Frequency, Context and Characteristics of Smile Used in Advertising

The images of smiling people are omnipresent in marketing. Frequency, smile characteristics, context of the smile and target audience in newspaper advertisements were points of interest of this study.

Four examiners analyzed 600 advertisements from 46 European magazines and newspapers by using content and framing analysis. Twenty items of the analysis form the presence of people, smile characteristics, context of smile use, impression of success and health, and targeted audience. The chi-square test was used in statistical analysis.

People were present in over 70% of the newspapers advertisements, and almost 80% of them were smiling, relating the product or service with positive context more often than with neutral or negative context (p<0.001). The advertisements with smile targeted the adults more frequently (70.6%) and adolescents (33.6%), and less often the elderly (22.2%) and children (4.2%); women (45.9%) or both genders (29.2%) were targeted more often than solely men (2.6%). Smile mostly filled out one quarter of the size of the entire advertisement (97%), equally spontaneous and posed smiles were used. In 82% of cases teeth were visible during smile, and buccal corridors were present in 39% of them.

Smile is often used in newspaper advertisements, mostly targeting adult women, and providing the context of positive emotions. Most people will show teeth when they smile. Parameters of micro smile esthetics are not in the focus of an advertisement.