Imagine driving down the freeway carpooling kids to school, la-dee-da, and whammo! Traffic jam.
Um…and…why? Some Clio-chasing, PR-hyped, advertising opportunist has decided that legs akimbo and spread-eagle are terribly clever attention-getters.
Touted as break-through and ‘edgy’ I’d argue this one lands in my ‘damaging drek’ category for uncouth & clueless ads.
No, it doesn’t ‘target’ kids directly, it just desensitizes and distorts their body image and worldview as they’re caught in the blast zone of poor taste.
When kids are confronted with porn-style exploitation and ‘let’s get attention at all costs’ hyper-sexuality, there’s a wee problem. And it’s the wee ones who are ultimately impacted.
Ambient advertising like this can’t be ‘turned off’ like electronic media. And c’mon folks, blatantly draping body parts off signage that’s 48 feet wide and 14 feet high is not exactly subtle.
It’s not easy to just ‘look the other way.’ So what’s a consumer to do? Sound off, stand up, and blog your brains out for starters…
This campaign happened to chime into my e-mail when I was on Peter B. Collins’ radio show talking about crass commercialism and corporate profit at the expense of kids’ psyches!
We’d ironically cut away to TRAFFIC report, and I found myself speechless, scrambling for an intelligent comment other than “yougottabefreakin’kiddin’me.” (Thank you, Peter, for graciously filling air time while I tried to get calm and peel myself off the ceiling; what a pro!)
AdRants was touting this media buy as “great” and the campaign as “fabulous!” which prompted me to post a counter-comment on their blog, predictably met with dismissive roll-of-the-eyes, “get over yourself” defiance.\r\n\r\nJust once I’d like a plea for self-regulation and responsibility to be met with something OTHER than the signature send-offs, smirks, cynicism, ‘lighten up’ tsk-tsking about the need for a sense of humor, or ‘the client loves it’ pablum.
I say let’s strap these drooling sophomoric hipsters into carpools toting kids for penance!
Let THEM sit in bumper to bumper traffic answering the ‘why’ & ‘what’ questions that pop out of kids’ mouths!
Or hey, let them watch tweens crawl inside themselves with appearance-driven angst when a sibling asks ‘so…what is that ad FOR?’
They don’t realize kids take their cues from the adult world in terms of what’s valued and important. Kids are trying to make sense of the imagery they’re seeing.
From behaviors to billboards we’re selling objectification and senseless smut that will imprint, outlast, and take its toll on kids long after the media buy.
A rebel yell for common sense needs to take on a Howard Beale-style uprising like the movie Network! I’m ready. Are you?
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