Well, the toaster oven is fine. I think. I haven't used it yet. It's the packaging. When I got it home, I noticed this image on the side of the box. Once I started really looking at it, I said, out loud, to no one in particular, There is nothing about this image that is ok.
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| Happy Family Togetherness? Look Again. |
At first glance, you might think, What's the issue? It's happy family having a happy breakfast. What's better than that? But look again.
The first thing I noticed is that the male family members are in the foreground, sitting at the table, enjoying breakfast, while the female family members are way in the back, in the kitchen area, and even blurred out beyond recognition. Heck, I didn't even see the little girl the first few times I looked at the image, she's that unimportant to the scene.
And even the little boy is a little blurred. So really, the man is the only person in focus in the image. Plus, his is the only visible smile. Any sense this has of a "happy family" image comes from the man. It's not really the "family togetherness" image it looks like on the surface. Deep down, it looks to me like a "women stay in the kitchen while the man happily partakes of their work and passes the arrangement on to their reluctant male offspring" image! I mean, the poor boy looks pretty bored. I bet he'd rather be playing with his sister!
Maybe the marketers are thinking this says: Your family will enjoy time together based around food you make in this toaster oven. And at a glance, that may be the takeaway. With an only slightly deeper look, though, it says this: Your man will be happy with the food you make for him with this toaster oven. He'll even pay attention to the (male) children, while you and your daughter(s) stay behind the scenes, obscured, looking on, integral to the family's survival but with no real part or identity within it.
And that's a message I'm not ok with, Black & Decker. Not ok with at all.
