Date of Graduation

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Reed College of Media

Department

Reed College of Media

Committee Chair

Steven Urbanski

Committee Co-Chair

Hongmin Ahn

Committee Member

Gwen Bergner

Committee Member

Emily Corio

Abstract

While there have been many studies examining celebrity-endorsed advertisements, few have studied the relationship between race and ethnicity and body types found in celebrity-endorsed advertisements. A sample of 265 celebrity-endorsed advertisements was collected from both Cosmopolitan and ELLE magazine during the first quarter of the year (January, February, March) between 2008-2013. A content analysis was constructed in order to determine the race and ethnicity of each celebrity found in the advertisement as well as their body type. The results suggest that there has been a tendency to use non-minority celebrities in celebrity-endorsed advertisements than non-minority celebrities. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that most of the celebrities used within the advertisements closely identified with an ectomorph body type, which suggests that the majority of celebrity models used in celebrity-endorsed advertisements will have a thin and slender body type. The results of the study confirm that there has not been an increase in the prevalence of diverse celebrities, in terms of race and ethnicity, in these advertisements through 2008-2013 and that there is no relationship between race and ethnicity and body type.

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