German and American culinary magazines were reviewed for food and gender characteristics. Among the findings, German publications offered more fruit/vegetable and juice/water/coffee/tea ads whereas U.S. periodicals contained more pasta/bread/rice/flour and breakfast fare ads. Men were more often depicted as professional chefs than women across both countries. Women appeared in household cooking activities more than men within the U.S. while German ads showed more equal portrayals of men and women preparing food in domestic spaces. Both genders were correlated with alcohol and pasta/bread/rice/flour ads. Women also were related to breakfast food advertisements.