Lego Advertising Essay

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Recommended: Gender differences and stereotyping

All children love to play with good toys, and Lego company has always been one of the best representatives of the toy market. At the same time, there is a recent alarming tendency to produce toys that are aimed to support specific gender stereotypes. Analyzing the way advertising of Lego toys changed from 1980s to modern day, it is possible to trace the path of stereotyping in regards to gender. Through a Lego advertisement from the 1980s, and the modern-day Lego commercials “LEGO Build Together: House” and “Heartlake Shopping Mall-Lego Friends,” we see how the Lego advertisements have regressed from using gender-neutral marketing to gender-specific marketing through the use of gender-specific activities and colors. The Lego ads from the 1980s …show more content…

For example, Text 1 is a Lego advertisement from 1981 that depicts both boys and girls playing together using the same toys. The prominent colors of the ad, brown and yellow, tend to be considered gender neutral. Also, the children are both wearing gender-neutral clothing of jean fabric. Although the airplanes are generally masculine toys, the girl is also playing with the airplane. Both children are enjoying the toy equally. In the 1980s, society thought of boys and girls as separate entities. They thought boys had to be a certain type and girls a certain type. Factually, this advertising was playing the role of unification and finding something common for boys and girls. The ad undermined the cultural assumption about distinct gender roles by having the children play together with the same toy. By doing this, the ad shows the children are not as different from each other as society …show more content…

The activities of planting a tree and building a house are typically considered masculine because the activity is dirty hard labor which is thought to be contrary to femininity. There is an impressive house with a garden and mill displayed in the advertisement, the father and son are depicted creating it from the ground up. The general message of the advertisement is based on the concept of the house as a castle for the man, a son-and-father creation. The commercial shows that building a house is an exceptional prerogative of a man by saying, “Well done, gentlemen!” Also, the visual element of the advertisement is aimed at demonstrating stereotypically masculine traits, like the ability of planning, represented through the complicated structure of the house (see link one). This advertisement aims to make son and father closer but in order for their closeness not to be perceived as feminine the advertisement is narrated by a rather gruff male voice, talking about the role of the house for each man and praising the building skills of the male characters, emphasizing their masculinity. The ad is oriented towards boys and what society deems appropriate activities for

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