« New Zealand bets on an exploding billboard | Main | Ads for 'Fallout 3' unnerve D.C. commuters »

Is Lego promoting 'outdated gender roles'? Over in Sweden, Lego has been accused of sexist advertising toward children. The country's Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK) has cried foul over Lego catalog ads that show a girl in a pink room playing with a castle and ponies and a boy in a blue room playing with fire trucks and a fire station. ERK says this use of pink and blue constitutes a form of gender stereotyping that's degrading to both men and women. Lego defended the images, saying that boys and girls are seen playing together elsewhere in the catalog. Two U.S. sites, Parent Dish and Mom Logic, have also gotten uppity over the ads. What I don't get is how some people think the fairly recent, 20th-century concept of assigning pink to girls and blue to boys is an old-fashioned gender stereotype. Doesn't something have to fall out of fashion before it's considered "old-fashioned"? Maybe someday we'll return to the Little Lord Fauntleroy style of the late 1800s, where small boys wore lacy collars and little velvet suits and had long curly hair. Until then, Lego might avoid the issue altogether by sticking to a nice, environmentally fashionable green. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers

October 27, 2008 in Controversy, Cullers, Lego | Permalink

Comments

Even since I was little when I was with my family, I had an older brother. If my mom was giving out popsicles or candy, and she had two different colored ones, I always wanted the one closest to pink, and my brother always wanted the one closet to blue. I mean I know I was too young to be like I was influenced by culture to say that was why I picked pink. I think I just liked the color and subconsciously, maybe I knew that was what I should like since I am a girl. The idea of blue being for boys and pink for girls in very old fashion but true, and I see why Lego would do that, because for example if you go look for baby clothes for a new baby pink is still associated with baby girls and blue is associated with baby boys. I am not saying now days blue should only be for boys and pink should be only for girls, because that is silly! I know plenty of girls whose favorite is some shade of blue.
I think it’s wrong that they are promoting gender roles in the way that they show the little girl playing with a castle and ponies while a boy is shown playing with fire trucks and fire station. But in all reality how many little girls do you know that don’t like castles and ponies, and all that magical, fairy play pretend stuff? How many little boys do you know that don’t own some kind of toy that has wheels such as play cars? Yes I agree it’s a stereotype, but in a lot of ways it our culture, they are told this is how we should be if we are all so against it me need to change culture and culture will in turn change us. The point is if we don’t like the stereotype then don’t feed into it, because you are only giving it more power than it should have.
I don’t think girls should be just limited to liking pink and playing with ponies and castles, and boys just limited to fire truck and liking the color blue. If you think about it we have a lot of female firefighters( okay, I know the male fire fighters most likely still out number the female, but it seems like there is more now days), if those girls would have always played with ponies maybe they would have never want to be a fire fighter? And we have plenty of horse trainers, jockeys, and groomers that are males, if they didn’t like horses or ponies what would they be doing today?

Posted by: Megan | Oct 29, 2008 4:06:14 PM

Post a comment

Name:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments:

The opinions expressed in comments are those of the individual poster. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Adweek or Nielsen Business Media. Comments of a promotional nature or comments that are otherwise inappropriate may be removed.