This article focuses on selected effects of gender in a direct response advertisement for a non-gendered item targeted towards professionals—both men and women. It assesses whether the specification of gender in the headline, and/or the gender of the message's spokesperson, affects the readers’ attitudes toward the message and their intention to respond. Nine versions of a direct response advertisement for a hypothetical financial services company were constructed. Each differed from the others in terms of the headline—Professional Man, Professional Person, Professional Woman—and the signature of the spokesperson—Mary West, J. West, John West—which appeared at the conclusion of the sales message. A national sample of 363 randomly selected men and women participated in a 3 × 3 × 2 within-subjects experiment. A gendered headline significantly affected males’ attitudes toward the test ad.
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