Girl guides: Ad lambasts stereotypes in toy market

San Francisco – LS:N Global featured GoldieBlox in 2012 when it was still in the development stage as a Kickstarter project. Now, the engineering toy for girls has been launched in time for Christmas with an accompanying advertisement that challenges how the female toy market is pink and generic.

Directed by Sean Pecknold, from director collective The Academy, the commercial features a frequently used Rube Goldberg device made out of traditional girl toys that are pink, frilly and domestic. The film is accompanied by the Beasties Boys 1987 song, Girls, performed by young girls with modified lyrics that condemn the culture of toys for girls. ‘Girls, you think you know what we want, girls, pink and pretty is girls, just like the 50s is girls. You like to buy us pink toys, and everything else is for boys,’ say the lyrics.

The GoldieBlox marketing is unusually honest. Another example that we have featured recently was the Camp Gyno ad. For more on toys for the youngest generation, read our Generation I macrotrend and for an in-depth look at GoldieBox, read more in our Innovate profile.