Blue=Boys, Pink=Girls
Blue=Boys, Pink=Girls
Sep 24Because an officemate is a compulsive toy addict, I spend quite a lot of time joining him on lunchtime toy runs, if only to get my lethargic ass out of my desk chair and shuffle the ripples of phat around a bit so they don’t get too sedentary.
Yesterday I noticed some new (or at least, new to me) packaging strategies from perennial kids toy giant Fisher Price. We all know the familiar blue and red and yellow Fisher Price color scheme, right?
What you may not know is that they’ve now started releasing the exact same toys in alternate packaging, shelved directly next to the identical products in traditional packaging.
I’m torn on this one, folks. On one hand, there’s a positive side to the strategy, as it takes concepts like “doctor” and “lawnmower” and attempts to detach them completely from gender by providing products in both traditional “boy” colored packaging and “girl” colored packaging.
On the other hand, why would Fisher Price want to reinforce these outmoded color attachments? Wouldn’t it make more sense to tweak the classic packaging so it didn’t look quite so boy-centric, or maybe use the same colors but put little girls on the boxes pretending to mow the lawn and give their dollies check-ups?
Then of course there’s just the crass commercial marketing reasoning, which is probably the true motivation: If mommy or granny or auntie walks past that blue box, and they’re buying for a girl, they will ignore the toys. As soon as they see the pink, they’ll think, “Hey, those are good girl toys; I’ll get one of those.”
As proud daddy to a two-year-old girl, I have to think on things like this–I have to wonder if she’s being brainwashed by her Dora lunchbox and Winnie the Pooh toilet seat into brand loyalty before she can read; I have to think about what she reads, and what she watches, and what she eats. And I have to contemplate whether a toy doctor kit in a pink box is sending the right message about gender equality, or just pushing her even further into the media-driven, parent-abetted, frilly pink princess hell of mindless little girldom.
I entirely agree.
Having a girl in this culture terrifies me daily.
You know, I had a similar problem in reverse. I have two boys and the eldest (age 5) is fascinated with cooking, so me and his Mom wanted to get him an Easy Bake Oven for his birthday last February. However, they only came in pink. We knew he wouldn’t care and I really didn’t think it was a problem, but it still gave me pause. We ended up not getting him one for another reason (all of the mixes are made in factories that have peanut exposures and he’s allergic), but it still kinda bugged me that cooking was considered a “girls-only” activity.
Fascinating. Very “one steps forward, two steps back.”
And you’d think with the common-ness of peanut allergies, they’d make the mixes in a nut-free environment! Get with it, Easy Bake.
Jason, I feel your pain…sometimes I feel weird letting Cate play with my Star Wars toys or Batman figures, but then I think, “Is it because they’re ‘boy’ toys?” and then I let her go to town.
We have friends with a two-year-old son, and in their family, the dad does all the cooking, so they got their son a kitchen so he could “be like daddy.” I thought that was very cool.
i want one coes im only age 8 i love pink only ibont no what is uri ok?