NERF Gun is the toy I play when I was little. It is a very popular toy in the world. Almost all the male have played it when they were little. NERF is reinforcing dominant ideologies and a little bit challenging ideologies. I am going to discuss about the advertisements of the toy, the ideologies assumptions and the effects on children to prove the statement.
A gun, everyone knows that the function is to fire bullets. Nerf is a toy brand created by Parker Brothers in 1970. Most of the toys are a variety of foam-based weaponry. Maverick REV-6 is one of the guns. It released in 2013. To reload, user must first drop the turret by pushing the turret's button. To prime the blaster, the user must pull slide back and let it return to its original position. Pull the trigger to fire a dart.
Boys above eight years old are NERF’s target market for the toy. NERF promote its toy through their website and lots of videos. In the website, blue is the main colour. There are also online games in the website. There are lots of video. There are only males and different guns are showed in the videos. Most of them are action video about shooting target accurately on moving. All of these promotional materials are reinforce dominant ideologies. On the other hand, since 2013, NERF create Nerf Rebelle series for the girls. It began to challenge dominant ideologies. The colour and size are totally different with the boy’s gun. Blue is the main colour of boy’s gun. On the other hand, pink and purple is the main colour of girl’s gun. Most of the boy’s guns are larger than girl’s. NERF is reinforcing dominant ideologies and a little bit challenging ideologies.
There is a clear dominant ideology in the society. Boys are highlighted that they like competition, destroy, control, power and conquering. On the other hand, girls are highlighted that they like homemaking, domestic work, popularity and beauty. NERF’s toys also represent the power, competitiveness and aggressive to the children. Behaviors that NERF promote are radical and solve problem by force. It let people to believe that they should protect and fight for what they think is right. Aggressive and active are taught by the toy to those who play with
