Not much improvement of gender stereotypes in toy ads

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 06/12/2023

There is not much improvement of gender stereotypes in advertising for toys. Contemporary toy ads have not evolved much over time in terms of the social messages about gender. Most toys had clearly gendered associations, with dolls targeted toward girls but sports equipment, cars, and toy weapons targeted toward boys, a study from US-based  Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media shows.

The study includes analysis of 175 advertisements for toys listed as “best selling” by the top-three toy retailers. The results: 

• Girls made up about 56% of actors in advertisements for best-selling toys in 2022.
• Toys marketed to girls were 18 times more likely to be shown demonstrating nurturing or domestic skills than toys marketed to boys.
• Advertisements featuring toys marketed to boys were predominantly for cars, sports equipment or games, and toy weapons, with louder and faster music and more masculine language used in these ads, compared with ads for toys marketed to girls.
• Seventy-five percent of toys that were played competitively or violently were played with by boys.
• Kids of all genders in toy advertisements were depicted playing with basic learning and STEM learning toys at similar rates.

“These results suggest that in some ways toy advertising is fostering an inclusive world for play, but in other ways toy advertising still reinforces norms that encourage distinct gender roles and interests through play”, the study says.

The report includes a proposed checklist for advertisers to improve the situation/ Among checkpoints proposed:

• Make toy ads more racially diverse.
• Reject outdated assumptions about gender and play in toy ads. My toy ads encourage kids of all genders to play.
• Flip identity-based stereotypes on their head. My toy ads flip expectations about how children should play.
• Use marketing strategies that disrupt gender stereotypes. Colors marketing materials for toys avoid pink and purple exclusively for toys marketed to girls, and blue or green exclusively for toys marketed to boys.