Keepin’ It Real: Advertorials Purposely Confuse

Today’s “Daily Candy” e-zine, purporting to be the “ultimate insider’s guide to what’s hot, new, and undiscovered” is stumping for big box retailers, which tanks their credibility as a boutique ‘kids picks’ site for new and different offerings. They position themselves for "busy and hip parents" with an impressive … [Read more...]

Inconvenient Truth Meets Digital Earth: Marketing ‘Hope’

The New York Times’ Stuart Elliot wrote that “A Procession of Penguins” was arriving on the advertising scene, and referenced Shaping Youth’s article where we admonished pharmaceutical giant Roche for tredding on thin ice by using animated kiddie flicks to mine pocketbooks of parents to promote their flu elixir.Nothing against Happy Feet, just the penguin pill-pushing policy. … [Read more...]

Obesity Risk Twice as High in Hispanic Children

Maria Nadel, our Spanish translation expert is putting the finishing touches on our 'mind & body' media literacy log as Shaping Youth's “Dare to Compare: A Gross Out Game for Good Nutrition” kicks off a new session with 5th graders this Friday. Evidently, not a moment too soon… A study published in the American Journal of Public Health finds that … [Read more...]

A “Brand” New Year: Brain Waves, Brand Names & Brainwashing?

“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...]

7 clues to a New Year’s riddle for the 7th year of 2000

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...]