If every teen, tween and adult would put their coolness on hold long enough to join children in line for Charlotte’s Web they’d quickly see this is a profound parable of friendship with huge global messaging that goes far beyond a porker destined for the smokehouse. Far from a treacly sapfest, the movie holds true to the book fairly well, dealing with life changes, … [Read more...]
“Come in, my little pretties,” lured the witch in Hansel & Gretel, as the door banged shut behind the wee ones. Today’s brand marketers and media mavens aren’t exactly summoning kids into an icing laced gumdrop gingerbread house, but it’s pretty dang close on a few media and marketing fronts. There’s enough subversive enticement to … [Read more...]
This landed in my e-mail from some pals of mine, and it seems worthy to toss out there to get kids thinking along these lines and open up some dialogue. Yes, I’m being ambiguous on purpose so I won’t spoil the fun. To challenge yourself, write down your guess after reading each clue; then, after reading all the clues, see which (if any) of your guesses is … [Read more...]
I left my ‘round-up’ ritual back in my editorial magazine days but my au courant colleagues and content partners have worthy ones so I’ll defer to their musings. Ypulse publisher, Anastasia Goodstein posted “Reflections on the year in youth culture” which gets my vote for the most articulate wrap up of four key trends: The ‘totally … [Read more...]
Yesterday it was painful to watch holiday shoppers in the media aisle at Costco randomly buying items based on marketing over merit. People were tossing media and toys in their cart based on wow-pow colorful packaging, "why to buy" snipes, and brand recognition with little regard for what was inside. The folks at Truce (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s … [Read more...]
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