Oh! The Marketing!!! I have to have every piece - really! I do!! Or, do I??

           It was unfortunate, after reading, “Kiddie Pink,” that I realized having experienced girlhood in the late 70s, 80s and into the early 90s, that not much had really changed.  Charm schools weren’t necessarily being advertised, but there was definitely a huge push on Barbie dolls, doll sections in stores made up numerous aisles, and I remember a huge marketing push in my teens where everything was pink and purple.  I had a pink phone, a purple boom box, a pink alarm clock, a pink iron (for my room, because my dad wouldn’t use it – go figure), and hot pink bathroom mats.  It seemed like everything was “pink washed!”  This didn’t even begin to touch the Hello Kitty items for sale, and the boy band marketing taking place where NKOTB were concerned, and solo acts like Michael Jackson.

            So, yes!  Marketing to girls seems to play into class and acceptance in ways that other marketing takes place, but on a hyperactive level.  Girls are sold to differently, for certain.  They are sold to in collections, i.e., Polly Pockets, Barbie and all of her accessories, in kits, in many parts and pretty pieces.  There isn’t just a Caboodle case to carry a million pieces of make-up, but also the train case for traveling, the acrylic case for the vanity, the many tiny make up bags to take to work, school, and gym.  We are sold to, to have it all, to have every little pretty piece.  Wasn’t it enough to have Barbie?  Did we have to have her Jeep and Corvette, and swimming pool too?  Yes.  We did.  Because poor girls just had Barbie, but the girls with money had her camping set with vehicle, etc. 

            In girlhood, marketing takes place just as it does in womanhood.  They market the life you want.  They market to the life that a girl or woman wishes she had.  I sell houses.  Many times I have heard a woman say something to the effect of, “I have to have a house with a bay window by which I can put a reading area, to sit and read on Sunday mornings.”  After much rapport building and not being able to find the right setting within this woman’s price range, I ask the hard question, “How is your read/sitting area situated now?”  The answer usually reveals that this is what she wants, not what she has, and is a reflection of the life she wants, not the life she has.  Sunday mornings are usually crammed with getting kids ready for church, breakfast, laundry, homework, and make way for little sitting and reading time.  Girls and women often are marketed to for the life they want, the gathering of girl friends, the boyfriend, the full set of accessories marketed in the photo, commercial, or ad.  Into the golden years, after reading, it is apparent that we still fall into the same traps.  These women are being sold items that make life easier, because they can remember a time, when they had to do things the hard way.  They are buying the class and luxury they weren’t privy to when they were newlyweds or new brides (speaking to or against their own wishes).