‘Tis now the season: sugar, spice and everything nice is the recipe for not only little girls and mulled wine, but also a hearty yuletide advert. John Lewis’ snowmen made the debut performance; funny how an icy embrace can warm the heart so. And of course, the heart strings are directly connected to the purse strings, so the industry has cracked the formula of a persuasive Christmas ad. But this Barclaycard ad took the sugar-and-spice formula a bit too seriously. Despite what you may think, Barclaycard, the recipes make up little boys and little girls do NOT influence what toys they want to get. That comes down to traditional gender roles – and that’s “roles”, not the pastry kind.
As an advert that seems relatively well thought through (I could’ve been entirely persuaded by the “flipping dogs” quip), it’s surprising that they could muddy the Barclays reputation further still. The father is shopping for his son’s present, when a Barbie approaches. Now, it’s already a dangerous area to slip in “they’re plastic” as an implied reason to disregard her flirting, but they then follow into the shark-infested waters of “on your bike dolly, it’s for his son”. Here is a newsflash, Barclays: there are no toys that are intrinsically boyish or girly. By perpetuating views like this, children are still discouraged from associating with things outside their gender frame. We still live in a world where boys can be punished for dressing up as girly things, and parents consult psychiatrists if they see their girls as “tomboys”. We have enough gender-related restrictions inflicted on adults; the very least we can do is not pass them on to children.
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