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The team at building block toy company Click-A-Brick has joined the chorus of praise for United Kingdom toy retailer Smyths Toys for its recent advertisement that ignores gender stereotypes and shows a little boy dressed up as a queen, saying the commercial is a step in the right direction to eradicate harmful gender stereotypes for children and allow them to choose whatever toys they feel comfortable playing with.The 40-second computer animated commercial features a boy who daydreams what it would be like to become a toy and sings about his daydreamed adventures to the tune of Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy.” He first grows a pair of jet wings and soars into space before dropping into a pink dress onto a castle and pretending to be a queen waving to a crowd of subjects. The advertisement also shows him flying in the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, dancing in a disco and riding a motorcycle through a Smyths Toys.
It is the short segment of the boy in the dress that has garnered Smyths high praise on social media, with many people taking to Twitter to say they are happy to see an advertisement that breaks traditional gender stereotypes for children and normalizes their choice to play with whatever toy they choose.
The advertisement has reportedly been viewed several hundred thousand times on YouTube.
Spreading the message that it’s okay for boys to put on a dress and pretend to be a queen if they want to is healthy for kids, as they grow up, because it means they aren’t put into limiting gender boxes by their toys, say co-founders of building block toy company Click-A-Brick Jason Smith and Georg de Gorostiza.
“We’ve always been advocates of letting kids be kids and exploring their personalities without the limiting effects of gender stereotyping,” Smith said. “That’s why we’ve always advertised our toys, no matter what the theme of the set is, as being for both boys and girls. Our Army Defenders set can be enjoyed by girls and our Rainbowland set can be enjoyed by boys. There’s no reason that something like colors should dictate what a child is allowed to play with. It’s really the parents that are hung up on things like gender when it comes to toys. Children usually don’t care if you just let them choose what they want to play with. They’ll pick whatever interests them. As long as they’re having fun and hopefully learning something as they play, it shouldn’t make a difference if the parent thinks a toy is meant for a boy or a girl.”
Contact Info:
Name: Rob Swystun
Email: Send Email
Organization: Click-A-Brick Toys
Website: http://www.clickabricktoys.net/
Release ID: 134731
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