Childrens Marketing

& Diversity:
How it shapes our lives
 The Experiment

Who: Me - Moorpark College Student

What: Surveying childrens marketing

When: Peak time for holiday shopping

Where: Local toy stores

Why: To show the impact of marketing on

childrens learning and understanding of

diversity
 Prior Research &
Statistics
The NAEYC defines culture as explicit and implicit values,
beliefs, and patterns of behavior that are passed on from
generation to generation.

According to Elizabeth Sweet, Toys are more divided now

than they were 50 years ago.

Only 13% of engineers are female.

Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective states that applying

gender roles implies that all people can be conveniently
placed into unambiguous either-or categories. Gender is an
achieved status because it must be learned.
 My Hypothesis:
Upon visiting two widely known toy
stores, the childrens marketing
displays will prove to exacerbate
designated gender roles and limit
childrens knowledge of diversity in
society.
Location #1: Target
Little to no diverse toys
Doc McStuffins is a
cartoon on Disney
Junior that promotes
both diversity and
feminism

HOWEVER, this was

the only product
line that promoted
diversity throughout
the entire toy section
in Target
Gender bias is rampant
The image to the left clearly
shows what the company
believes are boys and girls
backpacks

The boy backpacks are boy

colors and promote
superheroes and violence

The girl backpacks are girl

colors and promote
princesses and non-violent
kindness

I did not see any gender

neutral backpacks in the
entire display
 The only brand to
promote positive,
feminist ideals was
Barbie
Toys marketed to
boys did NOT promote
gender equality
Toys marketed to
girls DID promote
gender equality
Location #2: GameStop
Video games
The image (left) is
representative of what
the entire store looks
like

Every game that I saw

promoted violence

The only games that

had a female on the
cover were sexualized
Sexualized Marketing

The only two products

depicting females are
highly sexualized

By sexualizing females,
they are marking the
products to males

GameStop has a clear

marketing demographic
 Conclusion

Both stores have clear demographics that they market

towards

Target is slightly more diverse in both race and gender

GameStop promotes incredible violence and sexualizes

the female body

Both stores proved my hypothesis to be true: Target and

GameStop exacerbate designated gender roles and limit
childrens knowledge of diversity in society
 What I Learned
Even though it is 2016 and many people
are becoming more open-minded, non-
biased and gender neutral, there is still
an incredible amount of discrimination
and marketing tactics that show society,
as a whole, cares more about making
money than the impact of their choices
on our children.
 Weve begun to raise daughters more
like sons but few have the courage
to raise our sons more like daughters.

Gloria Steinem
 Sources

Lindsey, Linda L. Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective. 6th ed. Boston:

Pearson, 2015. Print.

Bredekamp, Sue. Effective Practices in Early Childhood Education: Building a

Foundation. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2017. Print.