This 2014 Lego commercial shows a girl playing with Lego bricks. A girl’s voiceover talks about how she should be encouraged to imagine, create, and explore, and she is shown playing with a female lego character, flying a lego helicopter in front of a lego castle, operating on a stuffed animal on a lego operating table, creating mazes, putting on a shadow puppet show, and building a lego house.

discussion

Lego has been critiqued for only marketing and targeting their products towards boys, and then being stereotypically limited when trying to market to girls. In what ways is this commercial trying to address these critiques? Do you think it is successful?

When you think of legos, do you think they are for a certain gender to play with? Where do you think your associations came from? How are toys divided by gender?

How can you tell who a toy is being marketed to? Are there certain colors associated with gender? Certain professions or roles? How are they used in this commercial?

Why do commercials and other media matter when thinking about who can play with which toys? How does stating and perpetuating gendered divisions of who can and should play with what kinds of toys potentially shape girls and boys into the adults they will become?