Littlest is 7. She likes pink things, she likes handbags, she likes sparkles, she likes rock climbing, she likes teddy bears AND she likes Transformers. She has NEVER liked dolls that look like babies. Today we watched an advert for Tesco (they have a half-price toy sale on and it’s nearly Christmas*). They wanted to suggest some toys to the viewing public.
So what did they come up with?
A doll that looks like a baby, stating it was ‘for GIRLS’ and a Transformer, stating it was ‘for BOYS’. I kid you not!
Littlest watched the advert and got really bothered. Her response was, “But that’s not fair. Transformers are good for boys and for girls.” We had to explain to her that it was OK for her to like Transformers too. She didn’t understand why Tesco would be so mean.
Seriously, who on earth came up with that creative idea?
Shame on you, Tesco!
(*and before you start getting silly Tesco, do note that I have blogged about your half price toy sale and I’m sure I’ll be nipping in to buy my daughter a Transformer for Christmas!)
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
Early Learning has a search engine that you can use to search for ‘girls’ toys and ‘boys’ toys. Don’t get me started…
Twitter: @helenredders
Someone has had that ‘creative’ idea too… There must be an argument for it, but I am not sure it’d make any sense to me!
Good for her, I’m so pleased she realised how silly that ad was. I’d have had the same reaction as you - I absolutely detest this sort of insidious sexism. Grrrr!!!
p.s. Give P a big hug from me x
Twitter: @notsupermum
Hug was welcomed! x
Shame on Tesco. Early Learning Centre are just as bad - as Helen mentions. You think they’d have learnt by now. Tut.
Twitter: @RosieScribble
But they aren’t, are they? It’s a real shame because, in our case, Transformers are so much better than a baby doll!
Seriously - you’d think we were beyond this by now….
Twitter: @mrsbung
I know!
Hey,
Tis a tad outrageous…. Tell her to enjoy her transformers and that I said Tesco are stoopid! I know I worked for them for nearly five years…
E x
PS: Give her a hug from Sheppie and me!
Twitter: @madpoetuk
Perhaps you should have worked in the creative marketing department. I would love to know who thought up this new advert, I’m guessing not someone who has children!
Hey,
May have earnt me more money but wouldn’t had as much fun as chasing down shoplifters and some of the weirdest (and stoopidest!) customers.
Ex
Twitter: @madpoetuk
My daughter had a race track that wound down the hallway into her room and back out into the living room. Whenever she had friends over that would be the chosen toy to play with (and yes they were also girls). In this day and age you would think Tesco would know better than to pan out that kind of sexism. (Hugs)Indigo
Twitter: @sageraven
That track sounds amazing! I think it’s about giving a child choice. Yes, my daughter loves her Disney dolls to play with but only if there are boy dolls to play too and the game will (always) involve her Micro Machines and Transformers. It’s about really playing, without restrictions on what her role-playing society should have in it. Transformers are fun to play with, it’s as simple as that. Hugs x
Helen,
Have you also noticed that until VERY recently the girls’ toys were things like hoovers, washing machines and irons?
My mum actually complained to our local store about this and was told it was ‘just company policy’!
Twitter: @Rebeccaebrown
I’m not surprised, unfortunately. Earlier in the year they were advertising the fact that they were fundraising for a charity for Muscular Dystrophy. Showing pictures of kids in wheelchairs and using the term “devastating”. I don’t have MD but I am a life long wheelchair user and I resent the implication - what’s that doing to kids who see that, know that’s what they have or that they too use chairs for another reason and get told it’s “devastating”? I did e-mail a complaint and they responded, have you considered doing the same?
Twitter: @funkyfairy22
That’s awful! It is giving people negative terminology to use in association with MD. Glad you emailed! I will email them and see if they respond.
I’m sorry that she was upset but highly impressed by her reaction. Well done her for resisting social pressure to only like stuff ‘for girls’ and well done you as a parent!
She’s a smart kid and that’s my worry. How many children will see that advert and feel unsure about themselves as a result. They could feel that there is something wrong with themselves for not liking the toy that Tesco claims they should.
I dislike Tesco - with a passion - their unending desire for growth at the expense of so much else is vile. However, any advert that isn’t highly targeted such as TV will always play to the majority view - it needs to have a clear message, in this case (I’ve not seen it , but I’m guessing) it’s: “here’s a present idea for a boy”.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being in the minority, in fact it’s something to be celebrated. The fact that your daughter thinks differently away and from stereotypes is fantastic, as is the fact that you support it - but don’t expect commercial advertising to represent or even acknowledge that, it’s just not realistic. Adverts exist to make money, and they’ll make a lot more selling transformers to boys (or rather, people buying for boys) with a clear message than they will selling to everyone with a weak message.
Get yourself down to an independent retailer and by something different, from somebody different.
Thanks for your comment Dave. Alas I truly want commercial advertising to step away from stereotypes, but perhaps that’s because I’ve always been in the minority (or on the outside). I guess what is more worrying is that some people really won’t have an opinion on this and that’s why this form of advertising remains.
Even way back in the 60s, I played with cars as a child - though for some reason, I wasn’t allowed Lego as that was a boys’ toy! - and both of our daughters have grown up playing with train sets or Hot Wheels cars. You would think supermarkets had grown out of their narrow-minded ways by now. But do you ever see boys being allowed to play with ‘girls’ toys’? When Eldest was very small, the boy next door would come round and play with her dolls and pram - I never saw such toys at his house though. Does equality only work one way?
Twitter: @marymayf
My boys both had pushchairs and Care bears growing up, so I guess it depends on the parents. I think my daughter (being the youngest) is lucky, as she loves playing with her brothers and often comments on how much better boys toys are. Pink lego annoys me too, but let’s not start on that one…
I’ve not encountered pink lego - though most of ours belonged to Eldest with just some Harry Potter additions by Youngest. Have you seen all those Animal Hospital toys? They used to be a rather neutral colour fairly appropriate for jeeps, horse trailers, tents etc but then they had an identity crisis and everything turned PINK!
Twitter: @marymayf
Gosh, that is incredible really. I would have thought Tesco would have guarded against this sort of stereotypical nonsense. Having said that, despite being a “tom boy” myself as a child, and saying that my 8 yo daughter would “not be seen in pinks and purples” when she was a baby, now she is 8 you should see the state of her bedroom. Pink, fluff and sparkles everywhere. She wouldn’t touch a Transformer with a barge pole.
3yo son, on the other hand, is just as likely to be spotted playing with a pink tea set or feeding a “baby” in a high chair than with a car.
They’re all so different, I can’t believe Tesco would stoop to the “this is for girls, this is for boys”.
Sorry for waffling on and I am not really awake yet so I hope it makes sense.
Twitter: @RebeccaEmin
It’s the ‘this is for boys, this is for girls’ thing that has bothered me the most and that someone was paid for coming up with that idea!
Agree completely.
Twitter: @RebeccaEmin
Ah, Tesco. *sigh* I’m not surprised, weren’t they selling pole-dancing kits in the toy section a couple of years ago? I’m very impressed by your daughters reaction, though. It doesn’t make me abandon all hope!
Twitter: @ohthattanya
The world has gone mad!
Good grief, what year is it again?
Paperchase got stung earlier this year for their stationery and advertising, they brought out a range of blue shark stationery for boys and pink cookery stationery for girls, but it was their use of stereotypes from 70′s advertising which they claimed was simply retro that really got them into trouble.
Good on your littlest for having the sense to see the stupidity of this, and I hope she enjoys her transformer, I know I’m enjoying my shark notebook
Twitter: @CJDorman
Shark notebooks are gorgeous! Littlest is happily playing Transformers v dinosaurs this monring
Thanks for this - I’ll boost the signal a bit to try and get more people to complain to Tesco. Here’s their customer contact form https://www.tescohelp.com/tesco/forms/cs_form.html
I know that the ELC is justifiably getting a pasting here but way back in July, their website was marketing, among other things, nurses’ outfits at girls and doctors’ outfits at boys. Many of us complained and within a few days the ELC changed wording and apologised. I wrote about it here: http://carons-musings.blogspot.com/2010/07/early-learning-centre-apologises-and.html
Twitter: @caronmlindsay
Thanks Caron!
Have done my signal boost now….
http://carons-musings.blogspot.com/2010/10/tesco-fail-children-with-gender.html
Twitter: @caronmlindsay
Had this talk with my boys juts recently - they were really grumpy at TV ads for a clothes designing toy and a baking/cooking toy, both of which they said looked really cool - if only they weren’t BRIGHT PINK.
*grrrowl*
Twitter: @littlestuff
It’s a shame that the indie toyshops can’t always compete on price, because they can always over compensate in customer service and common sense.
Whilst our local shop, will still group the ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ themed toys together and in separate sections, there is none of the ‘labelling’ that I find so obnoxious with the larger retailers.
Twitter: @fiction_books
Advertising campaigns that support gender stereotyping are horrible. Especially from the UK’s/Worlds largest retailer. The agency that conceived these adverts need to be sacked/reprimanded by Tesco.
Twitter: @sebbywood
The advert annoyed me a great deal. The sexism was so obvious. I cannot even believe we live in modern Britain.
Bejaysus, don’t get me STARTED…. *hops onto soap box*
It’s everywhere,it’s rampant - not just TESCO…and it REALLY gets on my ‘nerves’ (not what I want to say).
I was very very lucky in that my Lovely Mum was a bit of a stealth feminist : ) and hated all that stereotyping for girls/boys with a vengeance. Consequently,as children both my sister & I had: cars,garage (loved),fashion dolls - Sindy (it was the 70′s)but never Barbie : D ‘unrealistic body shape for young girls to aspire to’ (she was right)- and a lot of making/doing stuff (lego/art & craft materials etc). Oh, and lots of books.
Growing up I never felt that any job or career was out of bounds to me. Today I am very handy on the DIY front and I am good at taking things apart and fixing them. I also love fashion,design and beautiful things : D
I am convinced that this is because I was never made to feel that I should or shouldn’t like anything BECAUSE I WAS A GIRL. I see it all around me in extended family and with my daughters school friends - this stereotyping is still RIFE - each year I try to buy my nieces something other than make up and Barbie/Disney Princess toys - because that’s all they ever get. My nephew gets the interesting stuff - Lego,history books,microscopes, books.And TESCO, you don’t help really do you?
For Xmas I have bought my Littlest: a car ramp, road and rail track, and a hammer and tool set, amongst other things. This is not to try and be anti-anything in particular. It is simply because she always makes a bee line for these things at playgroup and hammers like Handy Manny on speed with her toy hammer/pegs set at home.She does this because I allow her to be herself and I don’t restrict her to pink things that need dressing. Having said that if she wants to dress a pink thing then that’s fine too. It’s her choice.
My Eldest is getting a bike, books,lego, toy animals/playsets and board games - because that’s what she likes. She also enjoys digging in the garden and playing with tool sets too. Our neighbours looked visibly shocked that I let her do either of these things, what with her being a GIRL.
Peoples stupidity on this issue never fails to amaze and anger me. It’s as if feminism never happened. How many girls will never know that they could have been great engineers or mechanics or product designers or plumbers because they were never encouraged to show that they could be? It starts young. With Toys and play.. I’m absolutely convinced.
A fab,thought provoking post,Thankyou Ms Smailes : D
*gets down from soap box and scuttles away to hammer some pegs*
Twitter: @inawelshgarden
Spam them! We are now in the post-post modern irony age and seem to be slipping back into gender stereotypying again - and it really, but REALLY, irritates me, a father of two girls, and grandfather of two girls.
My elder grandchild, aged five, like your littlest likes anything pink; indeed, we had to buy her a cheap calculator because it was pink AND heart-shaped. But, like your littlest, her interests are far more wide ranging than ‘a little girl’ and include computer stuff I don’t understand the complexities of. So spam them and don’t apologise.
Twitter: @DavidDOCT
And to give Tesco a fair hearing in this matter, here is their response (one that has made me never want to buy a toy from them ever again!):
Dear Caroline
Thank you for your email and please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in my reply.
I’m very sorry about the way the advertisement of our Toys made your daughter feel. I fully understand your concerns in this matter and I do hope that your daughter continues to enjoy her Transformers.
Part of the reason for this advert was to give grandparents and other people present ideas for the children they may buy presents for. It was merely meant as a guide for our customers and I’m sorry that the advert was not more explicit in that.
The format of this advert is in line with our current advertising campaign where we show a number of different products one by one. As these products appear on the screen, we provide a suggestion of who may like this item, or what the item can be used for. For example, towards the end of the Summer, when we started advertising School Uniforms, our adverts followed a very similar format and showed the Uniform “for Girls” and “for Boys”.
Our new advert is a continuation of this and was not meant to cause any offence to our customers. For example, when you look at our Tesco Direct catalogue, or any of our competitor catalogues, you’ll see pictures of girls playing with traditionally “Girl Toys”, and boys playing with traditionally “Boy Toys”.
However, we are fully aware that children choose their own toys and do not fit into boxes like this, and please let me assure you that we’re not trying to say these items are “only” for one gender or another. We know that our customers are all individual, and make individual choices about the items they purchase, or in this case, the toys they play with.
Therefore, I will pass your feedback on so that this can be considered for future advertisements, as I’d never want any of our customers to feel as though we are trying to stereotype children.
I really hope that this information helps you and thank you for taking the time and trouble to get in touch with me about this. If I can help you any further in this matter, then please feel free to get back in touch with me.
If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] quoting xxxx
Kind Regards
xxxx
Customer Service Manager
Tesco Customer Service
Yes, shame indeed on Tesco and I don’t blame you for kicking off.
But shame also on a shop back in the early 90s that my friend & his wife went into when looking for a present for their eldest daughter, only to find such a thing as ‘My First Sink’.
I kid ye not.
Times have changed, but not that much judging by Tesco’s gendering of children’s toys
Twitter: @cathbore
Well at least they spelled your name right! To me, the reply is worse than their original advert. They just don’t get it.
Twitter: @caronmlindsay
Wow! The people at Tesco obviously realise how daft you and your childrens’ grandparents are; that you all need to be told what is a good idea for a Toy (with a capital ‘t’ no less!) for a child of a particular sex. After all, sex is what you’re born - gender is what you become.
Your post - and their reply - made me glad I’d read ‘Packaging Girlhood’ by Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown. I’d recommend it to anyone who is parenting girls in this crazy world.
Hazel
Twitter: @hazelklarkin
Ugh, that is so depressing, if unsurprising. I had Sindy, My Little Pony etc when I was little but I also had Star Wars and dinosaurs. If anything I think it now seems worse, at least in the 80s not absolutely everything was pink!
Twitter: @Jess_Ra
And this is say nothing of boys who want to play with ‘girls’ toys. I think they have an even harder deal. My sister and I once wanted to buy a brush and mop set for a little boy we know because that’s what he played with when he came to ours but you can feel uncomfortable buying ‘out of gender’ sometimes because of not knowing how the parents will react. So good on you Caroline for helping your little girl with this, let’s hope little boys get the same support too.
Posted to Tesco’s:
I have seen your standard reply in answer to people complaining about the gender stereotyping of small child’s interests in your latest advertisement.
‘Our new advert is a continuation of this and was not meant to cause any offence to our customers. For example, when you look at our Tesco Direct catalogue, or any of our competitor catalogues, you’ll see pictures of girls playing with traditionally “Girl Toys”, and boys playing with traditionally “Boy Toys”.’
You don’t get it, do you? What are traditional “Boy Toys” and “Girl Toys”? What makes them traditional? It used to be traditional to beat your wife if she got a bit lippy. Will you be advertising a handbook on how to beat your wife as a prompt for those ‘grandparents and other people’ who really are at a loss what to buy their son/son-in-law?
You are an enormous corporation and besides your shareholders you have a duty to the wider society. We have moved on from the fifties and need to be addressed as intelligent individuals living in an age of gender equality and opportunity.
Twitter: @DavidDOCT
Just want to say well done Caroline for speaking out. We live in a diverse society and Tescos have forgotten that. They have forgotten we are individuals; they just want robots with money.
Ideally we should boycott them, which shouldn’t be a problem for me as I’ve never liked them and my ability to hold onto a grudge is clearly shown by my 8 year boycott of McDonalds. Unfortunately in a society where money rules I understand it is not always that easy and to just use the independents, but we can try.
Well done again.
Andy
Twitter: @DecodingStatic
This was the reply I got and they have yet to follow up:
Tesco Photo
show details 21:13 (18 hours ago)
I just want to let you know that your email has successfully reached us, and we promise to be back in touch as soon as possible.
Thank you.
I just want to keep the pressure up.
Twitter: @DavidDOCT
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