-------------- Original message --------------

From: "Hasbro Consumer Affairs"

Recently you submitted a question to our Consumer Affairs team. Below is a summary of your question and our response.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

Subject Rose Petal Cottage and Tonka Trucks ads

Customer (M M) 10/31/2007 11:54 AM

To whom it may concern:

Your advertisements for these products are extremely offensive. Playing house is shown to be a girl's dream while making a mess of the house is a boy's compulsion. More to the point, with more than half the mothers in this country working at least part time, to suggest that the biggest dream a girl can have is to keep house and that boys have no impluse control is dangerously limiting for both boys and girls.

Boys grow into men who have families and jobs and responsibilities. To embed in their consciousness that they don't have to pay attention to the world around them, that someone - the girl who grew up with the Rose Petal Cottage ideal, perhaps?- will tolerate poor behavior is not only regressive, but it impairs both genders ability to see each other as equals. I thought we'd gotten past these sexist identifications long ago, but not at Hasbro.

Instead of Hasbro products, we will buy the bright kitchen for Jack because he likes cooking and wooden trucks and real, kid sized garden tools for Maggie and Molly, both of whom love playing in the dirt.

MM

San Francisco, CA

Discussion Thread Response (Veronica) 10/31/2007 02:52 PM

Hi M,

Thank you so much for your recent inquiry about our marketing strategy on Tonka. As the mother of a 3 and a half year old girl, I can certainly understand the fun and wonder when a little girl or little boy breaks "stereotype" and plays with non-traditional toys. My daughter is totally into Spiderman, and I LOVE IT!

As a family organization we are committed to finding exciting and appropriate play experiences for boys and girls of all ages, and if you log on to our website at www.hasbrotoyshop.com , I am sure you will find many toys that are both gender neutral as well as gender specific.

The gender specific toys help to build confidence and create wonderful bonding experiences amongst both parents of same sex children and amongst the children who they relate with most.

Specifically on Tonka, there are essentially two reasons why we choose to market Tonka to boys. In all of our research, the overwhelming majority of Tonka interest is with little boys. Further, we have scores of research that tell us about the psychological differences between boys and girls and how they play. In fact, there is some recent research that explains how this can actually be traced back to the actual biology and chemistry in the brain. This research proves to us that while there will be girls who defy these studies, the marketing is best targeted to boys and moms of little boys.

Our Rose Petal Cottage was specifically designed with little girls in mind. We wanted to break the mold, so to speak, by designing a premium environment made with high quality fabric and fiber board construction to give little girls a beautiful place of their own to imagine and play.

Based on our research, the number one “pretend environment” for girls is playing home and pretending to be “the mommy”. While we understand that roles have evolved and Gen Y families brings dad more to the forefront in taking an active role in parenting and in the household; girls are the dominant gender when it comes to the play patterns of cooking /feeding and nurturing babies/animals. That said; our recognition and understanding of the interest many boys take in home care role play is what led us to develop items such as the Cool Crew vacuum that are “gender neutral”.

Thank again for your concern and interest, and I hope this letter helps to shed some light on our marketing strategy.

My Very Best,

Angie Salem

Director of Marketing, Tonka brand

Hasbro, Inc.

Veronica Donofrio

Consumer Affairs Representative

******************************

Dear Ms.Salem,

Thank you for your response to my concerns. However, your argument for sexist advertising is that biology is destiny. Girls play house and boys play with trucks because it is what they are driven to do by biochemistry and genetics. While gender difference is real, the popular perception that difference separates us in unbreachable ways is completly false. I would be interested to know what scientific studies indicate such a thing.

While there are biological differences between the genders, there is no evidence that they determine social roles. What does determine social roles is societal pressure, of which advertising is a major influence. Your example, about your daughter loving Spiderman, and putting the word, stereotype, inside quotation marks confuses me.

Do you mean that stereotyes do not exist, despite Hasbro's subscription to and promotion of them? Or, do you see the difficulty in breaking away from traditional models of social roles? I cannot help but wonder if you would be equally excited if your son loved the Easy Bake Oven and was fascintated with Dora the Explorer rather than Dora's pal, Diego or Tonka trucks.

Your notion that toys are gender specific is appalling. While medical instruments may be gender specific, and some items are scaled to different body types, playthings spark imagination. Toys that limit the imagination to circumscribed social roles douse the fire of ingenuity and reinforce unhealthy attitudes.

M. M.