An Assessment of the ‘Sins’ and ‘Virtues’ Portrayed in Advertising

Some writers have called for an investigation of whether the seven sins and seven virtues are portrayed in advertising. This seven/seven model was used for a content analysis of print advertisements appearing in general readership magazines published in the 1980s. First, definitions for each of the sins and virtues were developed. Then trained coders searched for explicitly stated sins and virtues in a sample of advertisements. The majority of the advertisements did indeed contain a sin or virtue. Over three-quarters of the advertisements portray a virtue: relatively few advertisements presented a sin.