The younger a person is, the easier it is to shape his or her views on a subject. Children are extremely easy to persuade. For example, gender roles have been pushed on children since birth. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, when companies go out of their way to state what is meant for females and what is meant for males, issues begin to arise.
One of the easiest ways to begin to form an child’s views on gender roles is through toys. There seems to be a stigma around toys that dictates what toys girls are allowed to play with and what toys boys are allowed to play with. For example, children are raised to laugh at a boy who plays with a doll and make fun of a girl who is playing with toy cars.This stigma has retailers like Hamsley creating a “girls” floor and “boys” floor within their stores. By adopting gender marketing strategies, Hamsely is only helping to confirm that women cook and men work.
“Let Toys Be Toys” is a campaign that was created when an group of parents were finally fed up with toy companies deciding which toys were suitable for boys and which toys were suitable for girls. They believed it to be unethical to tell a child what they can and cannot play with based on their gender. Through social media, the people behind the campaign have reached out to various toy retailers and called them out on their gender marketing. Many companies have admitted their mistakes and made the appropriate changes to no longer label a toy as a boy toy or a girl toy.
The ethical issues surrounding gender marketing are becoming more apparent and campaigns like Let Toys Be Toys are proving that change can happen.
Resources:
2012: The Year in Marketing Ethics
I completely agree with Julia’s post about how marketing to children can be unethical. Because they are so young, children can be easily persuaded by marketing campaigns. Children are less aware of the marketing techniques implemented to persuade a purchase, and this can have many negative consequences.
I really like that you chose this as a topic to write about. As you mentioned, we get confronted with stereotypes and stigmas so early in our lives that we sometimes do not event realize how narrow our way of thinking actually is. Children should be allowed to play with whatever toy they want and that also applies to later stages in life where people generally should not be judged because something they do or say does not fit their gender.