Children Advertisements And Gender Stereotypes

This post 1st appeared on Parentous

Most of the topics I write about here are arrived at courtesy a heated discussion on my blog. Recently, something caught my attention and I started thinking and researching about it. Television is flooded with advertisement, whatever channel/program you watch you have to sit through loads of ads.

Kids sure get influenced by these, for instance my 2.5 year old eats Oreo the way they eat in the Oreo advt… Twist – lick – dunk. That’s when her TV viewing is limited to 1 hour (which includes YouTube and DVDs).  So you see, soon my Little Ms. Z will start asking for things she sees in advertisements. I have a lot of problems with these advertisements, especially ones featuring (targeting) kids.

I was recently at a Fast Food Joint with my nephew; I overheard a little girl of around 5-6 years telling her mom… “Ma, why did they give me a pink car in the kiddie surprise? I like blue… Oh they gave it to me because I’m a girl…” These gender stereotypes are engraved in the mindset of not only our society but world over. Advertisements ensure these gender stereotypes are engraved in the minds of little children from the time they start thinking & reacting.

Read the entire post here.

After I finished writing this post, I saw this video and this little girl Riley expresses what I want to over here. When she can understand why can't some of us.