In John S. Clark, Artemisia Apostolopoulou, and James M. Gladden’s “Real Women Watch Football: Gender Differences in the Consumption of the NFL Super Bowl Broadcast”, I found myself surprised by several of the statistics about women as consumers of both sport and general spending. The statistics presented demonstrate that women exert more influence on discretionary spending then men, an important consideration when advertising sports. I was also surprised that in the sample used in this article, 44% of the viewers of Super Bowl XL in 2006 were female (Clark, Apostolopoulou, & Gladden, 2009)! I think this helps to demonstrate how much of a social event the Super Bowl has become and it is really more than just a football game.
Throughout this article, a common theme was women’s consumption of sport for social reasons (Clark, Apostolopoulou, & Gladden, 2009). I feel like it is this way for many men as well. While I enjoy participating in sports, I have never particularly enjoyed sitting and watching sporting events. Growing up, my family never watched sports. My wife is a big Ohio State Football fan and when we got married, one of the requirements for visiting my family during football season is that we have the game on. Now I enjoy watching college football. While I certainly enjoy the sport itself and the excitement of the game, the social aspect of the activity is also a major draw.
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteYou raise a point that I thought of as well. I think that both men and women could be either avid or social watchers regardless of their gender. An example I used in my post was of a time that my wife was aggravated at not being able to watch the game because of the company we had over. Both men and women had been distracting at that party because they were there for the social aspect. My wife and I did not get to experience the whole game, and vowed to avoid having purely social viewers over in the future.
This example shows a potential area of research that could be pursued. It would be especially relevant today as the roles of men and women in our society are growing more similar in every aspect of life.
Hi Anthony,
ReplyDeleteI was surprised too by the number of female watching the Super Bowl. The game is so violent. When the player fell down, I felt pain too. As the article indicated, most of females watcht the football for the social reasons. They can hold parties, talk to friends, discuss with boyfriends. Maybe the game itself does not matter.
I really like what Matt wrote about the social aspect of viewing interfering with watching a game amongst avid viewers. I used to have tennis parties during the Grand Slams, but I found that I rarely remembered the fine points of a match. Now I may still watch a match with friends, but later go back to see what I missed on the taped version.
ReplyDeleteAnthony,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. The avid fan/social fan concept is not specifically tied to gender. Though there are more men who watch sports as avid fans, there are also a fair amount of women who do as well. Do you think that the Super Bowl has become more about the social aspect, relating to the overall spectacle of the game? Even though 44% of the viewers, according to the article, were female, it seems like the advertising is still more directed at males than females. For example, the add for Teleflora. That was not a commercial that would advertise for women to go and buy flowers- it was directed at males. There seemed to be several others that were gender-neutral but I feel like there are still more geared towards men. It would surprise me, considering that the article mentioned that women have more control over discretionary income. I would think that advertisers would want to reach those customers!