June 19, 2019 As an ad industry creative director I’ve spent years using applied science to flip messages in healthier directions by tapping into the same tactics that marketers use to hook their audiences early and often. (Here’s how I use marketing tactics to sell 'reluctant readers' on reading for fun, or getting kids to 'eat green' by using Shrek against junk food drek … [Read more...]
Wrapping Up the Gift of Time: Part Two Hunger Games
Update Dec. 21, 2014 Every year my teen prefers experiential "go-see-do" gifts to anything I can wrap up and put under the tree, (other than a GoPro which was a 'save up' winner for a milestone birthday) and so every year I have had a media "spin off" that segues from pop culture pervasiveness into an offline unplugged adventure. Studies show that presence over presents … [Read more...]
Fed Up With Food Marketing to Kids? Nosh On Food MythBusters Film
Sept. 21, 2013 Tired of the $2 billion/year endless barrage of hard sell food advertising hawking toxic crud to children to turn them into life long consumers? You’re about to get some ammo in the media battle for kids’ hearts and minds… On September 25, 2013, the online premiere of the 6-minute bite sized short animated film Food MythBusters.org promises to expose how “Big … [Read more...]
Back to School: Using Branding as a Media Literacy Lesson
August 20, 2015 Update: More Back to School branding boondoggles...Remember when the G-force Gatorade tribe was caught red-handed with their marketing machinations of hawking sugar hydration to students over regular water? Well, they're at it again, this time sneaking their sports drinks message into schools as 'hydration education' which is perhaps one of the biggest shilling … [Read more...]