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Comment by ars | Hacker News Reader

That doesn't make any sense at all.

OK, by their logic they want boys to watch the show so they'll buy toys.

What do they care if girls also watch? It not like it hurts them - they just don't get the potential benefit.

This makes so little sense that I don't believe a word of this article. Either it's fake or someone edited it in a slanted way.

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I'm going to guess they think if girls are watching it, boys aren't. Gaining 20% girls/parents might end up costing them 10% boys, which they presume might end up being a net loss for them.

He mentioned Cartoon Network specifically. On the other hand, Nick has fantastic shows for people of all ages and genders. I am a huge fan of Korra. A friend of mine started watching Avatar with her son a few years ago and told me to check it out. After Avatar ended, we continued to watch Korra and it is such a great show with strong backstories on almost all the primary characters. If I had a daughter, I'd buy her a Korra doll, video game, and craft supplies. I don't know why Cartoon Network thinks girls aren't profitable.

Since we're on the subject, Korra actually had a hard time to be greenlit for the same reason. Nick was scared that boys wouldn't watch the show even after the success of Avatar, the Last Air Bender. Well they still bet on the series and thankfully their fears were proven wrong.

While Korra is still ok, it's nowhere near as good as the Last Air Bender for reasons that have nothing to do with the gender of the protagonist.

That is ridiculous. The production values in Korra have been much better than in Last Air Bender, including the animation and the music (especially the music!). The story has been very fast paced with absolutely no filler episodes, with a lot of character development to boot. Going back and watching Last Air Bender, you can tell how much they've learned!

I disagree. The storyline and themes may be different from the first series, but like its predecessor it's a show that both parents and children (both boys and girls) can enjoy.

I forgot to mention Adventure Time since we're talking about Cartoon Network. Since both boys and girls enjoy it, I guess that's another exception to the rule. I guess this is why no one will take Bee and Puppycat. They mentioned the same obstacles in their kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frederator/bee-and-puppy...

Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems as if they don't really mean they don't want girls to watch, so much as they don't want to target girls. I'm guessing that they think there's no way to write stories that will appeal to both sexes (which is completely stupid as many shows have appeal to both). Unfortunately, it seems like it's mostly due to the higher-ups in the networks that make these decisions (probably due to antiquated thinking).

By targeting one gender, rather than both, advertising execs can ask for more money than a "generic" multiple gender ad. It's stupid.

Why do you think that is stupid?

Stupid was the wrong word. I understand marketing, and segmenting of markets quite well, it just frustrates me sometimes that it's a better choice economically, then just ignoring stuff like that and making awesome content. /shrugs

That seems fair, we must also keep in mind that public companies are legally bound to maximize profits for their shareholders. Being altruistic is something only privately held companies can do at the expense of profits.

Not stupid, sociopathically greedy. There's a difference, although they can sometimes seem the same.

True... I'm guessing what they're getting at is that the execs want to focus on the boys at the expense of the girls - they'd rather have just 60 boys watching the show than 50 boys and 50 girls, because it's only boys who are going to be getting the toys under their Christmas tree, and 60 > 50.

I think the implication is that all the time girls spend watching "boys shows" is time they're not focusing on "girls shows", therefore they're losing those marketing minutes.

Good answer above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6919928

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