November 2: Rose Petal Cottage
Holy moly. Today's thought-provoking little link comes from Michael:
...Really?
I'm trying not to call the kettle black here, as I work in youth advertising, but this commercial really surprised me. I don't play the Super Feminist role by any stretch, but this is one of the most saccharine spots I've seen in some time... as Michael points out, "Taking care of my home is a dream, dream, dream"?
"For little girls with big dreams"... dreams, apparently, of doing laundry, baking muffins and raising children.
To play the devil's advocate, I'll bet this commercial works. I mean, the product is cute, and playing house probably dates back to cavetweens. (Really, Blogger? "Cavetween" isn't a word?) I just wish we could tell young girls that their muffins don't have the be the best, best, best.
P.S. As an unrelated bonus that couldn't wait until tomorrow: Facebook might be acquiring music, in a similar fashion to MySpace. How do we feel about this?
5 Comments:
More Devil's Advocate:
All commercials are pointed to a specific audience. This audience happens to be the little girls who have the domestic gene. And it's not as though there was a little boy in the armchair in a wife-beater that she was handing a muffin to.
Some little girls will be very turned off by this toy, and rightly so for the future execs of our world... but that doesn't mean that the girls who do dream of domesticity should be punished for doing so.
November 02, 2007
Excellent point, Brianna. I know, and am related to, girls who would love stuff like this. I just find it a little hard to swallow.
November 02, 2007
I think if I was in advertising (and especially kids' advertising!), I'd find it hard sometimes to play to the people who are more likely to want to buy something but also not perpetuate stereotypes.
It did seem like a sickeningly sweet commercial, though-- kind of a pink and purple overload, and the song and voice singing it were very... *hugglesy*. :)
November 02, 2007
to me, it begs the question: why not just do the actual laundry?
November 02, 2007
I'm guessing there are some fathers out there who wouldn't appreciate the pink shirts that will occur when a little one does the laundry.
November 02, 2007
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