Buy, Buy, Baby. CBSNews is doing a four-part series called Gotta Have It: The Hard Sell to Kids all about womb to tomb marketing, with kids being targeted in a scope we’ve never seen before. In this video clip, investigative journalist and Buy, Buy, Baby author Susan Gregory Thomas talks about the $20 billion being spent on the 0-3 “baby genius” products … [Read more...]
Fresh from our living lab’s counter-marketing success at Allen Elementary (our pilot program we wrote about here) we thought we’d share some of our interactive nutrition data tools that YOU can easily use to curb childhood obesity in your home or school. This weekend, we showed peninsula PARENTS (and the greater Bay area community) our media-based reality show … [Read more...]
Ok, gang, let’s reiterate this branding nightmare of mixed messages one more time...Monster movie promos+junk food tie-ins=chubby cherubs. Nothing wrong with Shrek promoting apples and milk (though that combo is sour under ANY circumstances, eww!) BUT: if McDonalds is going to be a poseur for guiding kids toward healthy choices, they need to eliminate the beastie from … [Read more...]
There are plenty of spins on the Spider-Man 3 record-breaking $382 million worldwide “priciest movie ever made" buzz...so I’m going to take a deconstructionist view about summer box office biggies, and look at the impact of media hype-fests on kids. Not pickin’ on Spidey, here; haven’t even seen the flick yet, I’m talking about a global web … [Read more...]
Hate to sound like an ogre, but I’m turning green with GIANT ("gi-normous" as tweens might say) disconnects on the ostensibly hip new Ad Council Shrek :30 PSA urging kids to "get up, get up, get up" and take a “small step” toward healthier eating. This is another classic case of a “throw ‘em a bone and show we care” marketing maneuver, … [Read more...]
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