One of the most anti-feminist songs of the 1980s, "Girls" by the Beastie Boys, is recast as an empowering theme for young women in a new toy ad looking to break gender stereotypes.
The spot is a holiday promotion for GoldieBlox, a construction-themed board game that nearly doubled its Kickstarter goal in 2012. Game developer Debbie Sterling designed GoldieBlox to combine young girls' love of reading and characters with the engineering themes of toys typically more popular with boys, like Legos and erector sets. To that end, the ad features a massive Rube Goldberg scenario, designed by OK Go contraption collaborator Brett Doar. As the machine's workings unravel, the girls sing modified Beastie Boys lyrics: "It's time to change/We deserve to see a range/'Cause all our toys look just the same/And we would like to use our brains."
And this is just the start of what could be a crazy few months for GoldieBlox, as the company is one of four finalists angling for a free Super Bowl ad paid for by Intuit as part of a small-business contest.
Hat tip to @rjgnyc on Twitter.
CREDITS
Client: Goldieblox
Title: "Princess Machine"
Goldieblox CEO: Debbie Sterling
Goldieblox Creative Director: Beau Lewis
Goldieblox Machine Creative Director: Brett Doar
Production Company: The Academy
Director: Sean Pecknold
Co-Director: Zia Mohajerjasbi
Executive Producer: Harry Calbom
Production Designer: Jason Puccinelli
Editor: James Lipetzky (Foundation Content)
Asst. Editor: Jesse Richard (Foundation Content)
Post Producer: Stacy Paris (Foundation Content)
Line Producer: Mark Campbell
Production Supervisor: Sarah Archuleta
Steadicam: Ari Robbins
1st AC: Canh Nguyen
Gaffer: Osha Mattei
Key Grip: Michael Moeller
Swing: Bobby Bradshaw
Prop Master: Eric Lathrop
Art Intern: Chris Hannemann
Stylest: Alina Harden
Location Manager: John Schaunessy
Music: Pico Sound
Animation: Ed Skudder, Lynn Wang, Mike Holm
