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advertising to kids harmful or no worry?

4 replies

amy333 · 11/03/2009 21:11

hello i am a a level student who is analyzing advertising aimed at children impartiality toys.

my question is do you you think gender stereotypes is used in the advertising to children?
is this harmful?
can you think of any examples of gender stereotyping in the adverts you've seen?

any responses will be much appreciated
amy xx

OP posts:
beagle101 · 11/03/2009 22:12

Amy - Lots of parents of tots I would guess use CBeebies as the kids channel of choice partly because it doesn't have ads for toys!

However I have been known to flick to Nick Jr (the kids like this Australian programme called the Fairies - sigh!)and there is an ad on there which actually has the line 'Tonka knows boys' (at least I am fairly sure the company was tonka) with clips of boy toddlers having fun with trucks - it annoys me as my 4 year old daughter then asks why they toys aren't for her!

Personally I do think ads are aimed at specific genders you just have to look at them! There are no ads with 4 year old boys having a fine old time dressing Barbie out there! However, despite my example above I have got to say that despite the gender bias of the toy ads it doesn't seem to affect my kids - my 2 year old boy spend much of his day playing with cars while wearing a pair a fluffy princess high heel shoes and my daughter (who will only wear pink) does enjoy building pretend cars with her brother and also cycling in the mud in our garden. I guess at some level it is probably steering them towards the gender 'correct' toys but I haven't yet seen much evidence of it yet in my two.

Hope this helps

scrooged · 11/03/2009 22:14

ds is 9, he's noticed that ads aimed at girls mostly have dolls and pink things on them.
Baby born etc doesn't have any ads with boys playing with them!

feedthegoat · 11/03/2009 22:17

I've always been very careful not to steer my ds towards just boys toys (partly because I dislike alot of the older boys 'Power Ranger' type things). I bought him a tea set and kitchen and his most frequent playmate is a girl so lots of access to dolls. However from 2 he has catagorised things himself - if it's pink it's for girls and he doesn't want to know. He is getting this from somewhere and I really don't think it is us (or I hope not).

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Gemzooks · 12/03/2009 11:27

some ideas for you, things you could look at:

You could take some examples of reinforcement of traditional gender roles in ads aimed at children: both directly related to the product being advertised, like girls playing with Barbies, dolls, clothes, makeup, cooking, and boys playing construction, cars, action figures. But it's also interesting to look at the deeper layer of the ads. Say you have an ad for children, you should also look at who else is depicted in the ad, for example they will usually be shown at home with their mother in a traditional stay at home role. So it would be interesting if you analyse the gender roles which are hinted at by the toys, but the other, more subtle roles hinted at in the background (like mum being at home looking after them). and also break it down into what is depicted visually, but also the type of language used, 'princesses' for girls and 'little monsters' for boys, the way boys and girls are talked about in the ads, tone of voice, lighting etc.

Then you can also look at ads not aimed at children but which children see because it's during their viewing time, for example for detergents or whatever, again, always showing 'mum' doing the household tasks and having the main responsibility for the house. all this influences children's ideas about the world.

You could also think about the aims of the advertiser, they don't (usually) want to make people feel in any way uncomfortable, or to challenge their beliefs except when it makes them keener on the brand or product. So their motivations will lead to them reinforcing more conservative stereotypes.

You can also explore the child's world, for them the boundaries between advertising and actual TV programmes are not that clear. it is all just stories and information which are shaping their world, allied with what they see at home. So their sister at home could love train sets, but girls on screen are all girly and love sparkly nail polish or whatever, and that will influence their ideas about what girls are like.

You could also explore the question of who drives these gender ideas, are the advertisers just reflecting society, or are the parents asking for these sexist products, or are children asking for them. and what about the manufacturers, making toys for increasingly global markets, it might be easier to produce stereotyped toys than not. you could take each category of user like that and break down their possible needs and motivations.

another interesting one is the blue versus pink phenomenon, fairly recent, where the parent and child consumers are more or less forced to select either a blue or a pink variant of a toy, e.g. the fairly recent phenomenon of toys intended for both genders (like easels or pogo sticks) being produced in such a way that there is a pink girls' one and a blue boys' one and nothing in between and the impact of that.

good luck!

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