Marketing Monday: Regulation or Responsible Parenting?

The US government is to be commended for trying to improve the lives of its citizens, but with all the things they could do to make the country a better place, it hardly seems that regulating advertising on sugary cereals ought to be a high priority.

This weekend, the New York Times reported that the US government is stalled in its push to limit food ads aimed at children.

Government regulation shouldn't be the way to promote responsible choices by parents and kids.

Marketing Monday: Fair Skin & Facebook

Unfamiliar with cultural norms among men in India, I'm holding back judgment on the value of Unilever's "Vaseline for Men" skin whitening products. I will, however, applaud Unilever's clever marketing campaign, which includes this TV commercial (it's in Hindi -- I don't understand the words).

There's even a Facebook app that takes your current profile picture on Facebook and automatically lightens the skin color of the face in the picture.

click to enlarge

Web Wednesday: Dog Meets World

Carolyn Lane, founder of dogmeetsworld.org, has created an interesting website with an interesting purpose -- to lift the hearts of underprivileged kids and others by having travelers take photos of them with a little stuffed dog mascot, named Foto, and printing out a hard copy to give them on the spot. The goal is to help the subjects, who may have never seen a photo of themselves, 'see their potential more clearly and that they count.'

According to Carolyn,

My dream is to establish a movement to photograph the children of the world. To seek children in their own settings, print their image to keep for a lifetime. We have replicated Foto, the stuffed dog, to enable scores of world travelers to participate with this intentional project. The dream of Dog Meets World is to empower travelers to make real connections to people in other cultures, in essence to become photo-diplomats. A picture makes anybody a “somebody”. Dog Meets World clothes people in acknowledgment and affirmation and feeds their souls, which indeed is priceless.

The goal of the website is admirable, though it does cost money to participate, and you need a portable photo printer, not something most people take on vacation. Still, it's worth checking out.

Toy Tuesday: Happy Meals = Happy Kids

I've come across a lot of comments on The Center for Science in the Public Interest proposed lawsuit against McDonald's over their inclusion of toys in Happy Meals, that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Whoever they are, they sure know how to get media coverage, but it tends to refute their point of view.


From Bruce Lund on Facebook:

Take toys out of Happy Meals? Whatever is the benefit of that? Toys entertain, inspire, educate and invite thinking and doing. Toys change the world. Frank Lloyd Wrights toy blocks inspired him to become an architect. What if those blocks had been a Happy Meal toy? or not?

Also on Facebook, Jennifer Strauss Richmond adds:

Sadly, McDonald's is able to quote a very high percentage of kids in the US and probably higher internationally that the only toys they have ever had are happy meal toys....

Meanwhile, The Consumerist quotes McDonald's CEO:

CSPI is wrong in its assertions and frivolous in its legal threats... CSPI's twisted characterization of McDonald's as 'the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children' is an insult to every one of our franchisees and employees around the world.

Time Magazine concurs with my view that the whole issue will probably boil down to parental responsibility.

After all, 5-year-old kids aren't driving themselves to the McDonald's pick-up window. Little Stevie and the "unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers" are a powerful force, but should McDonald's be liable for their pestering ways? "The solution is not a lawsuit," says Wilson. "The solution is a two-letter word: no."

Toys make kids happy. It's perfectly appropriate that McDonald's calls them Happy Meals.

The last word should go to Bob Cutler of Creative Consumer Concepts, which makes toys for fast food restaurants, who correctly says "you can't teach a child about making good choices, if you just take away the choices."

Marketing Monday: Microsoft Recreates Online Scam

Just came across this very clever video from Microsoft, where they show how easily some people can share their personal information online, created a fake bank in the Manhattan area that worked just like any other online phishing scam.

Unsuspecting customers handed over their credit card numbers, SSNs, ATM Pin numbers and even their hair samples for DNA tests to the “fake” bank authorities.

Microsoft followed up with with another scam, an “inheritance store” that works like those Nigerian email promising millions of dollars in inheritance.

Their points about online security are compelling, and they try to tie it all to Internet Explorer 8. While Microsoft's story is strong and entertaining, the connection to IE8 eludes me. Still, it's fun to watch.