Smyth's Toys advert in UK - 'If I Were a Toy'

Clippings from news sources involving fashion freedom and other gender equality issues.
User avatar
Pdxfashionpioneer
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 1650
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2015 6:39 am
Location: Portland, OR, USA

Re: Smyth's Toys advert in UK - 'If I Were a Toy'

Post by Pdxfashionpioneer »

That's a great story Ray! Well done on all of yours part!
David, the PDX Fashion Pioneer

Social norms aren't changed by Congress or Parliament; they're changed by a sufficient number of people ignoring the existing ones and publicly practicing new ones.
partlyscot
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 908
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2012 7:05 pm

Re: Smyth's Toys advert in UK - 'If I Were a Toy'

Post by partlyscot »

Ah! Finally looked at the various messages and figured out how to download it without signing into anything. Quite a neat little video, when he finds himself as a princess you can almost see him shrug and thing "Oh well, may as go with it" Nicely judged in my opinion, doesn't make a big thing of it and so makes it more effective I think.

Carl, once I downloaded it I found Dragon Player handled it fine on my Linux box.
User avatar
crfriend
Master Barista
Posts: 14431
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2004 9:52 pm
Location: New England (U.S.)
Contact:

Re: Smyth's Toys advert in UK - 'If I Were a Toy'

Post by crfriend »

partlyscot wrote:Ah! Finally looked at the various messages and figured out how to download it without signing into anything. Quite a neat little video, when he finds himself as a princess you can almost see him shrug and thing "Oh well, may as go with it" Nicely judged in my opinion, doesn't make a big thing of it and so makes it more effective I think.
The 'vert showed up in another YouTube selection and I managed to watch it that way. Yes, the lad gets dropped (quite literally) into the dress, has a moment of confusion, and then, yes, an "OK, may as well play it!" expression. Nicely done.

Thanks, everybody, for the suggestion of players. I'll take a look into those. One interesting thing, though, is that when I downloaded what I thought was going to be the actual MP4 file from Stevie D's dropbox account I wound up not with an MP4 file but a half-meg file full of JavaScript, all very carefully style-stripped so it was virtually unreadable.

Ray, that story of yours is priceless. Thanks for sharing it with us. It's astonishing that the lad's mum was able to climb down a little bit. Usually they don't and double-down instead.
Retrocomputing -- It's not just a job, it's an adventure!
Ray
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 1733
Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 7:03 am
Location: West Midlands, England, UK

Re: Smyth's Toys advert in UK - 'If I Were a Toy'

Post by Ray »

Carl, it was a joy to watch.

As soon as the young lad was told he could wear the dress, his face was like the clouds parting to reveal the sun in all its glory. I think he really wanted to show off how pretty he was. He was still acting like a boy - raining about, shouting excitedly, with no feminine traits - but he was in a purple princess dress with a flared skirt. You couldn't get him out of it. I think that his mum, socially conditioned to within an inch of her life, was nonplussed at the almost forceful way in which we were proving reassurance to her and encouragement to the little boy. It took her about 24 hours to relax - and the point was not lost on her. She got a far happier son.

I spent a lot of time with him, also running about like an idiot! I was afforded the ultimate compliment by both him and his slightly older, quieter, trouser wearing brother - on a 30 minute canal walk to a country pub, both insisted on holding my hand all the way there and back. To gain a child's trust is humbling. We have been the best of friends since (they call me StingRay!)
User avatar
Judah14
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 319
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 3:48 pm
Location: Philippines

Re: Smyth's Toys advert in UK - 'If I Were a Toy'

Post by Judah14 »

crfriend wrote: Thanks, everybody, for the suggestion of players. I'll take a look into those. One interesting thing, though, is that when I downloaded what I thought was going to be the actual MP4 file from Stevie D's dropbox account I wound up not with an MP4 file but a half-meg file full of JavaScript, all very carefully style-stripped so it was virtually unreadable.
If you use Flash and Video Downloader, available only for Firefox, you will get the full 8MB file from the Dropbox link.
らき☆
Post Reply