Date of Graduation

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

Committee Chair

Terry Wimmer

Abstract

The following literature review and methods focused on understanding what effect advertisements have on consumers by demonstrating past and present methods and findings. The qualitative research aimed to seek a better understanding of the ways Calvin Klein expressed sexual and image content in his jean advertisements over an 11-year time span by analyzing and evaluating 25 jean advertisements. Each advertisement was coded for type of gaze, weight, gender, hair color, age, ethnicity, and pose (see appendix A for codebook). The quantitative research focused on a survey that was used to investigate the relationship between three types of gazes (seductive, soft/introverted, and cool/level/self-reliant) and the purchase intention of consumers in relation to Calvin Klein jean advertisements. Results of the quantitative analysis suggested that soft/introverted advertisements had the highest impact on a consumer’s likelihood to purchase.

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