Concern of how people are portrayed in the media has existed since the beginning of all popular media, particularly the electronic media. Most different groups have been particularly concerned about how people from different age, ethnic, gender and professional groups are shown in media advertisement (Bollinger, 2008; Hazell & Clarke, 2007; Nina-Pazarzi & Tsangaris, 2008). Perhaps the area that has attracted most research attention has been the portrayal of men and women in television commercial advertisement (Kaufman, 2003). Although there are several numbers of early studies which has shown how many commercial advertisement has portrayed male and female gender (Dominick & Rauch, 2008; O’Donnell & O’Donnell, 2014). Most researchers reviewed the use of gender in advertisement and at different point discovered that audience have different perception as regard to gender usage in advertisement. Commercial advertising gives meaning to words and images as a result, diffusing the meaning of the massages and belief into the society (Sinclair, 2010). According to some researchers, advertising is a social practice which does not operate in a vacuum. In order to make advertising more appealing to the masses, male and female genders are employed and portrayed differently in other to attract the attention of the masses toward product advertised. As result of such portrayal, the populace tend to perceive the use of male and female gender differently. The power of advertising is in its ability to manipulate people, turning them into unconscious and addicted consumers, while they continue to deny that they could ever be affected by the messages of such positive brands (Wikipedia 2014). Through the most insipid of advertising, we are affected by the subconscious power of the image and representations of people in situations start to suggest how we could and should model ourselves (Onyejekwe, 2005). Advertising is a significant agent of socialisation in modern industrialised societies and is used as a tool to maintain certain social constructions, such as gender. Men and women are depicted as differing in attitudes, behaviour and social statuses. These differences are what separate the sexes into different genders. Gender advertisements give the viewers a glimpse into a world laden with socially defined and constructed gender relation displays and roles. Advertisements take something that exists already in the world and they change it, forming a distorted reflection, satisfaction and audience perception. It is against this background, that this study investigates audience perception of portrayal of gender in Nigeria advertisement.

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