RIGHT NOW IS OUR TIME!
Not only is this GIRL POWER but even more, little girls are told to play with dolls so that they can be good mothers. Little boys are taught to learn how to go out in the world and build something.Both aspirations are brilliant for each gender. This GoldieBlox’s commercial shows little girls that they have no ceiling when it comes to their future.
Originally published on Chicanas.com By Crystal Lee & Qi wen Huang.
The GoldieBlox’s commercial, “Come On Bring The Toys” was presented by Intuit Inc. in 2014 and was aired during the Superbowl XLVIII. The commercial began with girls taking all of their pink toys to an empty field. After all the girls gathered at the field, they used their toys to build a rocket and blasted it into the sky. This may seem like a very innocent and cute commercial, however, there seems to be some hidden messages behind this short film. During this process, the little girls were singing, and in their lyrics they said, “Come on ditch your toys, girls make some noise, more than pink, pink, pink we want to think.” The lyrics are trying to influence all of the little girls to do more active thinking.Instead of playing with their dollhouses, teddy bears, and plastic cooking supplies, they should use their time to make inventions and be productive. They are portraying an image to society that girls use to only play with pink toys and are known to be the weaker sex. The company’s mission is that for girls to become stronger and smarter they need to be introduced to toys that help them think.
The company itself was created to target girls and get them thinking and building. The overt message is what the company wants the audience to obtain after watching the commercial. Overall, the company is trying to deliver to the audience that playing with their company’s toys will help girls become smarter. The covert message is, the meaning that is hidden in the film, depending on the audience they can read the covert messages differently. It seems like that the covert message that the company is trying to tell the audience that boys are always ahead of girls in academics, if girls wants to catch up, they would have to start early by playing with toys that helps them think. On their website, they stated that “GoldieBlox is determined to change the equation. We aim to disrupt the pink aisle and inspire the future generation of female engineers.” Those construction toys are aimed to help girls to become interested in science, math, technology and engineering at an early age. They are implying that girls are not as smart as boys, so they would need to play with construction toys in order for them to be interested in those subjects. Even though GoldieBlox’s toys are not framed with pink, it is still made with colors that are considered feminine to the public. They still use what are considered “girly” colors to attract girl’s interest and attention in order for girls to play with their toys.
An ideology is beliefs, ideas, values that reflects someone’s thoughts. The ideology is that girls have always been known to play with barbie dolls, wear dresses and work in fields that are less challenging. If girls want to become as smart as boys, they would need to put effort into playing with building toys because it would train them at an early age. This advertisement seems to reveal sexism because they are saying that girls are always the weaker ones and are not as intelligent, but it’s not necessarily true. It’s a way of telling the girls that they are not as good and capable as the boys.
Now, there is a scene in the commercial that really shocks me as a viewer, it is very quick and could go unnoticed but when brought to my attention, I could not simply ignore it. In the commercial there is a scene of little Jessica at a pageant show showing off her blue dress as the crowd awes at her. But when little Jessica notices the crowd of girls running by with their pink toys she rebels and removes the plastic tiara off her red curls. Then she jumps off the stage with joy to join the other girls. The only person who is not proud of Jessica’s choice is her mother, who you can see in the commercial, a lady, that I assume as Jessica’s mom, stands up in shock and watches as little Jessica runs away. This scene got my attention because Jessica’s mom thinks it’s okay to put her daughter in pageants and make her do ultra girly and feminine things; but that is not Jessica’s mom’s fault. Society makes parents think that if they have a daughter, their daughters have to do things girls would do and that if they have a son, their sons have to do things boys would do or it is not normal. However, what the society considers normal is actually not really normal. Parents need to understand that it is okay for their kids to want to do things out of the ordinary; you should support them. Don’t get upset or disappointed at their decisions and most important, do not discourage them to be different.
In this commercial there were only three boys presented. The first two boys where shown fixing a bicycle and having confused expressions as the girls ran by them. The other boy was shown clueless by a food stand and was slowly turning around. All these boys were either confused or clueless because society has taught these boys that it is strange when girls are rowdy and are able to voice out their opinions to the world. The way they reacted would be considered normal because of the gender norms; that both boys and girls should act in a certain way. Girls aren’t allowed to be rowdy and noisy but boys can be. Instead, girls are have to be quiet and conservative because that is how it is suppose to be for different sexes.
This commercial’s actual audience is the ones that are watching the commercials, which basically includes everyone. The commercial is targeting towards the parents with daughters and girls who are interested in constructing. They wanted to deliver a message to their audience that if they want their daughter to become a engineer, mathematician, or scientist, they would have to start at a young age. The commercial wants young girls to stop wasting their time on playing with meaningless toys and get practice by playing with toys that stimulate their brain. By buying these construction toys, they would help girls think more about building concepts, so they are able to do jobs that boys do in the future. The ignored audience would be those who are not being mention and raise to attention. In this case, the ignored audience would be male because they were not mentioned in the commercial at all, and the toys were intentionally not made for boys to play with.
Distribution is where and what time the media is being presented to its audience. The commercial was broadcasted on television during the Superbowl XLVIII but it can also be found on Youtube; a media site on the Internet. The time that it could be broadcasted would be at 3 o’clock in the afternoon when young girls are done with school and at home watching cartoons. It could be shown during the commercial breaks to get their attention. However, since it was also shown during the Superbowl, this commercial was probably aired at 6 o’clock at night in front of conservative families.
GoldieBlox is a small business that got its start from a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in 2012. Then in 2014, it won a free 30-second commercial sponsored by Intuit QuickBooks. GoldieBlox used other big companies power/resources to help promote their own small business. Power/resources is who or how they used their surroundings to be able to present their text or message to others. Kickstarter is a site that funds creative projects. Projects, big or small, get direct support from people who are interested in other people’s creative ideas. Since 2009, 80,000 creative projects have been funded through the site. Intuit Inc. is a company that creates business and financial management solutions for small businesses. Some of their flagship products are QuickBooks, TurboTax, Quicken, and Mint. Besides getting help from these big named companies, Goldieblox has many sponsors. Some of their sponsors are PlayKids, NCFL (National Center for Families Learning), kidSAFE, Women In TOYS, and many other companies or organizations that revolve around children.
The GoldieBlox ad sends a very important message to young girls and their mission is empowering. Their commercial clearly shows them breaking down regular gender norms of what young girls should be playing with as kids. For young girls to achieve their true potential, this commercial deserves all the attention it is getting because girls need to know that they should be allowed to have more choices besides playing with dolls and being princesses.
By Crystal Lee & Qi wen Huang
Footnote: This page describes the original 30 second video that is no longer available because it was set to private, so we had to include the 50 second uncut version instead.
