Got yoga?: A longitudinal analysis of thematic content and models' appearance-related attributes in advertisements spanning four decades of Yoga Journal.
Author: Vinoski E1, Webb JB2, Warren-Findlow J3, Brewer KA4, Kiffmeyer KA4
Affiliation:
1University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Public Health Sciences, College of Health and Human Services 335, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA. Electronic address: evinoski@uncc.edu.
2University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Psychological Science, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA; University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Health Psychology Ph.D. Program, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
3University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Public Health Sciences, College of Health and Human Services 335, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
4University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Psychological Science, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
Conference/Journal: Body Image.
Date published: 2017 Feb 16
Other:
Volume ID: 21 , Pages: 1-5 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.01.006. [Epub ahead of print] , Word Count: 171
Yoga has become an increasingly common health practice among U.S. adults over the past decade. With this growth in popularity, yoga-related print media have been criticized for shifting away from yoga's traditional philosophies and promoting a thin, lean ideal physique representing the "yoga body." The purpose of this study was to (a) analyze the presence and content of advertisements over the 40-year publication history of Yoga Journal magazine and (b) explore female advertisement models' socio-demographic and appearance-related attributes over time. Results suggested that Yoga Journal now contains significantly more advertisements for food, nutritional supplements, and apparel and fewer advertisements for meditation and nutritional practices than in its early years of publication. Models were more frequently rated as White and in their 20s and 30s in recent years of publication. Trends in model body size matched shifts in culturally dominant body ideals over time. Implications and future research directions are considered.
Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS: Advertisements; Body image; Content analysis; Media; Physical appearance; Yoga
PMID: 28226303 DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.01.006
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