On Yahoo!, a mom of a 6-year-old-male brony's response to FIM's marketing

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

 

The announcement of a My Little Pony movie is great news for kids like my 6-year-old son, who loves the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Now approaching its fifth season on the Hub/Discovery Family, the character-driven show is clever, compassionate, and woven with subtle pop-culture references ranging from Saved by the Bell to Sunday in the Park With George. As a result, Friendship attracts a diverse audience, including boys of all ages. Countless trend stories and a recent documentary have chronicled the rise of “bronies,” male fans ages 13 and up who are openly obsessed with the series. (Men aged 18-49 made up 10 percent of the season 3 premiere audience, according to Nielsen.) But the young boys who watch the show, and who are closer in age to its intended audience, tend to be ignored by Hasbro. It’s clear in the marketing: The backpacks and notebooks are pink, the T-shirts are sized for girls, and the toys invariably come with hairbrushes. With the movie, Hasbro has a chance to make amends and embrace its boy fans. But will it?

 

Conventional wisdom has it that children’s entertainment with a central male character can cross gender lines, while movies or TV shows with a central female character will appeal only to girls. A majority of popular children’s movies thus abide by this rule: The Harry Potter and Shrek franchises, The Lego Movie,and most Pixar films have male heroes. (The major exception is the Disney princess films, which we’ll discuss in a moment.) Furthermore, most of these movies take place in predominantly male worlds, with only a small handful of female characters appearing onscreen. Transferred to the big screen, the universe of animals in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic would be an anomaly. All six of the show’s main characters are female ponies. While a few notable supporting characters are male, the fictional nation of Equestria is predominantly populated by female ponies. For someone like me, who grew up watching ’80s cartoons with one or two token girls, this is very exciting. But I can see how the reverse status quo would make film producers nervous.

 

Here’s what I hope Hasbro doesn’t do with the My Little Pony movie: I hope it doesn’t add a male lead character for the sole purpose of reeling in boys. There is no reason why boys can’t relate to the existing pony characters. Competitive flyer Rainbow Dash and cowgirl farmer Applejack are confident and driven, and they eschew anything girly; unlike their toy counterparts, they most certainly do not own a hairbrush. Animal lover Fluttershy is quiet and nervous yet becomes a force of nature when provoked. Pinkie Pie is characterized by a sense of humor so offbeat that it sometimes mystifies her friends.The central character, Twilight Sparkle, is a magical princess, but she’s also a scholar; the title of princess was bestowed on her largely because she studied really hard. That leaves Rarity, a fashion designer and the most traditionally feminine character of the group. The show frequently uses Rarity to address the question of whether being girly means being weak. (The answer, of course, is no.)

 

You can read the rest here.

 

It was featured on EQD earlier today, which you can find here. My response can be found it here or in the C&P below:

 

The fact Hasbro's first-party FIM merchandise constantly panders to young girls is a very big problem. When Hasbro promotes the toys, it's always this:

 

1. The toys are overglorified and glamored.

 

2. Girls are the only people who play with the toys and star in the promotions for the products. You don't see any other gender or sex playing alongside.

 

3. The toys are crappily built and/or with a design that exploits girls, especially adolescents. EQG (and RR), I'm looking at you!

 

4. Guess where the merchandise is shelved in toy stores? The Pink Aisles. In other words, "For girls only."

 

These sexist implications damage the industry and hurt FIM as a whole. With exceptions that should be called out more, FIM's animated product appeals to everyone equally. Unisex. Gender-neutral. Family-friendly. Accessible for kids and adults. A blatantly pro-feminist show that empowers girls in order to empower boys with them. The concept that FIM is "for little girls" when it's factually wrong is inherently sexist in and of itself. The damning labeling of toys belonging to exclusive sexes is one reason why Toys R Us U.K. boldly eliminated labeling toys for specific genders.

 

The journalist made some great suggestions. How about do one better and expand it? Why not let toys be toys? Promote the toys to not be in the Pink or Blue Aisles. Build better quality toys that treat people altogether with respect and advertise them as something fun for the whole family. Toys that boys and girls can play with each other without either side scrutinized. Eliminating the idea that colors are categorized by sex and have boys and girls play with a multitude of FIM toys in print ads and commercials. Explicitly challenge and call out the outdated philosophy that ponies are for girls only to the outside's perspective.

 

If you can't tell, the toys have always been a royal peeve of mine, and I've been very vocal against Hasbro's archaic marketing for them for some time.

 

What's your response to her article?

Edited October 24, 2014 by Dark Qiviut

[Nohbdy 4,108]

You can read the rest here.

 

It was featured on EQD earlier today, which you can find here. My response can be found it here or in the C&P below:

 

 

If you can't tell, the toys have always been a royal peeve of mine, and I've been very vocal against Hasbro's archaic marketing for them for some time.

 

What's your response to her article?

Moved to Merch as per OP request.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,328]

Well, it is an interesting way to expand the gender for merchandise. Now, I really don't like to buy the official merch (I go to Hot Topic for more show accurate merch). This sounds like a great suggestion. It also would get them more profit by applying to both genders. Hey Hasbro, if you're going both genders, make a video game.

[Odyssey 5,713]

Her article is a fantastic read. One of the things I found interesting about her article is that she mentioned that 10% of male viewers took up the Season 3 premiere. When you get viewers like that, Hasbro should realise by now that they should try and do a different marketing strategy. Then again, I kind of wish that it was kind of like this from the start. MLP:FiM is for everyone, after all.

 

I think that when it comes to marketing, I think that Hasbro should also take a look at the show and see what the Mane 6 are like. The Mane 6 are, of course, individuals who have both a backstory and a goal. We should look up to people we can relate to and view them as individuals, not look up to someone simply because they're the same gender as you. That way, Hasbro would likely produce better toys, and maybe even expand on different things like video games.

 

On a related note, Hasbro should also take a look at different products like Hot Topic's MLP:FiM merch. Not only their merch is decently made and show-accurate, but it actually sells well because of their good-quality merch.

[Singe 2,109]

Yeah, Hasbro. Where the hay is my Applejack with Bucking Kick action? I got loads of apple themed villain figures that need to be bucked hard.

Edited October 25, 2014 by Singe

[silvadel 1,393]

You really don't see much in the way of Shining Armor toys.

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

Hasbro definitely should go with widening their consumer base here by expanding their product lines to target other demographics. The best thing Hasbro could do in order to be seen as an innovator rather than being behind the times would be to make licensing easier through programs such as their 3D printing deal, only it should be expanded to include other types of toys as well (in fact, I once saw a fan-made action figure and wondered what could posess Hasbro to miss an opportunity to create another potentially successful line of toys for this brand). There are many ways to capitalize on potential markets that are being left behind, even if you can't use your own resources to do it.

 

I do agree they can make this work without shoving any male characters into the focus (they already have been for 4 years), however the only thing I would want the show/movie to change is to treat the male characters it already has with dignity. I like the example of how Frozen was able to market itself and proposing the example of using Spike to the same end here, but only so long as he's treated with actual dignity and written into that supportive, confident, maturing role that the fans like to see and not the comedic punching bag or complete doofus he was turned into in his worst portrayals in the show. While it's great to have a message of female empowerment and manage to attract boys as well, it must not come at the expense of portraying males positively in favor of using them as comedic accessories. If they aren't the lead, it would be best to have them supporting.

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

I think a great way to solve this would be for hasbro to also market some of their products like their contemporary friends, Funko. Funko doesn't have overly gender'fied packaging, and most of their boxes are simply black with some character vectors on it. This would be a great way to only minorly change their designs, and keep a cheaper packaging. I do agree in that they have been overbearing when it comes to typifying the 1980s girls toy line up, but Hasbro is always going to be worried that people will ask for a "rocket launching action applejack" or a "nuclear missile kickin' Rarity" and scare off the mothers of potential buyers for little girls. A great way to circumvent this is to just change minor bits to the toys (but lets be honest, Hasbro toys are always going to be low quality and fairly "frilly") and just put them in a more neutral packaging like what funko does.

[NavelColt 22,875]

Kind of amusing really, the show is so radically ahead of not only Hasbro's toylines, but most other companies' lines of products for boys and girls in the themes it promotes, that everything else lags miles behind by comparison. While FIM may be starting to show people that the 'blue for boys, pink for girls' line of thinking is outdated and sexist, most of the known world is still stuck in that mindset, physical toys being one of the biggest examples. The bemusement coming from Hasbro's biggest attraction right now being FIM, which has a show that's gender-nuetral, while the toys the company makes for the same show still reek of gender stereotypes

 

That too, should begin to fade completely in not just Hasbro's toylines, assuming the world truly begins to move towards throwing out these gender role expectations now that we've quite easily passed the point of outgrowing them.

[newfrickinshow 100]

Yeah I agree with you too.  I've gone to their site looking for merch in the past but quickly realized that nothing was for me and instead found myself shopping for MLP t-shirts at redbubble.com.  I think part of that though is their philosophy that so (seems to me) there is a lot of hipster in male brony-dom and as such there is an attitude of not caring what isle the products are in or who they're marketed towards.  When I see that my reaction tends to be that pink was macho enough for Bret Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart so it's macho enough for me.

 

I don't think we need to worry too much about a token male character just to sell merchandise though, at least until the show begins to fade.  I mean they don't even sell Discord anything on the Hasbro website even though he's one of the most popular characters.  Though I would like to see a little bit more of the male characters we have present.  As far as I can tell the website doesn't sell anything Spike or Discord related which seems like it should be done (particularly with the latter as I would LOVE, LOVE LOVE a talking Discord plushie).  A couple of months ago McDonald's did a MLP give-away with their happy meals and noticed they had Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and DJ Pon-3 but no males.  At McDonald's.  Can't think of one token male to throw in at the home of the Big Mac?  Nothing comes to mind Hasbro?

 

I guess in the meantime when it comes to plushes I'd have to recommend going to build-a-bear instead.  I've seen much better choices and variety there to be honest.

[Singe 2,109]

They could also do remote control flying Pegasus and Alicorn toys.

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

They could also do remote control flying Pegasus and Alicorn toys.

 

That would be...

 

[Singe 2,109]

Video Game wise, there is Disney Infinity or Skylanders. Make a bunch of FIM characters to be playable in their own game.

[Lady Leopardess 393]

I'm still bummed there's no Big Mac brushable (which is odd because they have Big Brother brushables from the older gens) or official plush yet. Although I know 4de apparently has one in the works , also hoping that build a bear might come out with a male plush or two. As of now there's only a handful of items that feature big mac.

[Sinvanor 25]

Kind of amusing really, the show is so radically ahead of not only Hasbro's toylines, but most other companies' lines of products for boys and girls in the themes it promotes, that everything else lags miles behind by comparison. While FIM may be starting to show people that the 'blue for boys, pink for girls' line of thinking is outdated and sexist, most of the known world is still stuck in that mindset, physical toys being one of the biggest examples. The bemusement coming from Hasbro's biggest attraction right now being FIM, which has a show that's gender-nuetral, while the toys the company makes for the same show still reek of gender stereotypes

 

That too, should begin to fade completely in not just Hasbro's toylines, assuming the world truly begins to move towards throwing out these gender role expectations now that we've quite easily passed the point of outgrowing them.

 

 

This is why I don't buy the toys. No offense to the original MLP style, but it's just not what the new version of the show is. The toys do not follow suit, I feel like I'm in the 90's looking at them.

That mothers points were fantastic.

 

I have no idea why any toy is gender specific, specially when girls get princess dolls and boys get guys with guns? What kinda message does that even send? The sexes are not that different.

 

This is why I praise lego, it doesn't give a buck about gender.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Sinvanor

[remove p l e a s e ? 800]

Hasbro should release a more "neutral" toy line, like LEGO.

LEGO always had neutral products. 

Hmm... What if... LEGO bought Hasbro?

DO IT LEGO.

[Singe 2,109]

Twilight Sparkle with unicorn horn purple laser light action.

 

Pinkie Pie version of Feed The Pig game where you feed PP sweets.

[Lucky Star 971]

an easy bake oven based on sugarcube corner 

it's not girly.

 

boys like to cook too, just look at food network.

 

more diverse toys.

 

NO pink aisles.

 

some boys in their ads.

 

I'm okay with the toys being kinda pink, but only to a certain extent.

 

more cute plushies.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Lucky Star

[Freewave 1,145]

I'm glad to see an article on this in regards to toys. I went to Target with my twins(8 yr old boy,girl) and it was really saddening to see Hasbro ruining its retail line with poor choices. No MLP shirts (just pajamas) and for girls only. My son if he wanted anything couldn't get it in anything other than a girl's size which isn't treating the show as gender neutral as they sometimes claim it is intended.

 

Add to that the dreaded pink aisle where we've gotten used to exploring, but now it only had Equestria Girls dolls (anorexic looking Monster High wannabee's), Rainbowfied brushables (ugly cutie marks up and down legs and messed up mane's), the Pop line which is rather boring, blind bags and small figurines (meh), and the cheap plushies. They're still riding on the coattails of EQG and the S4 Finale but not bothering to go after even the boys market or bronies in the least. Why can't we get brushables that were in prior sets like Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Luna, Chrysalis, or any villains. Where's Big Mac, Bon Bon, Dj Pon-3 and Braeburn? Where are all the side ponies in the show?? Stop trying to sell the 5th variation of Twilight Sparkle and feature some background ponies who haven't been done at all! Imagine if there was a S4 Maude, Coca Pommel, Cheese Sandwich figures. Instead its all tired cliches and gender specific swag that will just sit on shelves.

 

Disappointing!!