Voor environmental communication schrijf ik wekelijks een artikeltje. De tweede blogpost focust op de achterliggende betekenis van de Toys”R”Us reclamevideo. Onschuldige marketing of toch meer dan dat?
What happens when you put a bunch of young children on a bus and start a pop quiz about different types of leaves? They fall asleep. No wonder they jump at the chance of visiting their favourite toy store to get whatever their heart desires. But do plastic disposable toys actually ‘make dreams come true’?
In a Toys”R”Us advertisement, a class of children get on the school bus for a fieldtrip. The teacher starts asking them questions about different types of leaves until he reveals his Toys”R”Us uniform and tells the kids they can choose whatever they want to have from their toy store. The kids cheer, run around in the store and all you see is happy faces. Seems like an innocent and fun advertisement, right?
Except, the way this advertisement frames nature is far from innocent. The ad makes it seem like kids find nature boring and are only excited about toys. Kids falling asleep while talking about leaves isn’t a surprise. Forcing kids to sit still on a bus for a few hours is never a good idea. Take them to a forest, do a scavenger hunt to find as many different types of leaves as possible, dig through the dirt with them… Kids love playing games outside, so turn learning about nature into a game.
Kids will forget about their brand new toy in no time, the fort they built with their friends in the forest however will be a happy memory. Toys”R”Us is trying to paint the picture that kids think nature is boring for obvious reasons. They want to sell toys, so making kids more interested in toys than in nature is the best way for them to increase sales. Because there is no profit in kids that go play outside with swords made of sticks.
Kids love playing games outside, so turn learning about nature into a game
Not only the stereotypes about kids preferring toys over nature are harmful, but especially the toy industry itself is bad for our environment. Richard Gottlieb, an analyst and publisher of Global Toy News: “The average life span of a toy fad is about eight months from its launch until it’s marked down.” Toys are not durable, easily disposed of and mostly made from plastic. According to a report published by the UN Environmental Programme, traditional plastic toys are not widely recycled, and in the UK alone 8.5m new and usable toys are landfilled every year.
The message this advertisement portrays is therefore harmful in many ways. It promotes an industry that pollutes our environment, while portraying kids as uninterested by nature. The ad might seem harmless on first glance, but never underestimate the hidden meaning behind these marketing tricks. If kids don’t care about nature, they also won’t care about the harmful impact disposable toys have on our environment. Therefore educating kids properly about nature and climate is key. Toys don’t make dreams come true, but nature can.
Sources: https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/9238
https://www.ngpf.org/blog/question-of-the-day/question-of-the-day-whats-the-average-lifespan-of-a-toy-fad/
Hallo, Gelsenkirchen! 
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