Yesterday my colleague instant messaged me a link to a story on Upworthy (my new fav media outlet). It was a video – actually, an ad – for GoldieBlox, a building toy for girls. #MindBlown.
As a woman, a mother, and a PR pro, it made we want to cheer/cry for joy/meet the obviously amazing folks who created the company and this genius spot. GoldieBlox is addressing a major – but often unspoken – social problem: our expectations for girls are too low and too narrow.
GoldieBlox’s mission is crystal clear from moment one: it’s a toy company focused on inspiring the next generation of female engineers. In a world where the Twitter IPO makes everyone suddenly notice the board, investors and executive team are nearly all men, this is something we need.
The ad is amazing for several reasons. It’s engaging, high energy, and playful, but, perhaps more importantly, it’s also strident, specific, and unapologetic. Plus, who doesn’t love the Beasties? GoldieBlox beats the boys though with their lyrics re-write.
They call out what’s wrong:
“You like to buy us pink TOYS and everything else is for BOYS and you can always get us DOLLS and we’ll grow up like them… FALSE! It’s time to CHANGE. We deserve to see a RANGE. ‘Cause all our toys look just the SAME. And we would like to use our BRAINS. We are all MORE THAN PRINCESS MAIDS.”
Then they create a vision of what can be so right:
“GIRLS to build the spaceship. GIRLS to code the new app. GIRLS to grow up knowing that they can engineer THAT! Our opportunity is GIRLS. Don’t underestimate GIRLS.”
This made me want to sing from the rooftops. I am not a good singer though, so instead I liked Goldieblox on Facebook, posted to Twitter about my instant crush, and voted YES to support them in their attempt to get this commercial aired during the Super Bowl. I also watched their founder, Debra Sterling, a Stanford engineering grad, talk about why she created GoldieBlox in this awesome video. Not only can they create an ad, but they can also follow through with an authentic, consistent, winning voice on their site? Swoon. We’re going to be at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair this weekend. Maybe they will be there too? Don’t call me a stalker!
Clearly I’m not alone in my sudden crush. Yesterday the video had a few thousand views. Today? Several million. You go GIRLS.
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