News + Trends
Revealed: The hidden messages in Comité de Proyectos' wardrobe collection
by Pia Seidel
Pink merchandise vs. real empowerment: new projects from Lego and Barbie
3.7.2025
Translation: machine translated
Encouragement and equal opportunities for girls are the focus of two current campaigns by well-known toy brands. However, the approaches could not be more different.
Girls are still heavily underrepresented in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), which is also due to the fact that they are denied the necessary skills in advance.
Lego wants to use «She built that» this year to make women more visible as role models for children. The starting point for this is a survey with 32,605 participants (2,1257 parents and 1,1348 children aged between five and 15) commissioned by the toy giant.
Who invented it?
Windscreen wipers (Mary Anderson) or the basics of Wi-Fi technology (Hedy Lamarr) were invented by women, but this is hardly recognised by the general public. This was the result of a Lego survey in which adults and children worldwide were asked to categorise inventions by gender. It also revealed that inventions associated with the household are more likely to be assigned to women, although the opposite is often true. For example, the modern car heater was invented by a woman, but 82 per cent of adults assigned it to a man.
As the survey also revealed, technical, analytical and creative activities and skills tend to be attributed to boys and men. 45 per cent of parents in Germany surveyed in the study stated that «being able to build something well» is associated with men by society.
The survey concludes that parents, families and guardians, the media and society still assign stereotypes to children and thus influence the play behaviour and self-perception of girls.
Campaign «She built that»
Lego now wants to tackle this with the campaign «She built that» and create visibility. Author Annahita Esmailzadeh puts it this way in the press release: «'If you never see someone like yourself being successful in a certain field, you are less likely to consider going down that path yourself. We need real people as role models.»
The official video for the campaign shows self-confident girls demonstrating their creativity.
There will be special promotions and play experiences in selected Lego stores. On the website, virtual creative workshops invite you to simply get started and build. The basic message is always «be who you are and trust in your abilities». A playful form of encouragement.
I think that's good. As the father of two daughters who are now grown up, I remember the looks on their faces when they were both enthusiastic about «typically male» sports. «Is that what you really want? But isn't that a tough men's sport?» That's what the parents say. And the children too. According to her reports, my daughter's first few weeks on her advanced physics course were also more like «rustic». So encouragement is still necessary.
Barbie and Condor and their new licence partnership
Condor, on the other hand, is pursuing a completely different principle of self-empowerment, if you want to call it that at all. The airline is focussing on Barbie - and lots of pink.
«Barbie's mission to empower girls and help them develop their own potential through inspiring role models is given access to a colourful world of diverse opportunities by Condor.» This is how the press release on the new licence partnership between Barbie and the airline Condor begins.
The joint campaign «Barbie loves Condor» is intended to symbolise courage, imagination and big dreams. An exclusive collection will be available in the Condor shop from July. Consisting of a T-shirt, shopper bag and beach towel. In pink.
Source: Mattel
at the start of the partnership.
Condor also plans to offer the collection on flights from August. And there will be raffles to win a behind-the-scenes tour of Frankfurt Airport and a travel voucher worth 2,000 euros.
I have so far lacked the imagination to discover the place in the Condor partnership where girls are empowered and inspired. But maybe one of you will succeed.
Header image: Lego
Hamburg local, bookworm, and ice hockey fan. Dad and granddad. Constantly tinkering around with my smart home setup. I love DIY, the outdoors, fashion, and cosmetics.
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