1950s-style Mothercare adverts provoke outrage from parents
THEY’RE not images likely to be immediately appealing to many of today’s little girls.
But these Mothercare photos of young girls dressed as 1950s’ housewives and playing with cleaning toys have appealed even less to their parents.
The ‘irresponsible’ and ‘sexist’ stereotypes used on the website of the brand’s Early Learning Centre store have been met with fury by mothers and campaigners.
They accused the adverts for the toys – which are claimed to ‘introduce children to real life’ – of promoting outdated attitudes towards girls and women, and enforcing ‘lazy stereotypes’. In the photos, used to advertise products in ELC’s ‘Playing House’ range, a young girl can be seen with rollers in her hair and wearing a vintage spotty dress while pretending to vacuum.
Another girl, also in hair rollers, is seen happily playing with a cleaning trolley.
Sam Smethers, of equal opportunities group The Fawcett Society, said: ‘What is Mothercare doing? Young girls need their world to be opened up for them not reduced to aprons and vacuum cleaners. This is so irresponsible. It proves...how easy it is for us to slip back into lazy stereotypes.’ And campaign group Let Toys Be Toys, which calls for the end of gender-based toys, has raised the issue with advertising watchdogs.
Many appalled mothers threatened to boycott Mothercare over the photos.
Sanel Djemal tweeted: ‘I love @MothercareUK and #elc but after seeing this I will have to go to somewhere else for toys.’
Mothercare said: ‘Our aim is to offer a wide range of toys to appeal to the many different tastes and play interests of little ones ... We feature both boys and girls playing with a range of household items.’