It all started when a seafood restaurant in New Sydney, Nova Scotia, decided to let the town know that they are NOT child-friendly:
The local and social media outcry was immediate and effective, and the restaurant issued an apology.
I'm sure not everyone will agree with me, but I feel very strongly that children have a right to be in public spaces. Their parents have a responsibility to keep them from unnecessarily disrupting other people's peace-of-mind, but the really young ones — especially babies — often cry. Deal with it. You were one once, too.
It amazes me what a truly family-unfriendly society we are, when I visit countries where children are cherished by the society as a whole. It seems like a much healthier environment for them to grow up in.
Anyway, kudos to local Subway franchisee Kirk MacRae, who told CBC: "We've had a few [screaming kids] and hope to have a lot more, and don't have any issue with it whatsoever."
Insulting pizza is a big deal in Italy. Especially if you're an American fast food goliath.
Business Insider reports that the the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), representing the pizza chefs of Naples, the food's birthplace, are threatening to sue McDonald's for pizza defamation.
And it's all because of this ad:
You don't need to speak Italian to follow the story: Parents of a picky child are at a pizzeria, anxiously awaiting their child's choice from the menu. The waiter asks the boy what he wants, and he says "a Happy Meal." So the family leaves and takes him to McDonald's where he is happy.
The AVPN's VP is quoted in this imperfectly-translated statement:
Di porzio states that it is ignoble comparing two products very different from each other, especially if it is for discrediting those restaurants most loved by Italian families: pizzerias. Also, it is already well known that children love pizzas, especially for the taste. It is obvious that the American colossus is trying to discredit its main competitor, but speculating on children’s health is just too much. Furthermore, it is not the first time that Mc Donald attacks our culinary traditions, but this time we are willing to take some legal countermeasures.
North Americans may find it odd for pizzerias to attack burgers on nutritional standards, but only if they haven't had authentic Italian pizza. Unlike our doughy, salty and cheesy delivery versions, Italian pizze are all about fresh ingredients and restraint. Even though the dough is made from highly-refined flour, the Italian tradition of much stricter portion control makes the pizza less of a calorie bomb:
A standard margherita (with 250g of dough) has around 800Kcal, but children do not usually eat a whole pizza. So, if we reduce the size of a standard pizza and then we add a drink (without gas), we will reach 700Kcal per meal. A Happy meal has 600Kcal, which for a children are just too much. However, it is not about “how many Kcals there are per meal”, but it is a matter of “what kind of quality” they are! What kind of meat do they use to prepare their hamburgers and how many fats they have? What kind of oil do they use to prepare their potatos: colza oil? How much mayonnaise do they put on their hamburgers? And how about the preservatives contained in their bread? The true napolitan pizza, which is a product guaranteed by our international regulations, it is a “handcrafted” product which only uses selected raw materials, like mozzarella di bufala, fiordilatte, tomatos from Campania and extra virgin oil. In this way, pizzas results in a complete and balanced meal from a nutritional point of view. It is time for parents to control what their children eat: junk food might be ok if consumed now and then, but they should teach their children to eat clean everyday. They must. And eating clean means to follow the culinary culture offered by our wonderful Mediterranean Diet: it will supply parents with the right tools to choose among a great number of meals which are not only tasty and healthy but, above all, Italians.
If you're sensing a certain cultural pride here, you're not mistaken. McDonald's has only been in Italy since 1986, and its arrival in Rome's historic core was greeted with outrage. Designer Valentino even threatened legal action against his new neighbours over the smell:
According to Valentino, who this week began legal action aimed at closing the restaurant, which backs on to his Rome headquarters, the McDonald's created a ''significant and constant noise and an unbearable smell of fried food fouling the air.'' He has asked Italian magistrates to order it closed immediately on the ground that it is a nuisance.
McDonald's stayed, and expanded. Now, it can be found among the historic attractions of Venice, Florence, Milan, and —yes—Naples.
I live in Italy for several months-long stints in the 90s, and McDonald's by then had become a shibboleth for whether one was "cultured" or not. Since food is a massive part of Italy's many regional identities, the arrival of American fast food was bound to cause a reaction. In fact, that Roman McDonald's was the barbarian at the gates of Italian culture that caused Carlo Petrini to found the now-international Slow Food Movement.
There is a certain amount of pretentious Anti-Americanism in the AVPN complaint, but I can see why they are so upset. Defaming pizza in Italy (especially in Naples) is a really obtuse move by McDonald's marketers. Especially since the corporation has been trying so hard to adapt to the demand for more local foods elsewhere in Europe.
It's not quite as catchy as its predecessor, but it does have anthropomorphic sperm.
But is it too cute for its own good? Maybe. I recall my only Swedish friend, Åsk Wappling from Adland, hated the first video's made-up names for genitals. And I think she has a point. The sex education curriculum where I live — in Ontario, Canada — is presently being updated to include teaching kids in Grade One the appropriate names for their genitals. You'd think that sexually-progressive Swedes would demand no less than real biology.
When I was a teen, I stumbled upon an old book about sex education in Sweden in a used book store. To be honest, I probably bought it for the boobies. But I was also impressed by what I saw as an attempt to give kids and teens positive messages about their bodies, their physical autonomy, and their right to choose what was right for them.
I was reminded of this when the "Snoppen och snippan" video appeared in my newsfeeds.
Catchy, isn't it? With dancing penises and vulvas.
According to Metro, as made for Swedish children’s programme Bacillakuten, using childish words for the organs, ‘snipp’ and ‘snopp’
Some of the lyrics translate as: ‘Here comes the penis at full pace’, and: ‘the vagina is cool, you better believe it, even on an old lady. It just sits there so elegantly’. (They reportedly sound much less weird in Swedish).
I don't think it's weird, and I'm not even Swedish.
The admin of the DosFamily Facebook community explains further:
This is the trailer song from a children's Tv show currently showing in Sweden at the moment. The show is about the body and things that happens with it. Different doctors explains about what happens when you get ill or how do the food system works or colds or what happen when you break a leg... Every episode get an own song for the things they talk about and apparently soon it will be about Snoppen & snippan.
You can see the original post and discussion (in Swedish) at the SVT Barnkanalen page.
Now I just wish they had something like this for English-speaking kids.
The Columbus, Georgia, Ledger-Enquirer reports that this billboard was placed by Life Saver Ministries, a Christian organization that promises "to reach the weakest and the forgotten, the 'at risk' children from the roughest areas," apparently with the wisdom of Adolph Hitler as well as Proverbs 22:6.
The billboard went up last Friday in Auburn, Alabama, and has since been removed. "We are pulling the billboard and certainly never intended to cause confusion," Life Saver Ministries founder James Anderegg told the Ledger-Enquirer. "Herbert Hoover would have been a far better one to quote when he said, 'Children are our most valuable resource. We are a children’s organization and had honorable intentions and nothing less."
This unfortunate girl has so much extra weight that no diet can help her. In our clinic she can go through a surgery called liposuction that will make her slim and beautiful. We'll need to make small cuts on problem areas and suck out the extra fat. Will you operate her, doctor?
The developer, Corina Rodriguez, is behind a range of cartoonish and oddly medicalized Apps apparently aimed at girls, such as "Barbie Dentist & Barbie Dress up" and "Leg & Foot Surgery & Doctor & Hospital Office for Barbie".
@everydaysexism is currently trying to organize a Twitter protest to have the game, which is marketed to age 9 and up, removed from iTunes.
In the interest of pseudojournalism, I downloaded the free App and played it for as long as I could stomach (pun intended). As expected, it mostly delivers a barrage of pop up ads. But in between, and scored by awful stock music, you are actually taken through the steps of a cartoon liposuction using a manual bicycle pump:
St. Mary's Church, a Catholic congregation in New Jersey, recently released this bizarre and confusing PSA about the "War on Christmas":
It was actually aired on Fox News and MSNBC. Its equally confusing YouTube description states, "Happiness can be expressed through a smile or a religion. Will negative people try controlling the way we smile next?"
The narrator, Jim Flood, sounds a little like Leonard Nimoy. And the girl, whose name is kept secret (thankfully) sounds like a banshee from the darkest depths of superstition.
Here's two of their other contributions to the weird video literature of religious fundamentalism:
Delhi Police have apologized and withdrawn an ad promoting vocational training for street children, after criticism that it promotes child labour.
The Huffington Post reports that the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights found the ad "in bad taste and diminishing the 'dignity and worth' of children, who are our future citizens.” They added, “This advertisement depicts a vulnerable child as a future criminal... besides, teaching a child how to chop an onion does not really do justice to a child.”
Child labour is a huge problem in India, but some saw even worse things in the ad. Juvenile justice expert Ananth Asthana told Indian Express, "It only shows the trivial thinking of Delhi Police on child rights. The authorities have a very wrong perception about juveniles, and this particular ad associates them with murder."
It's one of those dumb ads that uses a stereotype about the need to fit in at school. But how times have changed!
This back-to-school ad has ignited an emotional debate on social media. On the one side, we have parents outraged that, by joking about the exclusion of kids with uncool clothes, JC Penney is promoting bullying or classism:
What do you think? I'm not personally offended by the ad, but I can also see why (in this economy) it struck a nerve in some parents. As you can see above, the company is responding to complaints with a PR blurb that is pretty noncommittal, however they acknowledge they have discontinued the ad anyway.
Perhaps the real lesson here is for creatives: Come up with some new damn ideas, rather than rehashing clichés you remember from your youth. And for marketers: Oversensitive or not, this is the new reality of democratic communication. Deal with it honestly and with empathy.
That's right, rifles for little kids. In a gun-loving culture, I'm sure there are arguments for teaching "gun safety" to children as soon as possible.
But that wasn't the case for an unnamed 5-year-old boy in Cumberland County, Kentucky. He accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister while playing with his .22 calibre "My First Rifle" that had been left loaded and accessible in the house:
[Cumberland County Coroner Gary White] said the children's mother was at home when the shooting occurred, and the gun was a gift the boy received last year.
"It's a Crickett," he said. "It's a little rifle for a kid. ...The little boy's used to shooting the little gun."
White said the gun was kept in a corner, and the family did not realize a shell had been left in it.
He said the shooting will be ruled accidental.
"Just one of those crazy accidents," White said.
As a parent myself, I empathize deeply with the family who lost a little girl. But this was no "crazy accident". This company encourages really young children not just to learn how to use a gun, but also to see it as a fun, destructive, and lethal plaything.
I understand hunting. I understand the sport of shooting. I just don't think marketing guns to children as if they are toys is right.
Of course the company talks about responsibility. Their kids' guns have safety locks, and they sell books that are supposed to be about responsible gun use.
In that one, one of the bears does not come out of the hunt well, but his skin keeps Little Jake toasty through the next winter, and the little fella feasts on bear sausages while hunkered down under the rug.
But it's not all chest-beating and swagger. After Little Jake bags the bruin, he spends a contemplative moment thinking of what his warm rug has cost the bear, and thanks the animal for his sacrifice. He does a similar thing after he kills the King of the Forest, Bambi's father.
"It's all about casting hunting in a positive light," Jacobs said. "Kids today are only hearing one side. Hunting and firearms are part of our American tradition. All it will take is for the hunting tradition to skip one generation, and I'm afraid that will be it. We will lose it."
However, if you head on over to the company's YouTube channel, they have favourited a video featuring an 11-year-old girl who "defends her home from three armed burglars" using one of their products. Somehow, she survived. Giving kids and parents the false hope that arming their children will keep them safe is hardly responsible gun stewardship.
The other problem with the marketing is that, no matter how much companies like this and the NRA talk about responsibility, the American Journal of Public Health reported that unsafe storage of firearms in American homes with children is a serious problem:
Respondents from 35% of the homes with children younger than 18 years (representing more than 22 million children in more than 11 million homes) reported having at least 1 firearm. Among homes with children and firearms, 43% had at least 1 unlocked firearm (i.e., not in a locked place and not locked with a trigger lock or other locking mechanism). Overall, 9% kept firearms unlocked and loaded, and 4% kept them unlocked, unloaded, and stored with ammunition; thus, a total of 13% of the homes with children and firearms--1.4 million homes with 2.6 million children--stored firearms in a manner most accessible to children.
Fortunately, according to the Centres for Disease Control (via CNN) deaths like the one in Kentucky are statistically rare:
703 children under the age of 15 died in accidental firearms deaths between 2001 and 2010, the latest year for which the agency's statistics on fatalities are available. During the same period, 7,766 children under the age of 14 suffered accidental firearms injuries -- about one injury for every million children.
Of course, that's still 703 dead kids as a result of playing with guns.
As an urban, left wing Canadian, it's hard for me to understand the American obsession with guns. I am also aware that this is a very serious cultural divide. I'm just now reading the book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by fellow Canadian Steven Pinker, and he takes a Hobbesian view of the matter. While Western Europe and many English colonies (like Canada), he observes, had strong law-and-order states before they had democracy, the United States gave (some) citizens the vote when much of the land was still in a state of armed uprising.
In Canada's mild west, the cliché goes, the law arrived before the settlers did. Acceptance of state authority to resolve conflicts among citizens is part of the culture here, as it is in much of Europe, and democracy was eventually granted with relatively little bloodshed. In the States, where democracy was taken by force by the citizens, guns are seen by many as essential to freedom and liberty.
That said, I don't personally want the liberty to arm my 8-year-old son with his very own unlocked, loaded, and unsupervised .22 calibre rifle and fill his head with dreams of vigilante justice.
These ads are such obvious awards bait, I had to make Google Cape Town Fish Market to assure myself that the restaurant exists.
It does, but it's unlikely that any restaurant would pay for this many executions of such an unsettling concept. So it's either another "ghost ad" (to use Adland's terminology) or else the agency secured the account by putting up a lot of extra work as compensation for the client allowing the creatives to do whatever they felt like.
There's a third alternative, that a family-oriented restaurant actually did think a campaign of teen sex, drugs, baby burning and the occult was a great way to sell fish fingers. Hmmm...
The Disney Store is selling Avengers t-shirts for women with the slogan "I Need a Hero" and "I Only Kiss Heroes," and an Iron Man t-shirt for boys that reads "Be a Hero." This sends a harmful message about who can and cannot be a leader in this world. These shirts promote the idea that men and boys are meant to do the saving, and that women and girls are the ones who need to be saved.
This is from a Change.org petition by MissRepresentation.org. They are, quite understandably, pissed off at the primitive sexism.
Ironically, Marvel comics has a long history of including (at least token) strongwomensuperheroes in the original comic series. Even the movie includes Black Widow.
Child models will probably always be with us, and the best we can hope for is that they are not exploited. But did the fact that 6-year-old Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead's mother was notorious Playboy and fashion model Anna Nicole Smith enter into their choice?
Personally, this makes me uneasy. Dannielynn's mother died of an overdose of several prescription drugs when the girl was just an infant. The baby's paternity was immediately challenged, as she instantly became an heiress.
Now, she's a model. At age six. But who is looking out for this girl?
her father Larry Birkhead, who was forced to establish paternity in a suit against Smith's then partner and lawyer Howard K. Stern, seems to have done a good job of making sure that this little girl who endured such tragedy around her during her first days on this planet, has a normal life.
Guess is getting tons of coverage over this stunt. And I'm sure Dannielynn is building up quite a trust fund, on top of her $10 million inheritance. But I really, really hope this kid has a better future ahead of her than mom did.
The front cover shows Dutch Boy, carrying his paint bucket, being greeted by a toy lead soldier, a shoe, a plate and a light bulb. The back cover features a hand that has made a broad brush stroke with the admonition "'Save the surface and you save all'; Paint & Varnish". The front inside cover contains the copyright information; the back inside cover features a seated Dutch Boy (the Dutch Boy trademark) and locations of company offices in the United States. The first page shows the Dutch Boy talking to the lead soldier; it is followed by 14 images--7 in color and 7 in outline--of items that use lead. Items include a light bulb (lead glass), shoes and baseballs (lead in the rubber), and a bullet (entirely made of lead). Each outlined image was to be filled in using the complementary color image at its side as a guide. Some of the images have been filled in using watercolor. There are four perforated tabs at the end of the book--probably where the Color Harmony in the Home booklet, mentioned on the front cover, would have been included before its removal for use by adults. On the front cover the name "M.C. Wagner" has been stamped.
Studio owner Kristy Craig, certified fitness and aerobics instructor and member of the Pole Fitness Association, told The Province, “My existing students were asking about it for their children. They were saying, ‘My daughter plays on my pole at home all the time, I’d love her to actually learn how to do things property and not hurt herself.’”
She insists that pole dancing, when treated as a fitness routine, has nothing to do with stripping for money.
“For competitions they actually have rules and regulations that there can be nothing sexual, or any article of clothing removed, and in some you aren’t allowed to wear high heels. The sexuality is being taken out of it. It’s highlighting the gymnastic, athletic and circus acrobatics aspect.”
Plus, if those little girls (and boys) want a future in exotic entertainment, they have a great head start.
In the Playroom is a metaphor for the impossibility of a protective space safe from the reach of modern media. The quizzical disposition of youth and the pervasive nature of the media are symbolically represented in Hobin’s images through tableau-vivant re-enactments of the very current events that adults might wish to keep out of their child’s world. Just as children make a game of pretending to be adults as a way to prepare and ultimately take on these roles in later life, so too do they explore things that they hear or see, whether or not they completely understand the magnitude of the event or the implications of their play.
Okay, I get it. But I was eight when Jim Jones served that Guyana Kool-Aid to more than 900 men, women and children, and I don't recall wanting to re-enact it...
The 1981 Reagan assassination attempt, however, we did pantomime in the schoolyard. But mostly just because we were boys and, you know, guns. (Although the Lennon assassination was off bounds because we were such Beatles fans...)
See the whole series at Petapixel. (Mr. Hobin's site is presently offline.)
Yesterday, my wife and I were taking our son to his swimming lesson at the City of Ottawa's St. Laurent Complex when my better half spotted something rather weird.
Can you spot it? Here's a closer look:
Her first comment was "is that a monkey in a Department of Corrections orange jumpsuit?" but closer inspection proved it to be a bear. A brown bear in a Department of Corrections orange jumpsuit with a chain around his ankle.
We were picking up new shoes for our son at Kiddie Cobbler when I noticed this awful beast out of the
corner of my eye. As soon as I stopped shitting my pants in sheer horror, I wondered why the hell any person in Crocs' marketing department would think this awful thing would create any kind of positive brand association with children. That is, unless the brand promise is "I'm going to eat your face when you fall asleep, if you even sleep again."
There is a certain pathos to the horrible creature, however, similar to Frankenstein's monster. So I submitted it to Meme Generator:
This image, from the recent toy catalogue of Swedish retailer Leklust, is getting a lot of play on social media right now for its image of a kid in a Spider-Man costume pushing a pink doll carriage.
As reported in The Local, Leklust CEO Kaj Wiberg told Metro, "Gender roles are an outdated thing... I'm 71 years old, and those of us who have worked in this industry for a while know that boys play with doll houses. We know that boys can play with Barbie dolls."
The catalogue has other non-stereotypical images as well:
WestJet today introduced Kargo Kids, an exciting new program allowing guests to travel on select child-free flights, creating a quieter and more relaxing inflight experience, while children travel in a "special VIP" area of the aircraft.
"As Canada's low-cost airline, we are constantly looking for innovative and fun ways to enhance the guest experience," continued Richard Bartrem. "The initial feedback on Kargo Kids has been quite positive and we're looking forward to the peace and quiet while we get families where they need to be."
