Differences in Children’s Toy Commercials

In my communications class on Children in Media, one topic we discussed was on how media, such as toy advertisement, target different audiences based on preferences that are typically associated with gender. To attract the attention of the target audience, we can tell that some elements of the commercials are chosen deliberately by the producers. For instance, one very clear example would be the colors used in the commercials. Vibrant colors, such as pink and yellow, are typically used in commercials targeted towards girls, while commercials for toy targeted to boys have greater use of black along with red and blue.

In the commercials targeted to girls, they would usually show young girls playing with the toys together. There is a sense of harmony in the commercial as we can see the girls playing together with cheerful, upbeat music. The person narrating the commercial is most likely a young girl too.

However, many toy commercials targeted to boys will show the boys playing competitively against each other accompanied with music that is more heavy on drums to show a sense of coolness in the boys depicted. However, there are also commercials that would like to attract other kids outside of their target audience, they often do so by combining the characteristics typically found in ads that specifically target one gender. They can do so by showing more diversity in the cast of children playing with the toys, and using a more neutral color scheme.

The choice of music, colors, and cinematography used in these commercials is related to our awareness of our audience for our designs. Because certain elements will attract the attention of different people, it is important to keep in mind what our audience would like to see to convey our messages most effectively.