LEGO apologizes for catcalling: Hey babe, females aren't playthings!
One week we鈥檙e reading about the outrage of Victoria's Secret marketing sexually suggestive memos on girls鈥� bottoms and a short while later the news is all about LEGO toys building a sexist, degrading, catcalling vocabulary into the stickers for its toys. It makes me want to whistle at the next manufacturer headed to a marketing conference and shout, 鈥淗ey babe! Stop treating females as playthings.鈥�
ABC News reports that,听Josh Stearns, father of two young sons living in western Massachusetts, posted photos of a set of听LEGO听stickers on his Tumblr听听featuring a typical LEGO hard-hatted construction worker waving at an unseen passersby, shouting "Hey babe!"
As the mom of four sons who has spent the last 19 years stepping on the little blocks and prying mini men out of my vacuum, vents, and clothes dryer, I feel as if I鈥檓 banging my head against the LEGO brick wall. Didn鈥檛 I just recently praise LEGO for girl-friendly sets? They blew it that fast?
Well, they didn鈥檛 actually blow it听that听fast, because a closer look at the ABC story does show that the stickers in question were discontinued in 2010. According to ABC,听Charlotte Simonsen, senior director at听LEGOs听corporate communications office in Denmark, e-mailed Mr. Stearns telling him the stickers had been licensed by a company called Creative Imagination, and had been discontinued in the summer of 2010. Creative Imagination听operations in December of 2012.
That doesn鈥檛 let LEGO off the marketing hook. Instead, it is a teachable moment for any manufacturer hoping to continue to sell to parents: Bad decisions can haunt a product. The stickers may have been discontinued several years ago, but the product bearing them is still on shelves.
That鈥檚 why toy manufacturers need to be more vigilant when screening their marketing and design staff and their decisions. It鈥檚 because moms like me write blogs like this when dads like Stearns reject an iconic brand and throw the product into the Tumblr.
"It was so ridiculous that they would be putting this out there for kids," Stearns told ABC News. On Tumblr, Stearns wrote that he was 鈥渄isappointed鈥� in the brand for it鈥檚 choice to put that kind of attitude-laced toy out there for kids.
LEGO, you have one of the most wholesome, intellectual, and parent-approved toys on the planet and you went there?鈥�
When Stearns wrote to another LEGO executive asking about licensing, he received a response from听Andrea Ryder, the head of the LEGO outbound licensing department, according to ABC.
"I am truly sorry that you had a negative experience with one of our products," Ms. Ryder wrote, adding "we would not approve such a product again."
Oh from Ryder鈥檚 e-mail to marketing鈥檚 ears, I would love to believe that is true. I鈥檝e seen the San Diego听Legoland听building-block sculpture of the female firefighter to the LEGO version of collagen puffed kissers.听
I recently praised LEGO for finally expanding the gender segregated Friends themed blocks for offering a scientist and veterinarian. I overlooked the pink and purple color themes for the blocks in these sets. While LEGOS do promote STEM skills, something parents want for their girls, the company has consistently failed miserably to integrate female characters into traditionally male-dominated professional roles.
These sets stay on shelves and are handed-down or re-sold for decades and their biases and bad ideas go with them all the way.
Sure, you can peel off a sticker or buy a 鈥渂oys鈥欌�� set for your girl and mix and match until you work out the stereotypical kinds the manufacturer has built into the products.
However, if I ran a toy company that was fueled by imagination, I鈥檇 make sure that it was a higher-grade, richer mix in the first tank that鈥檚 factory installed. I鈥檇 rather see LEGO sets driven by something I don鈥檛 have to spend so much time repairing socially with my sons.
