Oh my god, there's toaster chicken now

Dig the sunglasses and odd attempt at slang.
That will show the kids that this is an "extreme" snack.
Totally rad!

Laid up at home with broken bones, I just saw a version of this ad during Kitchen Nightmares:



Here's another one:



And then:









Apparently, this product was launched about a year ago in Canada by Janes Family Foods.

The pitch:

"What could be better than a high-quality protein snack straight from your toaster?! All the key things mom expects from a Janes product like no trans fats, low in saturated fats, all white meat chicken. And, all the things a teen needs in a snack - fully cooked, easy to heat, tasty, and portable. This is a mobile generation - and this is a snack that fits. A delicious hot snack that can ‘fill the gap’ after school with high quality protein that can carry kids to the next activity."

And the nutritional profile:

Yeah, I know. It's just a very wide and shallow chicken finger. But is it really such a good idea to have your kids cooking a congealed lump of chicken fat in your toaster? It seems messy. And dangerous.

Plus, it doesn't take a garbage food genius to realize these puppies were custom manufactured for homemade Double Downs.

Truth in branding (and packaging) of cereal for kids

This is a guerrilla art installation by Ron English, who stocked the spoof cereal boxes in Venice Beach.

He calls it "subvertising".  Reminds me of Wacky Packages.

Via Animal NY

Chinese formula ads make an unintentional dead baby joke

Years ago, when my son was an infant, we used him as a model for an ad. We needed to make it look like he, at 4 months old, had fallen asleep while reading a book on Quantum Mechanics. (It was an economic development ad to attract new high tech companies to Ottawa, with the headline "start smarter".)

I recall that the photographer, Tony Fouhse, was concerned that we would not be able to get an infant to sleep through a photoshoot in the middle of the day. Julia, my wife, knew better. She breastfed the boy on set, and like clockwork he pooped, then passed out.

But then, when we looked at the photos, we were presented with another problem. Babies sleep like the dead. Literally. It's hard to tell the difference. That's why new parents are always freaking out and putting an ear to their baby's lips, listening for the breathing...

Why am I telling you all of this now? Because I just caught this campaign, for Heinze "Golden Sleep" baby formula, on I Believe in Advertising:

It's a Chinese ad, from Invisible Advertising in Guangzhou, China. Yes, China. Where at least 6 babies died and at least 300,000 were sickened by tainted milk powder in 2008. Three more died, and 36 other more became ill just this year as a result of milk tampering.

Are you sure you want this imagery associated with Chinese formula?

"CUT!"

"It's a wrap!"

You think I'm just being morbid? Check out this Portuguese social marketing campaign on drowsy driving from Osocio:

*shudders*

Sleep tight!

Brand Flakes

(With apologies to Brand Flakes for Breakfast)

The Consumerist today reported on a study from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication that simply validated every parent's fears: that kids are total suckers for branding.

The study itself is actually four years old, but I'm pretty sure little has changed:

Children who saw a popular media character on the box reported liking the cereal more (mean [SD], 4.70 [0.86]) than those who viewed a box with no character on it (4.16 [1.24]). Those who were told the cereal was named Healthy Bits liked the taste more (mean [SD], 4.65 [0.84]) than children who were told it was named Sugar Bits (4.22 [1.27]). Character presence was particularly influential on taste assessments for participants who were told the cereal was named Sugar Bits.

In other words Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, the Trix Rabbit, and all those other imaginary dudes have more influence over your children's dietary preferences than you do, and you were right to try to fool them into eating healthier food.

Parents, schmarents! Let's set sail for tooth decay and obesity, kids!

Of course, it's not only kids who are the brand victims. We all are. That's why only Coke will ever taste like Coke, even if the secret recipe is out. Or why trying to clone your favourite fast foods at home is pointless. (And kind of weird.) Our world is the world as we perceive it, and brands often guide our lazy perceptions by providing a short-cut to memory, emotion and experience.

That's the reason competitors to top brands use the blind taste test. You have to block the branding if you want a more accurate comparison. But you'll still have to battle for mindshare on the supermarket aisle.

If this makes you want to admit defeat as a parent, don't.

I have a six-year-old who consistently tells me that McDonald's burgers are better than my naturally-raised, local, aged patties cooked over charcoal. He prefers Kraft Dinner to homemade Mac and Cheese. And he'd rather eat candy than fruit. But that doesn't mean he gets to eat whatever he wants. Those things are given sparingly, as treats, while we keep putting healthy meals in front of him. He eats real food, and quite often enjoys it, even as he pines for the branded foods he sees on TV. But YMMV.

These carrot ads are actually good for you

Last week, CP+B unveiled their newest brand reimagining plot, this one for the US carrot industry (actually Boathouse Farms).

As AdFreak points out, CP+B have plenty of experience marketing actual junk food — from Coke, to Dominos Pizza, to Kraft Dinner — and of course to all that bizarre Burger King stuff they're famous for.

But does any kid really buy the idea of eating baby carrots like junk food? My little guy like carrots anyway, but if I tried to bait and switch the occasional treat expectation of chips for veggies in "extreme" packaging, I'd have a problem on my hands. They're not fooling anyone.

I was initially disappointed by what seemed to be a very dumb packaging idea coming from such a famous creative shop. But then, of course, I gradually appreciated the irony encoded in the campaign. After all, my son isn't the one shopping for snacks to put in his lunch — I am. And the carefully-done parody of junk food marketing is appealing enough to get me to think about buying carrots specifically as snacks just a little more often.

And then I saw the TV/online video campaign, which is much more blunt in its irony and (in one case) much more adult in its appeal:







Nice work.