A handy web app called the Gendered Advertising Remixer mashes toy commercials together, tweaking the concept of "girls' stuff" and "boys' stuff" – with often-hilarious results.
"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," said Jonathan McIntosh, the 32-year-old San Francisco "pop culture hacker" who created the app.
The Gendered Advertising Remixer, which comes in Flash and HTML5 versions, is a simple tool that allows users to pair audio from a commercial for a toy made for girls with video from an ad spot aimed at boys (or vice versa). The results are intended to help people break down "regressive embedded gender messages" in the advertising, McIntosh said in an e-mail to Wired.
McIntosh posted a beta version of the Gendered Advertising Remixer last year, but has since made improvements. The tool currently boasts 40 commercials that can be remixed into some 800 combinations. There's even a specialized Lego version, released earlier this month, that allows the Pepto-colored, geared-for-girls Lego Friends commercials to be remixed with ads for Lego collections aimed at dudes (Star Wars, Atlantis, etc.).
The latest iteration of the Gendered Advertising Remixer couldn't come at a better time. Lego has been coming under serious fire for its Lego Friends line's stereotypical targeting of young girls. After a – video of a young girl saying toy companies were trying to "trick girls into buying the pink stuff" went viral around the holidays, the topic has been in the air (although McIntosh notes he hasn't "seen this criticism translate into any real change in advertising practices").
Jeffrey Hall, a communications professor at the University of Kansas whose research focuses on gender, said the Gendered Advertising Remixer could get the attention of parents who might not be thinking too much about what the commercials their kids watch are implanting in their brains. Even if the mashup maker is never seen by the people who could benefit from it most – kids, ages 5 and up – it can provide media literacy in an entertaining way, Hall said.
"Until you actually see these two things mapped onto one another, you don't see how much gender segregation happens in advertising, and in children's media," Hall said.
Check out all three of the Gendered Advertising Remixer apps here, then hit the comments and let us know which toy mashup is your favorite.
