Kinder Surprise releases a line of chocolate eggs just for girls, but who are they really appealing to?
By David Ly
Photos by Mark Burnham
How could any of us ever forget eating Kinder Surprise eggs, and getting the sweet little toy inside them? Whether it was a helicopter complete with rotating propellers, a challenging seven-piece puzzle, or even a figurine the size of your thumb, it didn’t matter if the surprise you got adhered to your birth-assigned gender, just as long as there was one. But not anymore.
Having appealed to children for decades now with surprises including over 8,000 toys, the creation of a new line of eggs titled “Kinder Surprise for Girls” seems pointless. I remember hearing one of their commercials advertising that now, “Everyone can enjoy Kinder Surprise!” But since when did everyone not include girls? I don’t know about you, but growing up surrounded by few guy friends, I remember my female friends being extremely excited to get a Kinder Surprise toy, regardless of whether it was a cute necklace or a cool fire truck.
Now, Kinder Surprise eggs come in two types of packaging: the regular one we are all used to seeing (despite our gender), and a newly designed wrapper that is prettily decorated with a pink flower on the top, supposedly only targeting little girls.
Do we really need to distinguish what toys boys and girls can and cannot play with? For such an iconic product, Kinder Surprise eggs should realize the impact they could have on young children: making them think that a pink figurine is not for a boy, and perpetuating dumb gender stereotypes.
We’re living in an age now where society is becoming more accepting of the blurring of gender boundaries, so why brainwash kids through chocolate eggs to think otherwise?
The creation of this new “girls only” line is contradictory to the company’s already-diverse market appeal. In Europe, the Kinder phenomenon is quite large. The surprises in the eggs have become so accommodating over there that they include hand-painted figurines, religious figurines of baby Jesus and the three kings, and even collectible metallic ones.
I don’t understand how Kinder Surprise could create such a variety of products without naming them “for Christians!” but feel the need to distinguish chocolate with jewelry and cute animals inside as “for girls.” I thought they have been doing a pretty swell job of already appealing to every kid’s need for a sweet little toy in an even sweeter wrapping.
Yes, a well-deserved round of applause for the new wrapping, as the design is quite well done, but as for the rest of the idea, I’m not going to throw any eggs into the basket! Kids are kids; a toy inside a chocolate egg is already good enough. It’s already ridiculous that McDonalds asks whether the toy in a happy meal you’re getting is for a boy or girl. Do we really need to take the surprise out of Kinder Surprises?
