Introduction 

Young children in Western societies are now born into commercial environments where anything and everything can be viewed as a saleable commodity. Advertising is so pervasive as to be largely taken for granted. Of course, there has been a long history of concern about the so-called ‘effects’ of advertising on young children, largely focusing on the risks of commercial ‘exploitation’. Indeed, there has recently been considerable debate about the possibility that the European Union might ban advertisements targeted at young children for this reason[1]. Yet there has been rather less discussion about the potential contribution of advertising to the formation of children’s identities. This chapter will focus specifically on the issue of gender identity, and its role in children’s televised toy advertisements.

Although the intersection between toys and gender has often been identified as having ‘much to do with identity’[2], there has been little research into the nature of this interrelationship. Likewise, while much research has been conducted on children’s advertising in general, many investigators have omitted toy advertisements from their samples on the basis that they are too infrequent and seasonally dependent. However, the assumption here is that the sheer concentration of toy ads in the two-month period leading up to Christmas is particularly significant in terms of channelling children’s thoughts towards procuring certain (gender specific) goods. These goods then invariably occupy the child’s space (home and bedroom) for lengths of time far longer than the actual sales period, perhaps perpetuating the (gender specific) play-patterns demonstrated in the ads.

One of the reasons toys were selected as a basis for investigating gender identity is the fact that toy products tend to be highly prescriptive in terms of their intended user, while play is seen as an integral part of the maturation process[3]. Toy-play is frequently hinged on the concept of ‘gender appropriateness’, where it has traditionally been seen as ‘inappropriate’ for boys to play with dolls or for girls to play with cars. Numerous studies suggest that children’s play is a reflection of gender stereotyped socialisation patterns and that toys are important in their ideological formation[4]. 

One of the most obvious ways that gender manifests itself is through observable behaviour patterns. In the context of advertisements, gender models are presented as ‘naturalised’ in terms of exhibiting so-called ‘appropriate gender behaviour’. Such gendered portraits have endured over time and can be found cross-culturally. Ruble et al.[5] suggest that children actively seek information about gender behaviour and, using play styles and sex-typed toys as their experimental equipment, learn how to behave in a manner that society deems acceptable. Indeed, young children may actually be very comfortable with their re-enactments of predictable gender behaviours because of the social acceptance attached to being conformist[6]. Likewise, television is often seen as a major influence on both children’s and adults’ perceptions of their own and others’ sex roles[7]; and there is empirical evidence to indicate a positive relationship between exposure to gender-stereotyped media content and stereotyped perceptions, attitudes and behaviours.

There is a kind of circularity to these arguments. Advertisements lean heavily on socially generated notions of gender as a means of targeting products at appropriate consumer sectors, appealing to the individual and casting the product in the image of the user. Toy advertisements promote goods that arguably contribute to a gender-based construction of the self and the adoption of so-called ‘appropriate gender behaviour’. Thus, one could argue that the gender models seen in toy ads form a base for modelling and imitative behaviour, contributing to the ways that children learn the characteristics of their own sex[8], whilst also providing examples of the ‘props’ available to enhance role-playing. Both the cognitive and social learning approaches to sex-role development attach considerable importance to this kind of imitation of same-sex models.

However much one may dispute the apparent determinism of this approach, there are undeniable cultural pressures on boys to be ‘manly’, while girls are expected to be ‘ladylike’[9]. Dyer[10], writing at length about gender stereotypes, describes them as simple, easily grasped forms of representation, which condense a great deal of complex information and have many potential connotations[11].  Yet while the structural theory of stereotypes has been contested and problematised by feminist critics, who place greater stress on the notion of ‘gender performativity’[12], traditional conceptions of gender are still clearly applicable to toy ads. Indeed, there has been little or no change in the content and composition of toy ads in the last 25 years[13]. Children may either reject or accept such portrayals, but they offer an easily available ‘yard-stick’ against which to measure social reality.

Traditional theories of gender stereotyping tend to rely on a basic set of binary oppositions, which can be summarised as follows:

As a process, stereotyping may be a positive necessity for advertising, to a much greater extent than for other media forms or genres. Advertisers must strongly prescribe a ‘preferred meaning’ within their advertisement texts, so that the intended message is conveyed to the audience as effectively and effortlessly as possible, restricting the process of meaning making[14]. To build a ‘preferred meaning’ into an advertising campaign requires an over-determination of the process of encoding, making the desired conclusion about the product more obvious than any other reading[15]. This involves careful structuring and formatting, in order to instruct the viewer in how to interpret the meaning of the advertisement[16]; and one could argue that such practices could also be applied to the construction of models of ‘appropriate gender behaviour’. Ideologically, such ‘closed’ texts are thought to have greater impact because they offer fewer interpretational possibilities[17]. Therefore, one could argue that if a child accepts the way in which s/he is defined as either a ‘boy’ or a ‘girl’ in toy ads, then the advertisement would be more influential.

Stereotyping is most obviously manifested in the overt themes and representations of advertisements, but it also occurs in their technical or formal features. While those working in the advertising industry vehemently deny that technical features are (consciously) used to appeal to certain genders[18], it is clear that most ad campaigns, especially those targeted at children, are structured with specific target audiences in mind. The consistency with which certain technical features are used when appealing to these audience sectors makes it possible to argue that they are ‘gendered’.

The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to analyse the ways in which gender stereotypy operates on the most subtle and unobtrusive levels within toy advertisement texts, and thereby to describe and explain how the ‘gendering’ of both product and purchaser operates. An analysis of this kind demands that one look below the more obvious surface meanings of texts to the underlying structure of their ‘hidden’ (or unconscious) appeals. I intend to clarify how toy ads create a gender-polarised world for children, whilst demonstrating that the situation is a little more complex than simple divisions between ‘blue’ and ‘pink’.

Of course, it should also be noted at the outset that textual analysis only identifies the parameters within which audience readings occur. How these readings occur is a matter for further research. The social worlds of boys and girls may in fact be much less polarised than the famously constructed worlds of Barbie and Action Man. Yet when faced with a ‘packaged world’[19], it may well be that children have no option but to learn their place within it, seeing the patterns of behaviour that are represented there as unalterable fact.

Content analysis

The primary aim of this chapter is to apply semiotic concepts to analyse a selection of children’s televised toy advertisements. However, the initial starting point was a detailed content analysis of 117 toy ads broadcast on British television in the period leading up to Christmas 1996. While the methods and results of this analysis are reported elsewhere[20], the major findings will be used here as a way to frame the current focus on semiotics.

The content analysis comprised the coding and counting of two major elements in the advertisement sample: camerawork features (shot sizes and angles, and camera and lens movements), and editing and other post-production features (transitions, shot duration and voiceovers). In the main sample, 43 ads were classified (by a number of independent adult coders) as being targeted at boys, with 43 targeted at girls and 31 aimed at a mixed audience.

A number of emergent content patterns were evident. In terms of camerawork features, the dominant shot size and angle by far were the mid-shot and the level angle. The boys’ ads employed greater use of long shots and fewer close-ups, and also contained more low angle shots than the girls’ ads. Similarly, the boys’ ads used more overhead and canted (tilted) shots, while the girls’ ads demonstrated greater use of peds (up and down). In terms of editing and post-production features, the boys’ advertisements used more cuts while the girls’ advertisements used more dissolves. The boys’ ads had the shortest shot duration, when measured against the average for the sample as a whole, while the girls’ ads were consistently above average. The length of the shot was directly proportional to the overall sense of pacing in each ad, where boys’ ads appeared to be faster moving than the girls’ ads. Overall, the sex of the voiceover corresponded with the target gender for the advertisement, but there was a predominance of male voiceovers across the sample as a whole, since they were more frequently used in mixed appeal ads.

Using these more obvious and quantifiable content features as a framework, the next stage was to determine whether such ‘gendered’ patterns were also reflected in the more subtle features of specific toy ads. The application of semiotic principles was considered the most appropriate and effective approach here. Gendering in children’s ads is not as self-evident as one might first think, and immediate impressions can obscure what is happening under the surface. Semiotics can be used to show how formal features work in a given context to create specific meanings, offering a necessary progression from frequency-based content analysis.

The foundation for selecting the ads analysed in this chapter is the (linguistic-based) concept of ‘markedness’, discussed in detail elsewhere[21]. For the purpose of this chapter it is sufficient to state that, in the content analysis of the main sample, the mixed appeal ads emerged as being more closely aligned to the boys’ ads than to the girls’ ads in terms of both production and post-production features. The boys’ and the mixed ads can consequently be described as ‘unmarked’, in that certain technical features are so often used that they become naturalised, invisible, unquestioned and perceived as the norm, simultaneously privileging the ‘male’. A ‘marked’ technical feature, on the other hand, is something that it not used as often and subsequently appears different or unusual. This certainly applies to the features noted in the girls’ ads, where the ‘female’ elements seemed ‘unnatural’ and ‘un-masculine’.

Using the idea of ‘marked’ and ‘unmarked’ categorisations of technical features, the content analysis findings can be summarised in tabular form. Using the mixed ads as the so-called ‘norm’ or neutral category, the following table clearly illustrates that the girls’ ads contained significantly more marked features than the boys’ ads:

It is therefore arguable that, even though there were clear-cut paradigms available to advertisers offering many alternative possibilities in terms of production and post-production techniques, more often than not they employed techniques specifically attuned to the target gender for the advertisement.

Methods

Toy ads are characteristically complex, carefully crafted mini-narratives with powerful structures, appeals and meanings, framing the child audience as either ‘boy’ or ‘girl’. The ads analysed in this chapter were selected using ‘markedness’ as a way to judge how closely individual texts might be deemed typical of their type. That is to say, typical girls’ ads needed to exhibit more level shots, peds and dissolves than mixed advertisements, together with greater shot duration and the use of female voiceovers. Typical boys’ ads, on the other hand, needed to exhibit fewer close-ups and high angles than mixed advertisements, together with the identifiable ‘masculine’ features of shorter shot duration, male voiceovers, use of cuts, and use of ‘dramatic’ camera angles.

The 86 boy- and girl-targeted ads from the main sample were carefully sorted with the aim of selecting examples that illustrated these key features most strongly. Interestingly, very few individual advertisements in the sample exhibited all these key features. This further emphasises a point made in the content analysis study, in that gendered production patterns are not immediately apparent in individual advertisements but become strikingly obvious across a large sample. The aim here was to select a number of advertisements that could be described as being as closely aligned as possible to the overall framework, and hence representing the so-called archetypal structures on which all other advertisements are based.

Through a process of elimination, six advertisements were identified as exhibiting a significant number of the key content features. The chosen boys’ advertisements were Meccano Junior, Tomy R/C Turbo Sports Car, and Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash, while the girls’ advertisements were Pattie, Baby Born Accessories, and Amy’s Pony Tales. The following table provides brief descriptions of the selected ads.

Each of the boys’ advertisements contained all but one of the key content features identified above, whilst the girls’ ads contained all the key content features. It is therefore arguable that the chosen sample convincingly adheres to the established content patterns in ‘typical’ ads of this type, and in children’s toy ads as a whole.

A semiotic approach to the texts

While the content analysis revealed strong patterns, it should be stressed that the frequency with which given elements or factors appear is not necessarily proportional to or synonymous with their level of significance. Hence, a number of issues will be considered in this analysis. A semiotic framework will be used to focus on the specific and often different ways in which the techniques were used to appeal to certain audience sectors, as well as considering how the features can be formalised in terms of the specific codes that operate across toy ads. This will include identifying any overriding features or techniques that can be applied to the genre as a whole, considering both specific thematic codes and more general advertising codes. The aim is to construct a semiotic framework in which all children’s toy ads can arguably be located.

Since the advertisements aimed at boys and those aimed at girls have already been clearly identified as different from one another, this chapter will focus on a comparison of the ways in which the key content features are (differentially) used to appeal to each target audience sector. This semiotic analysis will retain a strong gender focus, with the aim of illustrating that both the overt content and the more subtle techniques and connotations in toy advertisements are specifically gendered.

This analysis will utilise a number of key semiotic concepts, focusing on the key camerawork features – shot size, shot angle and camera movement – and post-production features – transitions, shot duration and voiceover. Each feature will be considered in turn, followed by a consideration of the thematic and advertising codes.

Camerawork features

The most prominent and frequently used shot sizes and shot angles were the mid-shot and the level angle. Since these features occurred in every sampled ad, it is arguable that they represent the norm within the genre. The level shot represents the ‘conventional’ gaze of an individual looking directly ahead towards a scene, while the mid-shot represents the ‘middle ground’ or optimum distance from which a scene can be viewed. Indeed, a level shot might connote some form of stability and equilibrium, while the mid-shot might offer a comfortable compromise between the apparent detachment of a long shot and the intense involvement of a close-up[22].

Of all the shot sizes, the close-up shot was most intriguing in terms of its differential use across the two groups of ads. Arguably, the close-up shot is stereotypically associated with connotations of emotional (female) involvement in a scene. The close-up appeared most frequently in the ads aimed at girls, but this is not to say that it never appeared in the ads targeted at boys. It is therefore interesting to compare how the technique is (differentially) used in each type of advertisement to achieve specific effects.

In fact, the close-ups in the girls’ ads focus on details such as facial features or some aspect of the product (accessories and/or decorations). In the advertisement for Pattie, for example, there are numerous close-ups of the doll, specifically focusing on her eyes, mouth and hands. Each of these features is important in terms of the overall appeal of the product. Her mouth and hands are vested with considerable power because it is only through the action of clapping that the doll actually recites the nursery rhyme ‘Pat-a-cake’. In a sense, the use of close-ups in the girls’ ads guides the (female) viewers from one specific product feature to another, denoting the importance of these details in the context of product use and indicating where attention should be focused. Where a close up of both the product and the product-user occurred in the girls’ ads, a sense of intimacy and interrelationship between the two is connoted. This technique is very apparent in the ad for Baby Born Accessories, since the product and product-user are frequently shown in the same shot, connoting a sense of mother-baby interaction and intimate ‘connection’.

The use of close-ups in the boys’ ads differs slightly from the girls’ ads, not simply because there are fewer examples of them but also because they tend to frame the various technical details of the product rather than focussing on faces (either of people or doll-products). In the Tomy R/C Turbo Sports Car ad, for example, there are a number of close-ups of the ‘magic steering wheel’. This feature includes a number of special components such as a turbo button and lots of dials, emphasising the importance of the wheel to the product, and connoting a sense of power and control to whoever might be holding it. The use of close-ups to show product detail in the boys’ ads thus emphasises the authenticity and attention-to-detail inherent in the products, enhancing their desirability.

Hence, while the girls’ ads focus on ‘human’ aspects, the ads targeted at boys focus on ‘non-human’ or technical aspects. Each of these concerns might, in turn, be associated with classic gender stereotypes of ‘personal’ and ‘professional’ concerns respectively. It is arguable that the differential points of focus employed in the advertisements set a precedent for behaviour patterns (particularly when interacting with the products) amongst boys and girls. While the girls seem to be encouraged to focus on ‘people’, the boys seem to be encouraged to focus on ‘things’, making a clear distinction between emotions and material objects.

The use of shot angles is interesting and varied, particularly in the ads aimed at boys. A very basic pattern emerges when considering the use of shot angles in the girls’ ads, since there tend to be only two types – the level angle and the high angle. The level angle is most often employed, as the ‘conventional’ angle or viewpoint, connoting a sense of being even-tempered, calm and methodical. There is nothing exciting about such an angle, and it seems predominantly unobtrusive in its ‘naturalness’ and predictability. The high angle offers a slightly different perspective in the girls’ ads, but again does not seem to suggest anything particularly dynamic or exciting. In the Baby Born ad, for example, the high angle shot represents the ‘user-gaze’, looking down on Baby Born as she sits on her changing mat, connoting an adult-child relationship and a sense of guardianship, care-giving and protection. The camera adopts the perspective of the ‘eyes of the child’ during product interaction, with sensory implications regarding how it might feel to be in a play scenario.

The use of shot angles in the boys’ ads is more varied and open to interpretation. In this small sample, all the ‘dramatic’ camera angles are identifiable, including overhead, low and skewed/canted shots. Taking each of these in turn, it is possible to illustrate how angles are used to create particular effects.

In the Criss Cross Crash ad, for example, an overhead shot offers an extreme view of the ‘cross-roads’ feature forming the main product focus. In addition to providing an obvious vantage-point over the most saleable characteristic, it also creates a sense of high drama. Yet there is also a sense of detachment in that the audience is placed in the position of uninvolved spectator. The fact that the shot angle is so extreme might even connote a sense of god-like superiority over the proceedings at ground level[23].

The use of low angle shots is also intriguing in the boys’ ads, particularly given that there was no such example in the girls’ ads. In the Tomy R/C Sports Car ad, for example, the camera is placed in a position that appears to be slightly below ground level, framing the car as it speeds around the young boy’s bedroom before suddenly travelling towards the camera. The effect of using the low angle shot means that the audience is faced with the front of the car from below the level of the bumper, so that the bonnet and roof of the car disappear from the field of vision. Consequently, the product appears oversized on the screen and dominates the shot. This technique effectively connotes a sense of product potency[24], together with the implied inferiority of everything else within the shot. Such a rhetorical appeal is arguably more ‘masculine’ than ‘feminine’ in the sense that it implies power, superiority and impact.

The final dramatic camera angle that is used to great effect in the boys’ ads is the skewed or canted shot. This particular angle frames a scene at 45 degrees, so that we are forced to tilt our heads to the side to view the scene as it would actually occur. While all three of the selected boys’ ads contain examples of canted shots, the Criss Cross Crash ad contains a total of five examples – a quarter of the shot angles used in the ad as a whole. One of the main effects of the canted shot is to create a sense of dynamism, movement and drama. Since the shot is ‘unhinged’ from the norm of the level shot, there is a sense of unpredictability and danger. The Criss Cross Crash ad makes use of this shot angle to follow the Hot Wheels cars as they career around the racetrack at high speed, connoting the risk of imminent disaster. This ad even goes as far as to use a combination of dramatic shot angles, since high and canted shots are used together in a single frame, increasing the sense of drama and tension.

The only other notable production feature identified in the content analysis is the camera movement known as the pedestal or ped where the camera moves up and down its own ‘spine’ to show a level shot from different heights. The girls’ ads employ this technique more frequently than the boys’ ads. The advertisement for Amy’s Pony Tales shows how peds can be used to create a certain visual impact and an overall ‘feel’. The ad opens with a shot of a hedgerow, green and idyllic, featuring an ‘Appletree Stables’ wooden sign. The labelling of the location in such a way makes it explicit and ‘bounded’. At this stage, there is little or no view of anything beyond the hedge and the sign. Gradually, however, the camera begins to ped up so that the audience sees over the hedge, connoting a motion similar to rising up onto ‘tip-toes’. Rather than being voyeuristic, it creates a sense of being drawn into a new world of stables and horses. A sense of symmetry is achieved when we return to the hedgerow at the end of the ad. This time, the camera peds down so that the stable yard is once again obscured. The syntagmatic structure creates the impression that we have spent a pleasant day with Amy and her friends, where the ped up marked a sense of beginning, and the ped down marked a sense of ending or closure.

Interpretations of the camerawork features can be summarised in tabular form, demonstrating some of the possible connotations of each feature depending on textual content, advertising intentions, product image and target audience:

Post-production features

One of the most important post-production features is the use of editing transitions. Transitions can be divided into the two main types: the cut, a clean break between one scene and another, and the dissolve, where one frame is faded out as another is simultaneously faded in. Gender patterns in the use of these different transitions are apparent across the main ad sample.

The use of cuts is rather straightforward in comparison to the use of dissolves. The cut provides a clear division between one scene and another, where a scene can either follow on from the one before it or show a completely new perspective. The boys’ ads use nothing but cuts to jump from one scene to another. Both the Tomy R/C Sports Car and the Criss Cross Crash ads contain numerous examples of this technique. Since both these ads show car-related products, it is arguable that cuts effectively connote a sense of unpredictability, dynamism and action. The scenes follow on so rapidly from one another that a sense of speed and danger is created, making it difficult to focus on any single aspect of the product. In this way, cutting acts as an attention-grabbing mechanism[25]. The abrupt changes of scene ‘demand’ higher levels of attention from the audience than the slow, gradual effects created by the dissolve transitions. This more forceful and disjointed style could be seen as more stereotypically masculine in its appeal.

Dissolves were only seen in the sample of ads aimed at girls. Dissolves are gentle and gradual, facilitating a smooth shift in perspective from one scene to another, and have therefore been seen to create a stereotypically feminine ambience[26]. The use of dissolves in the selected girls’ ads suggests many interpretational possibilities.

One of the most conventional uses for a dissolve is to connote the passage of time, and this is effectively employed in the ad for Amy’s Pony Tales. One scene focuses on Amy, saddling up her horse to go ‘off for a ride’ (as the voiceover explains). This then dissolves to a scene in which Amy has returned from her ride. Whilst emphasising the apparent passage of time, there is also a sense of safety. The protective environment of the stables is not obviously breached because the audience is never privy to any activity outside the perimeter (white picket) fence.

The second conventional function of a dissolve is to connote a sense of moving between ‘reality’ and ‘fantasy’, or vice-versa. Short of including ‘squiggly dream lines’, dissolves provide the misty fuzziness that so effectively connotes the crossing from one ‘universe’ to another. This is again seen in Amy’s Pony Tales. Once the horses have been returned to the paddock the scene dissolves into a ‘real footage’ shot of the actual stables, connoting that we have somehow snapped out of the ‘fantasy’ (play) situation and into ‘reality’. The fact that the dissolve fuses the ‘unreal’ and the ‘real’ together strengthens the feelings of wish-fulfilment associated with the product.

Dissolves can also provide linkage between one scene and another. The simplest example of this linkage can be seen in the ad for Pattie, where a dissolve fuses the penultimate and final shots together. In the penultimate shot, Pattie appears in the play context in a picturesque garden. Once the girls reach the end of the ‘Pat-a-cake’ rhyme with the words ‘for baby and me’, the garden scene dissolves into a conventional product still in which all the different types of Pattie doll are displayed in rows, together with the product logo and other (small print) information. With the fusion of these two scenes, the linkage or connection between the product-in-play and product-in-retail-contexts is made clear and obvious, facilitating recognition within the marketplace.

Transitions are directly proportional to the number of shots and the duration of the advertisement. In the main sample of toy ads, the boys’ ads contained a greater number of shots within a shorter space of time, resulting in a very rapid cutting rate. The cutting rate has a direct impact on the overall pacing and ambience of the advertisement, where a fast rate connotes a sense of speed, energy and excitement, showing life as little more than a blur. The faster cutting rate was characteristic of ads targeted at boys and can therefore be described as ‘masculine’. While the boys’ ads were consistently below average shot duration, the shot duration in the girls’ ads was consistently above average due to their greater use of dissolves (because a certain amount of time must be taken to fade one scene out whilst fading another in). The use of dissolves therefore makes the pacing of the advertisement seem more leisurely and relaxed, and hence more ‘feminine’.

The various functions and connotations associated with cuts and dissolves can be summarised as follows:

 The other noteworthy post-production feature here is that of voiceover. There is a clear pattern in terms of the types of voiceovers used to appeal to certain audience sectors, in that only male voiceovers were heard in ads aimed at boys, while the majority of voiceovers in the girls’ ads were female. The overriding rule is that advertisers match the sex of the voiceover with that of the most likely product user, so that the advertisement ‘speaks’ to its target[27]. Advertisers frequently acknowledge that girls are more flexible than boys when it comes to accepting opposite-sex appeals, be it in terms of interacting with products or listening to opposite-sex recommendations[28]. This might therefore account for the fact that the occasional girl-targeted ad used a male voiceover, while the equivalent crossover never occurred in ads aimed at boys. The predominance of male voiceovers in the ad sample was made more obvious by the fact that the mixed audience ads employed more male than female voiceovers, again privileging the ‘masculine’, making the ‘feminine’ a ‘marked’ category, and following established gender stereotyped conventions.

When seen in the context of the sample ads, it is clear how and why voiceovers are used in certain ways. In the Tomy R/C Sports Car ad, for example, a deep-voiced man with a Cockney accent narrates throughout. This produces an interesting juxtaposition with the screen images. While the voiceover speaks in the first person, conveying the ‘inner thoughts’ of the screen character, the voice is quite inappropriate for the frail-looking blond-haired boy on screen. The voiceover emphasises the aspirational qualities of the advertisement, in that it represents what the boy will eventually become – a man. A similar technique is used in the advertisement for Amy’s Pony Tales, where a female voiceover narrates the activities on the screen, speaking in the first person. In this case, however, the voice-quality of the narrator is closer to how one might expect ‘Amy’ to sound, since the narrator is a young girl.

Thematic codes

As well as analysing the key production features it is also possible to identify a number of general thematic codes running though the ad sample. A thematic code may be defined as the underlying narrative structure within a (media) text, forming the basis of the story being recounted on screen or, in the context of advertisements, the product image or philosophy. A number of themes were identified in this sample and the table below summarises how they were distributed in the ads. The reader should note that most of the ads contained multiple thematic codes:

Many of the terms used to classify the thematic codes are self-explanatory, but others require brief clarification here. Gendered interests was used to classify those ads which showed boy and girl characters pursuing (product-related) activities that were traditionally regarded as ‘male’ (e.g. vehicles) or ‘female’ (e.g. babies, animals)[29]. A product may be portrayed as constructive (having the positive connotations of producing something) or destructive (having negative connotations of eliminating something). A product may be shown to ‘empower’ the user by making him/her more popular, successful or socially accepted. The on-screen characters might appear passive (in the sense that the product governs and constrains their actions) or active (in that they have the freedom to control the product). Finally, the action on the screen might unfold slowly so that the audience is gently coaxed into the situation, or open mid-action to throw the audience in at the ‘deep end’.

The most obvious thematic code shared by the ads in the sample is of gendered role-play activities. The three girls’ ads are based on stereotypical ‘feminine’ activities, including nurturing, shopping, singing, and domestic chores. The three boys’ ads, in contrast, are based on stereotypical ‘masculine’ activities, including driving cars, construction, competition, and technical tasks. It is arguable that the activities depicted in the girls’ ads would be just as unappealing to a group of boys as vice-versa. For maximum effectiveness, advertisers and toy manufacturers aim to appeal to the perceived likes and dislikes of boys and girls as quickly and efficiently as possible, so by restricting the thematic codes to gendered role-play activities it is arguable that they can communicate more immediately with their desired target audience.

The spread of other thematic codes sets up a number of distinct contrasts. In the first instance, it is apparent that the girls’ ads are thematised around the idea of order and routine, while the boys’ ads depict more chaotic activities. The integral rhythmic rhyming of ‘Pat-a-cake’ in the Pattie advertisement, for example, sets an ordered beat around which all the activity takes place. The physical movements of the on-screen characters therefore appear measured and specific, establishing order. The boys’ ads, in contrast, consistently spiral into an out-of-control, unpredictable and volatile world. In the Tomy R/C Sports Car ad, for example, it is doubtful whether the on-screen boy character actually understands how to control his car, because there are a number of potential accident situations and near-misses. Similarly, there is a sense of imminent disaster in the Criss Cross Crash ad, particularly when the momentum begins to build to a climax.

Further contrasts emerge in terms of the interrelationships between the on-screen characters. The girls’ ads are generally dominated by a sense of friendship and co-operation. The girls appearing in the Pattie ad, for example, take turns to interact with the doll-product, gleaning much enjoyment from the shared experience. While the idea of friendship and co-operation is also discernible in the boys’ ads, there is a more notable atmosphere of rivalry and competition between the screen characters. The Meccano Junior ad starts off positively as the boys share tools, building up a kind of co-operative buddy narrative. However, this congenial atmosphere soon degenerates as they start to compete against one another by racing their vehicles. The underlying implication is that only experts can triumph during head-to-head competition, and a great deal of prestige is attached to victory in this context[30].

Another contrast between the boys’ and girls’ ads is in terms of constructive and destructive activities. Perhaps predictably, the girls’ ads contain many more examples of constructive behaviour patterns than the boys’ ads. These kinds of activities may be described as having positive connotations because something ‘good’ is achieved. The boys’ ads, however, seem to exhibit more destructive behaviour patterns, where things are ultimately destroyed. One of the highlights of the Meccano Junior ad, for example, is when the cars collide and smash into pieces.

The gendered audiences are also differentially addressed. The girls’ ads open by introducing the action quite gradually, allowing the text to take on a specific narrative structure with a beginning, middle and end. In Amy’s Pony Tales, for example, we arrive at the stables in the morning and then follow the key activities throughout the day before finally leaving in the evening. The boys’ ads, in contrast, launch straight into the action without warning, wasting no time setting the scene, and creating a more frantic and fragmented atmosphere.

A final thematic contrast involves the way the on-screen characters behave as they interact (or not) with the product. Once again following the established gender patterns, the girls are passive while the boys tend to be active. In the passive scenario, the product user is not in control of the product performance but is a spectator whose chief role is to appear ‘impressed’. In the Baby Born ad, for example, the girls do little more than say ‘wow’ every time a new accessory materialises in front of them. In contrast, the boys seem able to take on a more active role by actually having input into the product. In the Meccano Junior ad, for example, the boys are only restricted by their own imaginations in terms of the kinds of things they can create.

Out of these thematic codes come a series of identifiable binary oppositions. At the most basic level, binary oppositions are a way of formalising the polar ends of a spectrum, by listing a series of opposites that are related to one another, such as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or ‘pretty’ and ‘ugly’. The binary oppositions in this sample consistently tend to equate with notions of gender-appropriate product targeting. That is to say, the ‘oppositions’ are either in line with the male stereotype or the female stereotype, and link directly to the nature of the product and to the intended target audience. Broadly speaking, the thematic codes translate into gendered binary oppositions in the following way, which can be likened to the earlier table identifying ‘gendered traits’:

 Clearly, there is a strong sense of alignment within the sample of ads. The culturally generated gender stereotypes are acknowledged and promoted, and consistently follow established patterns. It is also important to note that these patterns are an integral part of children’s advertising texts, observable and sustained over a larger sample and not just within individual ads.

The codes of kids’ advertising

So far, I have identified the semiotic patterns specific to the gendered target audience for each ad. However, it is also possible to identify certain general semiotic patterns that are applicable to children’s toy advertisements as a whole. These patterns are essentially the main conventions of the genre and set up a series of similarities between the ads that are irrespective of the target gender for the product. Some of these are related to the use of production features in certain standard ways, while others are grounded in the general function of ads.

A very simple pattern of production features emerged across the sample of toy ads, indicating that certain camerawork conventions are used in a stock way. These features include the use of level angle mid-length shots to provide a ‘normal’ or ‘naturalised’ view of the scene. Furthermore, advertisers use either mid or long shots when framing the closing product-still, to increase the likelihood of a lasting impression of the product. Long shots are also conventionally used as establishing shots to set the scene. Finally, an interesting pattern emerges when considering how angles are used to create a certain ‘feel’. A level angle is conventionally used to show the product. If, however, advertisers wish to imply that the product is being interacted with, a high angle is adopted to mimic the user’s gaze.

Wherever possible, the ads in the sample included some form of product demonstration. This technique does not necessarily imply that the child audience is guided through product-use in a step-by-step way, but simply shows a number of possible ways in which the product can be interacted with, or what the key features are. The necessity of showing some form of product demonstration is closely aligned with the composition of a scene in which user and product appear in the same shot. Conventionally, the product will be foregrounded and placed in the centre of the screen while the user will appear in the background, slightly out of focus (and therefore less important by implication). What tends to dominate is hands-on interaction with the product, and advertisers will often favour a (gender non-specific) shot of hands to connote the play situation. The Tomy R/C Sports Car ad, for example, features a significant number of hands-around-steering-wheel shots to emphasise the centrality of the wheel to the product.

The appearance of product and user within the same frame arguably functions to strengthen the association between the two, emphasising that they are interrelated and mutually significant within a play scenario. An interesting pattern also emerges when more than one on-screen character appears in a shot. Rather that being shown as two independent individuals, a premise is generally established in which they form some kind of interrelationship. In the Pattie ad, for example, the two girls gradually become friends as they share in the experience of product interaction. In contrast, the relationship between the boys in the Meccano Junior ad becomes progressively more competitive as they race against one another. In both instances, the advertisers are seeking to show some kind of interpersonal interaction, signifying that the play experience is social whilst simultaneously alluding to gendered behaviour patterns.

The only other notable pattern to emerge across the ad sample as a whole is the way in which all the toy ads end with a product-still. Such a shot basically functions as a way to show off a range of accessories associated with the product, together with the product logo and any other small-print information or disclaimers. A closing shot of this nature occurs in every toy ad in the sample, providing a neat form of closure. Up to the point of the product still, it is likely that the audience will have seen only brief glimpses of the product (especially in the ads aimed at boys), but the product-still conventionally pauses a little longer to allow things to register properly. This kind of shot also serves to mark the boundary between one ad and the next.

Conclusion – An overriding pattern

One of the advantages of a semiotic analysis is that it is often possible to reduce a range of texts to a model of interrelations. Having analysed a contained sample of advertisements in detail, it is possible to generate a model that represents children’s toy advertisement texts in general. In this case, it is possible to account for the emergent patterns in two ways. The similarities between the ads can be accounted for in terms of genre, while the major differences can be accounted for in terms of gender.

This idea can be incorporated into an established semiotic model suggested by the structuralist semiotician, Algirdas Greimas[31]. Greimas adapted his ‘semiotic square’ from the ‘logical square’ of scholastic philosophy in order to analyse paired concepts more fully. The main intention of the square was to map the conjunctions and disjunctions relating to key semantic features in a text, suggesting that the possibilities for signification are more complex than the either/or of a binary model. The square seems particularly appropriate in the context of this chapter, because the aim is to look beyond how the technical features might be interpreted as either ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’, towards a framework which suggests that things are rather more complex in terms of gender and audience address.

Since the Greimasian ‘square’ is constructed on a four-part axis, it is arguable that the children’s toy ads in this sample can be interpreted in terms of a complex interaction between the notions of genre and gender, and those of function and connotation.

The key differences related to genre and gender can be further summarised in tabular form, based on the interrelationships between the components in the above square, to illustrate and explain why certain production features and techniques are used in the ways previously identified:

What should also be apparent is that the genre-related components are generally what one could describe as ‘surface’ components. That is to say, the functional patterns within an advertisement might be easily identified and clearly apparent to an individual after glancing only casually at what is happening on the screen. Several of the gender-related components, however, are less obvious and apparent, tending to account for the subtle underlying features that might well be subconsciously internalised by the audience. It is exactly these subtle components that are drawn out and made explicit through the application of semiotic principles.

There is an intriguing contradiction here, which expands upon an observation made when analysing the content of the main sample of toy ads. There is a curious relationship between the ‘big picture’ of children’s toy ads that utilise distinctly gendered features, and the details of the individual ads that have ‘relative autonomy’ from the patterns generated across the larger sample. At first glance, this would suggest that the broader theoretical framework is too over-simplified and ‘deterministic’ to demonstrate the complexities and diversities evident in the texts. However, a close semiotic analysis of the construction of the texts indicates that the ‘big picture’ and the individual instances are in fact mutually dependent and interrelated, rather than independent and unrelated. It is exactly for this reason that the Greimasian square offers a useful interpretative tool.

The interrelationship between the ‘big picture’ revealed through content analysis and the relatively autonomous ‘details’ of individual texts is thus a complex one. It is arguable that the former imposes a gendered structure on the texts, ensuring ‘appropriate’ target audience recognition, while the latter creates the illusion that these gendered structures do not exist. This notion is well illustrated when one considers the notion of ‘markedness’ and the fact that 31 ads in the main sample were categorised as having mixed appeal. In fact, however, the mixed ads were consistently ‘masculinised’ in terms of their formal features, even though this was not obviously apparent to an audience (of both adults and children whom I interviewed as part of my research) who were effectively ‘tricked’ into thinking that the texts were gender neutral. This illustrates the notion of ‘intimate polarity’ alluded to in the title of this chapter: children’s toys and toy ads seem initially polarised in terms of gendered binary oppositions (boy/girl, blue/pink), but they are simultaneously complex, contradictory, interrelated and inter-dependent. The marking of gender is more complex and less immediately visible than one might first assume; and some of this necessary ‘indeterminacy’ can only be revealed through a detailed semiotic analysis.

Notes and References

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This page was last modified 18 Apr 2006