After over a decade of marketing to boys, Lego decided they needed to lure in the other 50% of the population which specifically targets the female gender. So they came up with a new line of toys just for girls called Lego LadyFigs. Women’s rights activists are protesting the release of Lego LadyFigs claiming they are demeaning to the female population.
After 4 years of marketing research, Lego realized they needed to focus attention to the other half of the population that is made up of girls in order to increase their sales.They decided to come up with a new line of toys that would cater to the female gender. With that in mind they came up with a female version of their popular Lego building sets called LadyFigs.
However there is big controversy surrounding the release of Lego Ladyfigs. Feminists groups are protesting calling them “sexist”. The outdated gender roles consist of miniature Barbie type figurines that spend their time in beauty parlors, lounging on the beach, shopping and then relaxing in a hot tub, all decked out in plenty of pink. And if that isn’t enough to cause an outrage, the toy environments come with no assembly required, eliminating what would be a little girl’s imagination. That’s why two women named Bailey Shoemaker-Richards and Stephanie Cole started a petition telling Lego to stop this gender stereotyping madness. The petition is gaining more and more popularity by the minute. You can find this petition online at Change.org which has currently gathered approximately 30,000 signatures and still climbing.
People are outraged and want Lego to lose this particular line of toys and go back to "empowering both boys and girls with its original product” such as the 1980s when the company was commended when a young girl and her lego creation was spotlighted in their advertisement campaign. The tagline read “What it is is beautiful”. Since then Lego resorted back to marketing to boys only. If Lego is only showing boys on their packaging and in their advertisements then why would a girl think that Legos were meant for them?
What do you think? Is Lego “selling out girls”?
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