Product Placement

Graduation: From What To What? Media Moments Of Expectation

June 10, 2009 by Amy Jussel 8 Comments

June 10, 2009 Yesterday my daughter ‘graduated’ from eighth grade, and I found myself marveling at the whole commencement falderal as being a bit surreal... It was lovely, in a 'life event' kind of way, but with a rented performing arts center stage, anxious kids wanting things to be 'perfect,' parents whooping and hollering and fist-pumping as junior walked across stage and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Product Placement, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth Tagged With: 15 actions to support 15 year olds, 8th grade, @15 initiative, @15.com, affluenza, age compression, Ashoka Youth Venture, Best Buy, Buy Buy Baby, Consuming kids, consumption, Don Tapscott, graduation, Grown Up Digital, hold the applause, KGOY, media influence, media portrayal, myth, myth busting, Packaging-Girlhood, parenting, parents behaving badly, philanthropy, reality, Secret Life, sparks, Teen Voice 2009, teens, what'd you get?, youth service, YPulse

SmartyCard: Summer Screen Time For The Quiz Whiz

June 3, 2009 by Amy Jussel 16 Comments

June 2, 2009 Been at Ypulse all day with updates to come, so here's part two in the SmartyCard series! Message for summer study time? Save a tree, ditch the workbooks! Without fail, every year I tossed one of those hefty 'grade level' workbooks into my Costco cart for home-study hopes...And every year I shake my head as I tear out the few used pages in order to gift it to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Branding & Consumerism, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Media Literacy, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Product Placement, Shaping Youth Tagged With: academic fundamentals, Academics, brainiacs, children, core curriculum, Cramster, Digital playground, Doing School, earn points, education, grade 3-6, learn and earn, learning, memorization, Mobile Prep, Points for goods, quizzes, rote learning, SmartyCard, Stressed Out Students, Summer, summer school, summer slide, Summer Study, teachers, virtual goods, Virtual-Worlds, Workbooks

SmartyCard’s Summer Challenge With Scholastic: Heads Up for Fall!

May 28, 2009 by Amy Jussel 18 Comments

May 28, 2009 I was just about to post an in-depth review and analysis of the merits and watch-worthy aspects of the new SmartyCard.com "learn and earn" kids' program for 3rd-6th graders, when I received this sidewinder about their brand new alliance with Scholastic’s Summer reading challenge. I know, I know, this news is supposed to be a GOOD thing from a "halo effect" mass … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Product Placement, Shaping Youth Tagged With: ad-creep, Advertising, anti-rewards, backdoor branding, Book Fairs, branding, brandwashing, Bratz, cause marketing, CCFC, childhood, Chris Carvalho, Club-Penguin, commercial free, commercialism, consumption, Dizzywood, education, elementary, Elf-Island, Gazillion, Goodwashing, Ignite Learning, itunes, Kids, kids-media, learn and earn, learning, LearnStar, Lego Universe, MMORPG, motivation, non-book products, nonprofit-cause-marketing, parenting, quizzes, Raising Digital Kids, rewards, Save the Children, Scholastic, Scholastic Summer challenge, schools, Shape Up Scholastic, SmartyCard, summer slide, teachers, TechMama, Trojan Horse, Virtual-Worlds, Webkinz

Celebrity Star Power To Benefit Urban Battlefields

May 24, 2009 by Amy Jussel 6 Comments

May 24, 2009 See this “Tweet” at left? That’s the power of Twitter. Now get this…I’m not even ON Twitter. You heard right. No Twitter account. That means your content can be ‘tweeted’ even if you’re not the one chirping. When I see Twitter’s instantaneous ability to get the word out, whether it’s Sting flying in to perform at Narada Michael Walden’s superstar … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Emerging trends & STEM, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Product Placement, Shaping Youth, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: Age-of-Conversation, americas giving challenge, Beth-Kanter, cambodian orphans, Christopher Rodriguez, concerts, earl klugh, Let the Sunshine In, meditation, memorial day, Narada Michael Walden, Narada Michael Walden Foundation, paralysis, S. Neil Vineberg, social-media, sri chinmoy, Sting, tickets, Twitter, urban battlefields, Vineberg Communications

Will Internet Ads Become The Leaf Blowers Of Digital Media?

May 21, 2009 by Amy Jussel Leave a Comment

May 21, 2009 Seguing from the clever Google search logos and their homepage fun to this one at left from "Ask"...I must "ask" dear readers...Who would like to join me in a childish, lip-fluttering raspberry on behalf of ad creep and product proliferation? I mean, c'mon, really...selling off your own homepage search screen to blitz tomorrow’s premiere of Night at the Museum … [Read more...]