2. Methodology

For the investigation of this article, an experimental study was accomplished to analyse the influence of advertising on body perception and the level of self-demanding body care (food and sport) with respect to a sample of adolescents, between 15 and 18 years old. Although our focus of interest is on how this issue affects male adolescents, and the main results that we will reflect will be on this aspect, the study was conducted on a parity sample of boys and girls covering the following objectives: to investigate if the vision of advertising images that show muscular and defined masculine aesthetic models significantly influences the perception and corporal valuation of the young, especially in boys, and to observe how this same question affects their companions; In addition, it was sought to analyse if for adolescents in general, the physical aspect is an important value on which they have to make an effort to reach the socially established levels; and, finally, it was also intended to study if the adolescents resort to Internet as a source of information on aspects related to the improvement of the physical aspect.

Categorical studies on the subject is not the intention of this research, but to be further proof that supports the approach of the possible repercussions that the connoted values conveyed by advertising through idealized somatic stereotypes may have, on an audience with little critical and analytical capacity, and as suggestible and easily influenced as adolescents may be.

The test was carried out with a sample of 552 adolescents in the first and second year of high school (students between 15 and 17 years old). The test consisted of dividing the total number of adolescents into two subgroups, an experimental group and a control group, with 276 students per group, seeking balance in gender parity and mean age. Two blocks of advertisements were made, with 20 advertisements per block. In the first of them (Block A), advertisements with a strong presence of stereotyped male models with lean, defined and muscular bodies prevailed; and the second block (Block B) contained advertisements with advertising models with a non-stereotyped physical constitution. The teenagers in the experimental group were shown the advertisements of the so-called “Block A” and the control group observed the advertisements of “Block B”.

Once the advertising images were observed, they were given an anonymous survey that they had to complete individually, only the profile of the respondent was determined with the parameters of age and sex. The questionnaire survey was considered to be an appropriate and well-accepted methodology for our study in this area, as it allowed “a group of respondents to be asked a series of questions regarding their opinions, their attitude towards options, their expectations, their level of knowledge or awareness of a problem or any other interesting point of the researchers” (Liu, Lischka & Kenning, 2018: 130).

The survey was composed of 10 questions; eight closed questions, from 2 to 9, with five-degree scale answers: Very much/Enough/Neither too much nor too little/Little/Nothing. One question which answers were defined according to a scale of 10 images displaying bodies with a gradual difference in their development and muscular definition, the first question, and a last open-ended question. The first question, based on the model scale, sought to obtain information about the boys’ physical perception of the body they considered to be healthy, what assessment they made of their own body, and what muscle development they would like to achieve in order to be physically satisfied. With respect to the girls surveyed, the