I give you the Daisy pink BB gun. Are there a lot of little girls out there who want a BB gun for Christmas?
Too big, you say? There’s always the Walther on the left…
Anybody got another example of misguided marketing?
My daughter would probably love a BB gun for Christmas, but I’m afraid she’d shoot her eye out with it…;). I don’t think she’d really care if it’s pink, though. She might rather it wasn’t. She’s not all that girly.
Actually, if we had a good place to shoot it, I’d get it for her. She’s used one at Cub Scout family camp (where siblings, etc. are allowed to participate) and she’s a very good shot. Too bad Girl Scout camps (at least the ones we are familiar with) don’t have shooting ranges.
I’m not sure that your example is misguided marketing. I submit that there are girls who like to shoot, and girls that like the color pink. Frankly, I’m surprised it took so long.
I’ve also seen pink regular weapons, too, including a pink taser. Me, I’d prefer silver or black, only because they go with everything. 
Robin
Wow. Girls must have changed a lot since I was BB gun aged. The only one I’m close to is still into stuffed animals at age 11.
That’s just not right.
Guns are serious; pink is not a serious color (which is why the Breast Cancer Ribbon annoys me so much).
Do they come in red?
When I was about 11 or 12, I would have LOVED a BB gun, but not a pink one. I was quite a tomboy, and played with GI Joes and Erector sets (go ahead and make the puns) rather than Barbies and EZ Bake Ovens. My parents bought me the girly toys, mind you, but I’d go over to my friends’ (who were mostly boys) houses and play with their toys.
Not so misguided, there’s a not small contingent of girls who enjoy a wide range of activities who do not care whether that activity is though of as a “girls’ game” or a “boys’ hobby” or a “boys’ toy.” They are happy doing it all…so long as all the paraphenalia is pink.
Even though I totally dig that pink PPK, I agree with this sentiment. BB guns are toys, but you shouldn’t let kids know that.
My girl still likes stuffed animals, too. But, she is a good shot, and I think more girls would like shooting if they were given a chance to try it.
I could see a girl wanting a pink gun so that her brothers wouldn’t use it.
I’m very much a girly-girl, with a serious tomboy streak. I might have been climbing trees, building forts and inventing secret codes as a girl…but I also played with Barbies and did crafts. I also liked archery, and wish my brother would have let me use his BB gun more than he did. Hmmm…I think it might still be in the basement…
Our girls would love a pink BB gun. They’re both girly and outdoorsy. Sadly, they’re getting the plain one handed down from their stepbrothers.
I’ve seen online photos of a custom-detailed pink Hello Kitty AR-15. (I’d prefer a Badtz Maru version, myself.)
And as kids my sister and I did ask for a Daisy air rifle (a plain one), and received one. It had a compartment to hold BBs, and you could load in pellets via another slot. The worst stuff we did with it was pretty much just shooting at cans on a wooden sawhorse - and discovering how compressed that wood was when we hit the sawhorse instead and the BB would rebound and hit the aluminum siding on the garage behind us with a loud “whap”. Considering how far the BB had to travel on its outbound and inbound trip and still make that kind of noise, we got a little freaked out by the air rifle’s power.
How is that misguided? Quite frankly, I think it’s brilliant. Pull out a pink pistol and the person assaulting you is bound to confused long enough to give you the upper hand.
I almost bought that pink walther last time I went to the gun show.
I think my 6 year old daughter would love one but it is fairly likely that she would end up shooting me with so that is out for a few years at least.
Now if they were smart they’d sell Daisy pink BB’s for those guns.
The shooting range I go to most often has a small rack of single shot, bolt action .22 rifles sized for children. They come in walnut, whatever that weird green/red/brown/grey wood is and pink.
Lots of shooters get their children involved in the shooting sports at a young age. It’s a great way to teach them responsibility and safety. It’s also much more effective, in the instances I’ve seen, than the: IT’S A GUN! DON’T TOUCH IT! RUN AWAY IN FEAR IF YOU EVER ENCOUNTER ONE! mindset that does nothing in a child but instill a curiousity that’s incredibly dangerous when it’s bolstered by ignorance and just what a kid has seen on TV.
My dad first took me shooting when I was 6, with a single shot .22 he’d bought when he was 14. Anytime thereafter, if I wanted to see one of the guns, I’d ask, he’d take it out, have me check to make sure it was unloaded and answer any questions I had. It took away the allure of the forebidden and instilled a healthy respect that I have to this day.
You’re right, it’s brilliant.
I still don’t approve of little pink girls with little pink guns (well, little girls of any hue).
I’d rather teach them unarmed combat first. Knife fights mano a mano with a pink scarf?
I’m serious (about the unarmed combat, not the knives); it’s a mean world, and we do our little sisters no favors protecting them to the degree that the threat of violence paralyzes them.
If we want traditionally-gender-inappropriate toys, we can buy them math games. Barbie budgeting for her Spring Wardrobe? Maximizing her storage space in a closet? Evaluating taste value v. food bulk for a given amount of calories?
What about boys? What toys or games can we dress up in blue for them?
They have G.I. Joe, but is there an Emeril Bake Oven?