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Clarke's Law for Girls' Toys
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Computers, electronics, mechanics, and alkaline batteries—and more!—allow toys to do amazing things. Toy companies are well aware of this. But how they market the tricks and devices the toys use depends on whether the toy is meant for boys or girls. If it's for boys, then the technology in the toy will be prominent in the advertising. The design of the toy and its description in commercials will suggest bleeding-edge technology. "*batteries not included" will be displayed relatively prominently. If it's for girls, then it's time to break out the fairy dust. Even the need for batteries is hidden in fine print. Everything the toy does is attributed to magic, transformation, "really being alive", or other mysterious powers rather than technology. The girls in the commercials will act overawed and amazed as toys make flowers appear, cars drive, and dolls move, dance, eat, change clothes, transform, and talk in response to voice commands. Not every advertising campaign uses the trope. For example, the 1980s Jem toy line which had Synergy, a hologram-making super-computer. Another was the 2000s line of GirlTech products, which made up for their open high-techness by being very, very pink. This is by no means a hard and fast rule, however. In fact, the pure and simple reason for this trope seems to be that most toys for girls are supposed to mimic something living, such as babies or animals. Meanwhile, most boys' toys have historically been based on machinery such as vehicles or weapons, and—barring certain noteworthy exceptions—there's no need to convince boys that their new RC car or toy blaster gun is a sentient creature. When a product aimed at boys does imitate something living, it's also treated as "alive." For example, Mattel's "D-rex" is an interactive robotic dinosaur, aimed mostly at boys, whose advertisements made it out to be a living creature. This trope has been around for decades, going as far back as the creation of plastic baby bottles that "magically" have the doll drink the juice or milk inside and then "refill"—when the actual mechanism is that the hollow bottle has liquid channels and the liquid flows to hide behind the bottle nipple when the bottle is inverted. Compare Mother Nature, Father Science, Women Are Wiser, Pink Product Ploy, Doing in the Scientist. |
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The Generation Three My Little Pony ponies initially came with magnets in one front hoof that allowed the pony to interact with extra playsets, which was never explained in advertising. The magnets were later removed after reports of consumers fretting over magnets and some ponies ruining older CRT TVs and computer monitors by having been displayed on top of them. | |
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| Clarke's Law for Girls' Toys / int_8124a34e | comment |
Frequently in the Barbie line, often when it comes to clothes changes or actions. Clothes "magically" transform from one look to another, Barbie "really" talks, etc. For example, the quickly discontinued Growing Up Skipper from the 1970s could rotate her arm to "instantly" grow up from a child to an teenager—the arm rotation stretched the torso up and out over hidden breast molds underneath the flexible plastic. | |
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A non-toy example is found in the ballet dancing video Bella Dancerella, where Bella uses magic to make the ballet equipment appear and change costumes. | |
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
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Advertising Tropes | |
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Laws and Formulas | |
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Stereotype | |
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Toy Tropes | |
| Bella Dancerella / int_2c22e12b | type |
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| My Little Pony (Gameloft) (Video Game) / int_2c22e12b | type |
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| Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (Webcomic) / int_2c22e12b | type |
Clarke's Law for Girls' Toys |
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