This “word cloud” was created a writer named Crystal Smith and posted on her blog “The Achilles effect”. The author analyzed 27 different commercials from several leading toy brands marketed toward boys — including Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Kung Zhu, Nerf, Transformers, Beyblades, and Bakugan. She then created this image based on the 658 words that were used in these commercials. The larger the word in the “word cloud”, the more often it is used.

See the original post here.

discussion

What types of words are featured most prominently in these toy ads for boys? Based on these findings, what types of messages do you think are being sent by toy companies about what it means to “be a boy”? Do you think the types of toys boys play with matter for their development as a person? Why or why not?

Compare this to the Girl Toys Wordle. What primary differences do you see? What are the implications of these differences for the behavior and perceptions of boys and girls?