Here we go again. Shades of those old candy cigarettes from yesteryear that went by the wayside. Kiddie Valentine treats plopped in a can of brewski? Beer cans of ‘love buzz’ in the candy-n-kids section of WalMart have popped open some controversy. No alarmist implications of direct ties to teen substance abuse stats here, just a great big WHY? Why is Cocaine in a … [Read more...]
Headline news touts a huge generational misunderstanding between Cartoon Networks’ kitsch character, “Err” from their late night “Adult Swim” show, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” and Boston security authorities who believed the nine blinking devices planted on bridges could’ve been bombs. Gee, you’d have to be Osama in a cave … [Read more...]
(2007) Advergaming is shifting from online to mobile, so younger kids and parents need a heads-up to spot the spin. Here’s an updated piece with fresh new links from my last article about kids under eight “gobbling up” interactive marketing. This time we're talking more about tweens, but it's amazing to see how early the K-5 set starts toting cell phones: Is your … [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...]
My weird background of journalism, advertising, advocacy, and parenthood blend into a Molotov cocktail of media literacy, so when it comes to playing ‘spot the spin’ it’s pretty hard to snow me. Ergo, Warner Brothers' Happy Feet cartoon penguins cozying up with pharmaceutical giant Roche to give parents a dose of ‘flu fact awareness’ leaves me … [Read more...]
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