Remember the pink toy irons that Marks & Sparks is hawking to girls? Well, I was moved to write a letter of complaint as well as just blog about it, and got this reply:

Thank you very much for your comments about our toy range.

At M&S customer comments are very important to us. We always welcome ideas about ways in which we can improve our products and services, and so I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us.

I can assure you that our range of children’s toys is in no way designed to enforce gender stereotypes. We do not believe that this is indeed the case and the vast majority of our customers have no problem whatsoever with the range we have on sale.

Nevertheless, I would like you to know that I have already passed your suggestion on to our buying department who I know will give this careful consideration.

Thank you again for taking the time to write. I hope you will continue to enjoy shopping with us in the future.

Kindest Regards, Michael

Michael Duxbury Retail Customer Services Chester Business Park

Feel free to email Duxbury and ask for clarification on how it is that marketing toy irons to girls, not boys, and selling them in pink, not blue, could possibly be interpretted as being “in no way designed to enforce gender stereotypes”.

Posted by Jess McCabe on 28 January 2008, at 1:45 PM