Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Wisdom of Targeting Children, Not Parents



"When they fall always squeeze, then stick!"
One of the most interesting topics that we have discussed in class was the targeting children technique that advertisers have been trying. Not only have these advertisements succeeded, but they have changed the way adults parent their children. Parents see advertisements and seek out the ideal model of a parent and reflect that on how they should act towards their children. Now, hopefully these parents are critical receivers of information given to them from the media, but sometimes they do not even think to look twice. The media's influence on parents has been developing over the years, and with the help of the advertisers are now promoting ideas to the parents through their children which goes to show that the gatekeepers of the media threshold are not being as strict as they once were.
This commercial has also made me think about the targeting children aspect of commercials and how easily it is to promote a message and get a point across. this occurs in a way which can involve the family unit. On the commercial's website kids and parents are able to work together and join in the sing-a-long exercise for children to learn the tune. The other websites that are promoted on this "squeeze then stick" website are Band-Aid and Neosporin. Now while Neosporin's website does not have any children's activities, Band-Aid's does. Band-Aid provides a quiz in the "Cool for Kids" section on their website promoting teaching good health tips to your children. The last question on the quiz that is provided to help learn these techniques is much like a survey to the kids themselves. Now, this is not so much creepy as it is productive to sell, sell, sell, selling their product. It asks what is the coolest type of Band-Aid Brand Adhesive Bandage leaving a multiple choice answer of either Dora the Explorer, Spider-man, NASCAR, Care Bears, or other. These techniques help find what the advertisers are looking for.
Band-Aid and Neosporin have obviously paired up for the same reason, and in my eyes should have done this years before, to get their product out there. Honestly, their reason for selling the products that they do is not going to be going away anytime soon, so why not team up to fight those germs together?!

Five Signs of Healing!
1) Less appearance of scars (Flawless skin! Are we making our children into young adults that only care about looks?! No way!)

2) Protection from Dirt and Germs (Clean Clean Clean! No dirty people here! What are we telling our future generations?)

3) Faster Healing (Don't waste your time! Time centered culture!)

4) Infection Protection (Be smart and use Neosporin and Band-Aid-the fighting power of two in one...brands!)

5) Pain Relief (Just so happens that the two humans in the commercial are women-women don't like pain. Also the Band-Aid puppet is a girl's voice and the Neosporin's puppet is a male's voice, hmmmm.... Why do you think that is?)

Link to video:

Link to website:

Link to Band-Aid website's "Cool for Kids" section:


No comments:

Post a Comment