Girlish images across cultures: Analyzing Japanese versus US Seventeen magazine ads

The authors address cross-cultural variability in the manner in which adver tising portrays teenage girls. Specifically, the level to which "girlish" i mages are portrayed in Japan and the United States by employing a content a nalysis of 263 advertisements appearing in eight issues of Seventeen, four Japanese and four American. Culture-based differences in advertising are di scussed with a specific focus on how advertising constructs the image of te enage girls, and how, in turn, teenage girls are encouraged to identify, wi th their mediated images of self. Chi-square analysis shows a significantly higher frequency of verbal and visual girlish images in the Japanese Seven teen issues.