A startup toymaker urging young girls to shun TV pitches for frilly playthings and instead choose to (literally) build grand dreams on Sunday ran for a few precious seconds with the ad world's - yes - big boys.
True to its own message, Oakland-based GoldieBlox conquered 20,000 business rivals and earned a free slot during the Super Bowl's commercial parade as part of a national contest sponsored by Intuit.
Draped across on a girl-sung parody of "Come on Feel the Noise," (instead of the Beastie Boys' "Girls," -- an earlier choice that sparked a legal squabble), the ad shows a swarm of girls dragging, pushing, and pedaling their pink-hued dollhouses, bikes, strollers, and stuffed animals to a park.
There, the enthusiastic pack fashions their feminine baubles into a rocket, which they then launch into the sky while vowing to themselves "fly, fly, fly."
GoldieBlox founder Debbie Sterling, an engineer, launched the toy company to encourage more American girls to veer toward engineering, math and science by designing games that teach girls how to construct from scratch.
Sterling's small firm was launched through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in 2012.