Scientific journal published by the Department of Journalism, Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Faculty of Communication.

This research analyzes the female stereotypes presented in graphic advertisements for luxury fashion, perfume, and cosmetic brands in Spain. It identifies the beauty stereotypes with which women are portrayed. This empirical work represents a continuation of the studies carried out by Díaz-Soloaga since 2005, to analyze the evolution of the representation of women in graphic advertising. Content analysis of 168 advertisements published in the fashion titles Elle, Glamour, Telva, Vogue, and Woman Madame Figaro was carried out. The main result was the observation of six female profiles that are remarkably similar to those identified in previous studies, thus confirming the permanence of the same beauty stereotypes. Although some progress is observed, advertising of luxury fashion, perfume, and cosmetic brands continues to display stereotypes that contribute to an inaccurate image of women. It is paradoxical that, in the context of current feminine demands, instead of empowering their audience, fashion magazines contribute to their pigeonholing using dependent, narcissistic, and highly sexualized images. Resumen Esta investigación analiza los estereotipos femeninos presentes en anuncios gráficos de marcas de lujo de moda, perfume y cosmética en España. Se identifican, también, estereotipos de belleza con los que se representa a las mujeres. Este trabajo empírico es una continuación de los estudios que Díaz-Soloaga viene realizando desde 2005, analizando la evolución en la representación de la mujer en la publicidad gráfica. Se llevó a cabo un análisis de contenido de 168 anuncios publicados en las cabeceras de moda Elle, Glamour, Telva, Vogue y Woman Madame Figaro. Como principal resultado se obtuvieron seis perfiles femeninos muy similares a los identificados en anteriores estudios, al tiempo que se confirmó la permanencia de los estereotipos de belleza. Aunque se observan avances, la publicidad gráfica de marcas de lujo de moda, perfume y cosmética continúa mostrando modelos que contribuyen a alimentar una imagen inexacta de la mujer. Resulta paradójico que, en el contexto de reivindicación femenina actual, en lugar de empoderar a su audiencia las cabeceras de moda contribuyan a encasillarla en una imagen dependiente, narcisista y muy sexualizada.

The link between organizational culture and efficiency has been widely studied in academia as there is great interest in finding out whether strong and balanced cultures lead to better long-term performance. The aim of this article is to carry out a preliminary analysis of the internal culture of the Spanish fashion sector, focusing particularly on communication as a driving force behind this process. With regard to methodology, we opted for applying an initial factor analysis of the opinions of seven experts and a subsequent one with 40 executives and middle managers in the sector. The findings show that the type of culture in the Spanish fashion companies studied, depends on a range of factors, the role of communication being worth highlighting in the case of the experts, while in the case of executives and middle managers, the so-called emotional salary stands out as an important factor.

Purpose This paper studied organizational culture in two different countries during the COVID-19 lockdown, a stressful social and labor context that obliged entire working populations to telecommute from home. We considered how people have coped with this new scenario, bearing in mind that one of the most relevant aspects of organizational culture and climate is the face-to-face interactions that take place in offices. With telework, that important physical relationship disappears and, since body language has its own grammar, work-related messages logically become open to misunderstanding between leaders and subordinates, as well as among peers. Design/methodology/approach An anonymous questionnaire (in Spanish and Russian) was distributed through the LinkedIn social media platform. The study intended to capture responses from white-collar professionals with managerial profiles, including those occupying high and medium-level positions, consultants, section directors, and project managers across different industries in both the countries. We collected 142 responses from Spain and 115 from Kazakhstan, with a total of 257 valid responses. Principal component's analysis (PCA), to obtain factorial axis was applied. We then performed a factor analysis of those principal components using Coheris Analytics SPAD 9.1. Findings The first finding herein points to the fact that the same experience had different consequences in these two different places, which can be traced back to national-cultural values. Spain and Kazakhstan share some common values and, at the same time, are culturally opposite. People fear uncertainty and one of the best ways to avoid this feeling is to provide them with technical and emotional support to manage a situation. During the COVID-19 lockdown, professionals from both countries expected their bosses to be assertive, driven, attentive and encouraging. And it seems they got just that. Secondly, a robust structure is mandatory for feeling secure: workers reported devoting more hours to telecommuting at home and even felt that their jobs were invading their personal lives, but they handled it because they knew to whom they should report. Procedures, rules, and methods were clear enough to avoid uncertainty. They even invented new rituals, patterns and practices that helped to reinforce their sense of belonging to the team. On top of this, in their responses, they noted that leaders acted consistently, even admirably, during lockdown and, for this reason, they gained their subordinates' respect. Research limitations/implications Responses from female participants more than doubled those from males in this sample. Women are assumed to prefer flexible working conditions so that they can better take care of children and/or elderly or dependent persons, but this could just be a long-standing bias. On the other hand, the incorporation of women into professional life has feminized work environments, translating into more concern for workers' personal circumstances and more awareness of the human relationships therein. Thus, independent of the country studied, gender is another factor to consider for future research. Practical implications This article proposes further exploratory study of how organizational contexts are affected by unexpected, informal and even radical changes, as well as of organizations' ability to manage said changes by looking to their cultural values. Originality/value Facing a common enemy- the coronavirus- seems to have made workers more positive and less prone to complaining. Workers have been resolute and have tried their best not only in their individual work, but also with their co-workers and teams. The data suggests that, even when analyzing two diverse countries in terms of their cultural historical, and sociological contexts, companies' reactions impacted their employees somewhat similarly and engendered similar responses. At the same time, the reactions of Spanish and Kazakhstani professionals vary on certain aspects, and, surprisingly, converge in terms of avoiding uncertainty, which suggests a conservative reaction in both countries. This study concludes that structure (clarity of procedures, norms, patterns) and leaders' recognition of their employees' efforts to overcome uncertainty were of utmost importance.

This article’s main goal is to identify more frequent stereotypes portrayed in advertisements of luxury fashion, perfumery and cosmetic brands in Spain. We have replicated 2010 Díaz-Soloaga, Muñiz y Quintas research to prove if feminine representation have experiment any evolution during this period of years. At the same time, as a seminal research, we have look at the representation of the perfumery and cosmetic ads isolated from the whole sample to demonstrate if they have different characteristics on their own.In order to conduct this research we applied a content analysis to 164 ads published in Elle, Glamour, Marie Claire, Telva y Vogue. Results demonstrate that the physical representation of women has not changed (white, thin, beautiful and young). The final data manifest that manifest that the four stereotypes found in the total sample are almost the same to the ones found years ago, even though two stereotypes –passive woman and fragile woman– are substitute by a new stereotype named affective success woman. On the other hand, perfumery and cosmetic ad stereotypes are similar to the ones found in the whole sample.