瑪莎百貨將使用中性玩具包裝

Marks & Spencer has agreed to make the packaging of all of its toys gender neutral by spring 2014, after customers complained that it was marketing items according to stereotypes.

Customers contacted M&S to complain at a range of toys called "Boy's Stuff", which included planes, cars, dinosaurs, racing cars, cat toys, a marble run and a pop-up fire station.

The description on the latter said: "This pop up fire station is perfect for little fire men everywhere", while the description of a watch in the same range read: "The perfect wrist accessory no boy should be without," and a joke book read: "Boys know the best jokes and here are 500 crackers to keep you ahead of the girls."

The Boy's Stuff range will be rebranded to use a simple graphic logo, while the "Little Miss Arty" range will become "Poppy and Blue", using character-based branding.

M&S told the Guardian it was already in the process of updating its policy but this became public when it responded to a specific criticism on Twitter by Labour MP Stella Creasy. It Tweeted back: "Hi Stella, we've listened to customer feedback and by spring next year all of our toys will be gender neutral. Thanks."

M&S said in a statement: "We offer a wide range of fun and educational toys, which are designed to appeal to children regardless of gender. We have listened carefully to feedback from our customers and by spring next year all of our toys will be gender neutral."

Meanwhile, the number of shops organising their toy departments into separate sections for boys and girls has fallen by 60% in the past year, following pressure on retailers from shoppers and campaigners, it has been claimed.

Campaign group Let Toys be Toys said reports from the high street suggested that a fifth of stores were still organising their toy sections by gender rather than genre, compared to half in the runup to Christmas 2012.

The group, which started in November 2012, has been calling on retailers to end gender-stereotyping in toy departments which has seen some display play kitchens and colouring sets under "girls" signs and science sets and doctor's costumers under "boys" signs.據英國《衛報》報道，瑪莎百貨同意在2014年春季之前爲所有的玩具換上性別中立的包裝。此前顧客抱怨瑪莎百貨根據性別成見進行市場營銷。

顧客聯繫瑪莎百貨，投訴該商場將一系列商品歸類爲“男孩玩具”，包括玩具飛機、小汽車、恐龍、賽車、貓、單子和彈出式消防站。

其中，彈出式消防站玩具的說明上寫道：“這個彈出式消防站非常適合各地的小消防員”。這一系列中的一款玩具手錶也有這樣的說明：“最完美的腕部配件，所有的男孩都不應錯過”。還有一本笑話書上則寫道：“男孩子們知道最厲害的笑話，這本書裏有500則幫助你領先女孩兒的爆笑祕籍”。

“男孩玩具”區域已經重新掛牌，換成一個簡單的圖形標誌，而“女孩藝術”區域被重命名爲“波比和布魯”並使用人物形象的標牌。

瑪莎百貨向《衛報》表示，正在進行政策修訂流程，但是在回答工黨議員史黛拉•克里希發佈在推特上的批評時被公開。瑪莎百貨在推特上回應稱：“史黛拉您好，我們已經聽取顧客的反饋，會在明年春季前將所有玩具換成中性的包裝。非常感謝”。

瑪莎百貨發表聲明：“我們提供大量有趣而富有教育意義的玩具，爲所有兒童的需求而設計而不針對性別。我們已經認真聽取顧客們的反饋，將在明年春季前將所有玩具換成中性的包裝”。

同時，瑪莎百貨表示，在顧客和社會活動者對零售商的壓力下，將男孩與女孩的玩具分在不同區域的商店數量在去年下降了60%。

“讓玩具成爲玩具”活動小組說，來自主要街道的調查報告顯示，五分之一的店鋪仍然以性別而不是風格爲標準對玩具分類，而這一數據在2012年聖誕到來之際曾高達50%。

“讓玩具成爲玩具”成立於2012年十一月，旨在呼籲零售商停止玩具部門的性別成見，諸如在“女孩”的標示下襬上玩具廚房和塗色集，而科學裝置和醫生服裝則被歸在“男孩”的標示下。