Gender Stereotypes

Toys R Us advertises for NERF showing a picture of a young girl aiming with a toy gun and a young boy playing with a baby doll. The ad with the girl shows different kinds of nerf toy guns, however, the ad with the boy shows an image of what is included with the doll with the caption “Love N Care”. Toys are not gender specific, therefore children should not be obligated to pertain to same-sex toys.

The intended audience for this advertisement are parents of young children. The image of the young boy and girl is an example of gender stereotype. Most people are used to seeing girls with girl toys and boy with boy toys, however in this case, it is switched. Furthermore, this advertisement is aimed at stereotypical people. The kids are not only playing with opposite gender toys, but they seem to be enjoying themselves. This implies that there are no specific toys for either genders, toys are for everyone: boy or girl.

The advertisement uses pathos because we feel empathy toward the kids. They are enjoying themselves and are happy with what they are playing with. The young boy is also showing emotional connection with the baby doll as if it was a human baby. They young girl is not mad about having to play with a toy gun, so why should we? If they are happy then we should be happy as well. Juxtaposition is