Gender-bending Lego ad remixer mashes up ninjas, puppies


Gendered Lego Advertising Remixer
Something about this just doesn't click. Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET

I don't mean to sound all crotchety and old, but back when I was a kid, our Legos didn't have genders. All Legos were for everybody.

My brother and I shared the same pile of bricks and Lego figures. I didn't feel slighted that our little yellow people were missing pink skirts and sassy ponytails.

Lego recently debuted a new line of toys for girls . The Lego Friends wear skirts, have puppies, play dress-up, and hang out in a candy-colored cafe. Meanwhile, the boys' Lego characters are fighting space battles, capturing dinosaurs, and sailing pirate ships.

The HTML5 Gendered Lego Advertising Remixer shines a light on the gender divide in toy advertising. There's one world for girls and an entirely different world for boys.

The remixer superimposes the audio or video from girl-focused Lego ads with audio or video from boy-focused ads. It's both disturbing and hilarious to hear a macho guy command you to freeze skeletons in their tracks while wide-eyed Lego ladies bake a cake.

Here's hoping enterprising young girls make their own stereotype-smashing Lego mashups. There's no reason why the Lego Friends can't escape the Ninjago turbo shredder's gnashing teeth and battle the ice dragon. That sounds like a lot more fun than hanging out in a beauty salon all day.

Lego Friends at the cafe
Lego Friends at the cafe. The laser guns and battle tanks must be tucked away behind the counter. Lego


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