The Christmas season, in addition to nougat, grapes and cava, brings toy advertisements, an area in which persist some of the irreducible sexist clichés, although these are becoming less or more blurredthanks to the agreement between the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the toy industry, which has fully come into force this campaign.
He covenantin which the body in charge of self-regulation of advertising, Autocontrol, also participates, is intended to ensure that toy advertisements are egalitarianso that children are not always directed to games related to war or associated with heroes or to the intelligence and girls are linked to the traditional roles of housekeepers or stylists.
Parity increases in advertising but it does so especially in products aimed at a male audience: it is easier to see a girl playing with cars than a boy with dolls
This is a regulatory code “unpublished” in the European Union and that all toy retailers belonging to the European Union must comply with. Spanish Association of Toy Manufacturerswhich are 80%, so the compliance this Christmas is being “high”according to Maite Frenchmarketing director of the employer.
“The data for 2022 was already very positive and the indications are that the results of the current campaign will be even better”
Bibiana Medialdea, General Secretary of Consumer Affairs
Bibiana Medialdeageneral secretary of Consumption and playfrom the Ministry of Social Rights, confirms that the data from the 2022 campaign, when the entry into force of the agreement was partial, were already “very positive” and “the indications are that, most likely, the results of the current Christmas campaign will be even better.” This shows, in his opinion, that “public policies are going in the right direction.”
The strictness of the code has caused an increase in advertisements in which no child’s face appears
The Communication Users Association (AUC), which together with the government Department of Consumer Affairs is the entity that is responsible for monitoring the code, clarifies that there are “progress” but also “resistances”in the words of Alejandro Peralesyour president.
For example, the AUC carried out an evaluation of the 2022 campaign – when the code was not yet fully applied -, compared to the last three campaigns, and they saw “significant changes” towards parity, as shown by the fact that the co-presence of boys and girls in advertising grew from 33-35% to 53%, but these variations are occurring above all in toys traditionally intended for children. children.
He fundamental changeThe thing is that more girls now appear in advertisements for action toys, outdoors or board games. It is more common to see a girl playing soccer or dressed up as a superhero or scientist, but it is more difficult to find a boy who plays games.kitchenettes‘, with dolls or beauty games.
The fundamental change is that more girls now appear in advertisements for action toys, outdoor toys or board games.
Specifically, in last year’s campaign, 65% of the spots aimed at imitating household chores still featured girls and it is a trend that is decreasing but that is also visible in the present campaignof which Consumo and the AUC are collecting detailed data to prepare a definitive report when it is finished.
“When boys appear in girls’ toys, it is usually in a secondary function, as if it were not its natural environment. That is a resistance that we found in the 2022 campaign and that we are analyzing to see if it continues,” explains Perales.
Without children
Likewise, they have observed that as the code is so strict in the need to demonstrate parity and also the diversity present in society (where people of different races and abilities coexist), which is causing an increase in advertisements where not shown to anyone or you only see hands playing, without identifying whether they are boys or girls. “It seems that this route is being chosen to avoid gender problems, but we have to confirm it with the final analysis,” adds the president of the Association of Communication Users.
Indeed, a look at some of the catalogs of the main department stores allows us to see that most of the toys are shown without the face of a boy or girl to interact with them.
More subtle resistance persists, related, for example, to the person making the speech.
At the same time, more subtle resistances persist, related to the person carrying out the locution. For example, in the advertising videos for Nancy de Aitana, Nancy Super Melena or Barbie Dreamtopia Dancer, some of the best-selling toys this year, the person who narrates the benefits of the doll is a clearly female voicealthough in two of them only hands are seen and in the third a boy and a girl, excited along with the doll.
Perales interprets that the advances are located above all in the area aimed at male children due to the trajectory followed by the feminist struggle, which initially strove to incorporate women into all areas. “The gender equality discourse has been very focused on empowerment of women and everyone has a strong assumption that girls play soccer or participate in games of skill or intelligence, but we have to work more with men and families because many still find it difficult to accept that their children play with kitchenettes or with paint your nails,” she reflects.
“We are still in a deeply patriarchal system and advertising is another element of segregation”
Image Observatory of the Women’s Institute
Reflection and self-criticism
Therefore, the underlying problem is not the advertisements, but the society. “Advertising is a socialization tool that perpetuates and reinforces the system. We are still in a deeply patriarchal and advertising is one more element of segregation. In the case of toys, it is about establishing behavioral guidelines that reproduce behavior traditionally attributed based on sex,” indicates the Image Observatory of the Women’s Institutewhich in 2020 published a study that provided data on sexism in the toy sector and concluded that it favors “the perpetuation of roles that promote inequality and discrimination Women’s”.
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This institution blames the reluctance to parity in the advertising field that an intense “structural change” is needed. In the 30 years of the Observatory’s existence, they add, “the most complex thing has been leading the industry to reflection and self-criticism” and, the simplest thing, “contributing to generating a critical view among citizens”, which now presents more complaints about sexist advertising.
From the university level, Pau Crespodirector of the master’s degree in interdisciplinary intervention in gender violence, corroborates that “in society itself there is a sexist substrate and those stereotypes that begin to be socialized before birth, continue after birth and at the moment in which the play space is essential.” Furthermore, he adds, for toy makers their objective is “obtaining maximum benefits”, hence “they try to take advantage of that differentiating substrate that exists in society.” “They know that there are many parents who are going to respond to this differentiation and promote the discriminatory game,” she concludes.