Are Boys Are Girls Really That Different? Gendered Advertising Re-Mixer Says “No”

Children are subjected to a stereotyped image all around the world and the US is no exception. Girls are expected to choose bright colors like pink and orange, whilst boys opt for black and blue. Girls play with Barbie Dolls and boys with toy soldiers and guns. There is a conventional thread that is both regressive and distasteful, that sets social and emotional values expected of both boys and girls.

The US advertisement industry bombards children with around 25,000 Television commercials each year. Implanted in those ads are messages that imbed themselves in the fertile and vulnerable minds of the children about how they are expected to behave, what is expected of them and what is the right thing for them to eat, drink, wear and play with.

The new “Gendered Advertising Re-mixer” created by political remix artist Jonathan McIntosh, has been designed to help children overcome the effects and consequences of the “billion dollar marketing machine.” McIntosh said, “I think a remix video can be a simple and humorous way to expose the completely absurd levels of gender stereotyping found in many television commercials.”

The aim of the Gendered Advertising Re-mixer is to allow both girls and boys to comprehend the, exceedingly gendered, messages that the TV advertisers are targeting them with and to deconstruct them and reconstruct them creatively. It empowers them to see for themselves the options available and to choose what is good for them, instead of allowing business people with profit-making acumen to dictate living terms to them.

The remixing tool provides an uncomplicated way to “re-combine audio from ads directed at boys with video from ads directed at girls (and vice versa) to create hilarious and insightful new mash-ups. A series of educational resources and materials are also currently being developed for teachers to use alongside this remixing tool.”

The toy or re-mixer if you like, allows the user to mix up two ads, one targeting a boy and the other a girl. The results are not only hilarious and entertaining, but also an eye opener of how obsessed we are with boys behaving as boys and girls as one. This masculine and feminine separation is something that we encourage and promote and this is clearly illustrated by the mashup ads.
The Gendered Advertising Re-mixer does effectively manage to convey that we do need to parent boys and girls differently.