Strollerderby : advertisements

YOU say: I got fooled (update to "They USED to say: give babies cola")

Brett Singer — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT

UPDATE: The ad appears to be a big ol' fake. I'm not too proud to admit that I was fooled. (More true confessions: when I was younger someone once told me that the word 'gullible' wasn't in the dictionary. My honest reply - "Really?")

However, judging by the comments on the original post (see below) there are several people who seem to feel that babies should be drinking a little Co-Cola with their formula or breast milk. I was pretty surprised by that -- it's one thing to say that a kid should be allowed to have a sip of soda, but quite another to say that soda is something they should be drinking. Seems weird to me. Anyone else?

Original post, and comments, follow:

*-*-*-*-*

We all know that, on occasion, advertisements can offer some fairly crappy advice. Back in the day, though, ads had no shame.

Here's a great example: "For a better start in life, start COLA earlier!"

Why give your kids cola? Well, according to the ad, it "Promotes Active Lifestyle!" And also "Boosts Personality!" Plus, it "Gives body essential sugars!" (Well-written piece, don't you think?)

ESSENTIAL SUGARS. Love it.

Do you let your kids drink soda? What age did you give it to them?

Source: digg

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It all started when Mary needed a laxative

Brett Singer — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Old advertisements are the gift that keeps on giving.

Take this gem, posted on BoingBoing, found originally at the Learning 2 Share blog. A few favorite lines:

"It all started when Mary needed a laxative."
"I'd seen those laxative tantrums before."
"I asked [the school nurse] for advice. She knows so much more about children."
"All mothers should think more about the laxative they give their children…Forcing a child to take a bad-tasting laxative can shock her delicate nervous system."
And, once mom tries the product, Fletcher's Castoria:
"[Mary] hugged me and said I was the best mommy in the world!"

And of course, "it all started when Mary needed a laxative."

Because, you see, if you don't give your child a good tasting laxative, you are a crappy parent. No pun intended.

source: boingboing, via learning2share

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McDonalds Wants to Sell Your Kids Hamburgers and Sex

Cole Gamble — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:49:00 GMT

You don’t need me to tell you McDonald’s is marketing to your kids. They want to snag your juniors early and mold them into lifetime users. In America, McDonald’s ropes tikes in with Playlands, toys in meals and easy going clown/nightmare fodder Ronald McDonald. Japanese McDonald’s, however, know what your kids really want: sex.

It’s only a matter of time before us puritanical Americans catch up with those forward thinking Japanese and give a sex overhaul to our beloved brands. I’m looking forward to the Pillsbury Dough Boy as portrayed by a Pussycat Doll. Poke her in the stomach and you’ll get a surprise. Then there’s Hugh Hefner’s polygamous trio of playboy bunnies as Snap, Crackle and Pop. Charlie the Tuna: Courtney Love. All of it will make you way hungrier for crescent rolls, rice crispies and canned fish and totally won’t leave you feeling creepy for being aroused.

I have to add this bit. When accused that burgers are detrimental to the Japanese diet, Den Fujita, the first McDonald's Japan president, said: "The reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for 2,000 years. If we eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white and our hair blond."

Gives me a few ideas for new McDonald’s slogans:

McDonald’s: Official Hamburger of the Aryan Race.

McDonalds: Hey Japan, want a burger? No? How about a little Asian on Asian racism? Now you want a burger?

McDonald’s: Sex, Stereotypes and Shakes.

Feel free to compare the above video to this one of the OG Ronald. You've come a long way, baby!

Wimpy Obesity Campaign, But the Whole Idea Is Junk, Really

Kelly Mills — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:36:00 GMT

There's a story on how critics say the U.S. government's public health campaign on obesity is too tame to do any good. The campaign, called "Small Steps," advocates healthier snacks and using the stairs, but some health groups say the ads won't effect meaningful change because they aren't hard-hitting enough. Interestingly, in the middle of the article on MSNBC was a Hoodia weightloss spot showing an obese woman rapidly shrinking. Ha! But here's my favorite part:

Young viewers pay more attention to ads that evoke feelings of personal loss, sadness, anger, disgust or fear, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kids also tend to remember such ads longer.

That drama is lacking in the obesity spots — for example, none have offered a surgeon's view of fat, or dramatized a death from Type 2 diabetes, or shown a person complaining about how a fat neighbor's medical bills are costing taxpayers.

Oh yeah, I'm sure the kids would be just scared healthy by a spot on wasted taxpayer money. But really, is that the route to go? Second-hand money wasting? Look, one part of the problem is addressed at the end of the article: there's a serious reluctance to criticize the junk food industry in these ads. Imagine if the anti-smoking campaigns just told people to smoke less and breathe more clean air.

And here's the other reason I doubt any massive obesity awareness campaign is gonna have the desired effect. The prescription is different than in something like smoking. With smoking, the public health world took on the cigarette companies, were very unambiguous about the effects of smoking, and showed people how second-hand smoke could be harmful as well. But obesity? First of all, people do have to eat, so there's no abstinence solution, and second, there's already a stigma around obesity, so I doubt it has to be made unglamorous (as in the case of smoking.) And third, I don't think we have ever given people very clear guidelines about what and how to eat or how much to exercise or what kind to do and so on. Really. Forty bajillion articles on diet and exercise and I think people are still just lost at sea.

Micheal Pollan's NY Times article on food confusion remains one of the best things I've seen on the subject. Until we can give folks crystal-clear direction, I doubt we'll see much change.

Kid's TV Food Ads are Supposed to Improve, Sort Of

Karen Murphy — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:29:00 GMT

Yep, lots of people want to blame the fat-kid problem on junk food ads on TV, and the jury's still out on that one. But meanwhile, eleven of the U.S.'s biggest kid's food advertisers have agreed to new standards of the products they advertise.

Sounds good in theory, doesn't it?

But the reality is a bit, well, watered down. For instance, Campbell's will advertise its low-sodium soup as opposed to regular old chicken-noodle. Trix won't advertise until it changes its formula (WHAT?? Mess with Trix?!! Sacrilege!). And McDonald's will still advertise, of course. Only it will be for kid's meals limited to 600 calories or fewer. So kids can still see junk food, only, what, in smaller portions? Reduced-fat? Couldn't we just have ads that didn't actually feature any junk food? Or is that too much to ask?

Yeah. I know the answer to that one. But consider this: will the new initiative cause more marketers to actually change their products or will they simply spend less on kid's advertising and spend their dollars elsewhere? A Nickelodeon spokesman predicted their financial impact from loss of advertising revenue based on the new standards would be “a non-issue” because most products advertised already fit the criteria have plans for reformulation.

So like I said, the changes won't amount to much in practice. Oh well.

Kids and Cigarettes: A Match Made in Heaven

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:29:00 GMT

When we were very young and very stupid, and when we couldn't pilfer smokes from older brothers or fathers, my friends and I would find discarded cigarettes outside of stores and strip clubs and hepatitis clinics, give them a good brush on the jeans and light them up.

I think we were role models for the cigarette industry -- the perfect dupes so enthralled by the coolness of smoking that we risked contracting scary hobo germs to do it.

Just one. That's all the industry is banking on. That just one of us would get hooked. The Seattle PI's daddy blog -- "Working Dad" -- links to a scary stat showing that 4,000 kids smoke their first cigarette each day -- and 1 in 4 of them gets hooked.

Thank god Joe Camel is dead, right? Kids no longer have anything to fear.

Think again.

The anti-smoking group The Truth has a new commercial showing the impact mascots can have on kids. And Camel has again come under fire for its No. 9 brand -- marketed in hot pink toward girls. "Barbie Camel," it's being called.

I have no idea what I'm going to tell my daughter when she tries her first cigarette -- and she will at some point or another, I don't think any amount of parenting can stop that. I just hope she won't become the just one.

TV Marketers (Wisely) Turn to Mommy Bloggers

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:37:00 GMT

Marketers have finally discovered the unique genius of appealing to the blogosphere. Mommy bloggers in particular. We're a virally communicatin' bunch. Plus, we're not afraid to show skin in support of a breastfeeding starlet or 10, or promote a TV show if it comes to that.

Yvonne Marie, author of Joy Unexpected and contributor to Babble's new blog (coming soon), was interviewed by the on-line Wall Street Journal recently about her involvement with promoting the TV show "New Adventures of Old Christine."

As media types get more savvy about the importance of word on the street and person-to-person marketing, blogging will become an increasingly important element in public outreach. It's only a matter of time until blogs become the go-to PR machine for all things fabulous and new and sparkly.

[Photo Credit: Wall Street Journal]

Be Flip About Divorce and People Get Pissy

Kelly Mills — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:50:00 GMT

All kinds of people are all kinds of upset about a billboard promoting a law firm in Chicago. The billboard shows a photo of a woman's boobies in a black lace bra and a guy's six-pack abs with the catchy tagline: "Life's Short. Get a Divorce." The law firm, Fetman, Garland & Associates, Ltd., specializes in international copyright law. Ha ha! No, the all-female firm focuses on divorce cases. Why do I see an ABC dramedy in here?

As you can imagine, a whole lotta lawyers think this is in poor taste, that it is a black mark for an already scribbled-on profession struggling for respect. Also, the billboard is located in an area called the "Viagra Triangle" cuz of all the singles bars. More wood than a redwood forest. All that has horrified many people, who believe divorce is no laughing matter, seeing as how it causes real pain and heartache for tons of families.

How does the firm respond to charges that the ad is in really poor taste (aside from rolling in the handfuls of cash they probably got as a result of all the publicity)? Fetman says, "'If you think somebody's going to look at a billboard and go out and get a divorce as a result, you're insulting the intelligence of people. If that's the case, our next billboard is going to read, 'Gimme Your Money.'"

As a child of divorced parents who knows first-hand how traumatic a marital breakup can be for the kids, I thought hard about this billboard. On one hand, divorce tears many individuals and families apart, and often infidelity or at least the "grass is greener" attitude implied in the ad is a factor in marriage explosions. And there's certainly some heartfelt debate over whether marriage has become devalued in our modern world.

On the other hand, the billboard made me laugh.

Funny wins! I love this ad. Fetman can so represent me if I ever need counsel. Too bad Jessica told me the billboard was taken down yesterday, one month early. Farewell billboard, we hardly knew you...

Kid's TV Chock-Full of Junk Food Ads

Karen Murphy — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:57:00 GMT

In yet another episode from the Tell Us Something We Don't Already Know School of Research Studies, the latest reveals that American kids are beseiged with ads for candy, snacks and sugary cereals while they watch TV. Researchers evaluated advertising during 1,638 hours of TV programming on the top networks watched by children, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, the Cartoon Network, Disney, MTV and Nickelodeon, and found that eight- to twelve-year olds were inundated with more than twenty-one food ads daily, or more than 7600 a year. That's a LOT of highly-suggestible information filtering through those brains, the equivalent of FIFTY HOURS of ads for junk food in a year. Two- to seven-year-olds saw "only" about twelve food ads a day (I guess it's not as profitable to sell to the little ones, since they make fewer decisions about what they eat), totalling about 4400 a year, which is still way too many.

More than $10 billion a year is spent to market foods and beverages to children. And we wonder why our kids are getting fatter?

Possible solutions:

1. Eliminate TV from your house (at least for the kids)(and try not to wince when they call you a hypocrite, join me in this?).

2. Tivo everything so you can eliminate just the ads.

3. Watch only PBS (which comes with its own brands of ads, but at least they're more benign).

4. (cough) Change the way TV looks and the kinds of ads that are present there (how about ads touting the family- and health-friendly lifestyle Rachael's family has embarked upon?).

What have you done about this or plan to do, or is ad-watching an issue for you?

[By the way, the ad pictured is for Coke and is a riff on the video game Grand Theft Auto, often tagged as one of the most violent out there. So here we are combining violent video games with junk food advertising. Wonderful!]