Lego Ends Marketing of Different Toys at Girls and Boys

(Bloomberg) -- Lego Group will no longer target some toy sets at girls and others at boys to help break stereotypes about how children play, ending years of gender-based marketing.

The decision comes after a survey commissioned by the Danish company showed that most children see toys as being for one or the other gender. Lego isn’t planning to change its products but will stop segmenting them into gender categories, Lena Dixen, a senior vice president at the world’s largest toymaker, told broadcaster TV2.

Read more: Lego Promises Toys for Christmas as Supply Lines Are Secured

Three out of four boys believe that some toys are only for girls and some are only for boys, while 62% of girls held the same view, according to the survey. Parents help perpetuate the idea: they are more likely to encourage their sons (59%) to play with Legos than their daughters (48%). Participating in the survey were 7,000 parents and children, 6 to 14 years old, from across the world, TV2 said. 

“Playing is still gendered to such a degree that even though our new survey shows that girls are ready to throw themselves into all kinds of play, the world is not quite ready to meet their desires,” Dixen said, according to TV2.

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