skirtcafe.org

UK toy store, Smyths, has a new animation advert out with a song 'If I Were a Toy'.
A young boy expresses his desires of what he would do if he had the freedom to be a toy for the day. One of his wishes is to be 'Queen of the land' accompanied by a animation sequence of him dropping into a lovely regal dress and waving to his loyal subjects. He then moves on to other roles - piloting an aircraft, etc..

It's all very charming and the queen section, although brief, is made with no hint of embarrassment or that it is somehow inappropriate for a boy to play at being a pretty young woman, which of course it isn't. I hope our youngsters (and their parents) take this in their stride. Full marks to the toy company and the film makers for starting to leave gender stereotyping behind, hopefully for good.

Here's the link to the video, which I hope is available to folks outside the UK.
https://youtu.be/jitdxQpsHbE

The 'queen' section is very brief, from time 0:11 to 0:16, so you'll need to watch and listen carefully.

Sorry I got a "Not Available in your Country" message.

hoborob wrote:Sorry I got a "Not Available in your Country" message.

Same here - Irving, Texas, USA

John

Hmm... OK, I was afraid of that.

Try this link:
NEW LINK if you are outside the UK:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbgwsdzzr3e2y2m/Toy.mp4?dl=0

UK viewers should be OK with the original Youtube link:
https://youtu.be/jitdxQpsHbE

Stevie D wrote:Try this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xnr47pdi08s5ht/Toy.mp4?dl=0

Drat. I need to find a Linux-based MP4 player....

What can I say but, "Cool Commercial". Thanks for the link.

Lovely advert - Smyth's showing real progressive values.

Well done! I like the expressions on his face: He looks a little perplexed, as though he's thinking "Why am I wearing this dress? Oh well, I'll just make a go of it and see what happens"

Also, this... since the clip referenced Toy Story a few times. To infinity... and beyond!

crfriend wrote:

Stevie D wrote:Try this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xnr47pdi08s5ht/Toy.mp4?dl=0

Drat. I need to find a Linux-based MP4 player....

It took some doing, apparently I don't have a program on my computer to open an mp4, so I accessed the link from my smart phone, yet still for some reason it wouldn't play, I had to actually download the file to my smart phone and play it that way.

A neat little commercial, but I don't understand what all the copyright/nation blocking is all about.... I thought the U.S. and U.K. played nice on such matters...

crfriend wrote:

Stevie D wrote:Try this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xnr47pdi08s5ht/Toy.mp4?dl=0

Drat. I need to find a Linux-based MP4 player....

VLC Media Player plays MP4 well on my GNU/Linux computer. I recommend it for video playback, whatever operating system you use.

Stevie D wrote:Hmm... OK, I was afraid of that. Try this link: NEW LINK if you are outside the UK: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbgwsdzzr3e2y2m/Toy.mp4?dl=0

All I get is a 404 message when I try it.

Fred

Franinskirts wrote:

Stevie D wrote:Hmm... OK, I was afraid of that. Try this link: NEW LINK if you are outside the UK: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbgwsdzzr3e2y2m/Toy.mp4?dl=0

All I get is a 404 message when I try it.

Hmm...
The file is still available on my Dropbox account. Not sure why you get the 404 message. Other people in your continent seem to have success.
You do need to have cookies enabled on your browser in order to view the file. If you have cookies blocked, this might be causing the problem.

I recall, about 5 years ago, a friend's 6 year old son going through a phase of wearing princess dresses. There were about 5 couples away one weekend including the couple with the fashion forward son. He was clearly upset at something, and on questioning, the mother grimly, and in an embarrassed tone, told us that the young lad was upset because he wasn't allowed to wear his princess dress. What then happened was remarkable. We all said, what's the problem? He's experimenting! It's a costume! More pushback from the (slightly rigidly conformist) mother. Peer pressure from all of us (I was diplomatic in my suggestions!).

End result? One very happy boy, whizzing about in his Disney princess dress, one surprised and increasingly relaxed mum, and a bunch of us looking on at the sheer joy of a young boy being allowed to be who he wanted to be.

Four years later, he's outgrown the dress phase, but he retains a wonderful sense of self which may manifest itself in other ways. Even if he never wears a dress again, it's by choice, not coercion.

Stevie D wrote:

Franinskirts wrote:

Stevie D wrote:Hmm... OK, I was afraid of that. Try this link: NEW LINK if you are outside the UK: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbgwsdzzr3e2y2m/Toy.mp4?dl=0

All I get is a 404 message when I try it.

Hmm...
The file is still available on my Dropbox account. Not sure why you get the 404 message. Other people in your continent seem to have success.
You do need to have cookies enabled on your browser in order to view the file. If you have cookies blocked, this might be causing the problem.

It just worked for me once I closed the Dropbox signup window.
My Firefox install is set have some cookies accepted, just not third party cookies.