Wouldn't you think a company like Best Western would focus their advertising dollars on adults who book travel? Nope, they're running commercials on Nickelodeon with some sort of promotional tie-in with a Nick cartoon. Here in my house is a 5-year-old who feels compelled to inform me, "You can stay there for 5 days," each time the ad is on—twice so far this morning, and it's only 8:30. Bloody hell!
Update: Thirty minutes later, it's on again. "Look, look, Mom, they have coffee. Look, a swimming pool. Look! Mommy, they call it Best Western." Devious, devious advertisers...
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5 comments:
My kids have seen that commercial and said the SAME THING. It's insidious.
Same way supermarket rack-jobbers place the sweet cereals and cookies at kid-eye level. Bloody Fuckin' 'ell.
Oh, they are just SO insidious. Even on PBS, with its "commercial-free" credo, the kids' shows are preceded by sponsor segments. To my mind are nothing but COMMERCIALS that are just lacking product placements. I've been telling my 3-year-old that these are ads, not shows, but I don't think that has diminished their subliminal power.
(Hi from a fellow freelance editor, by the way!)
Yes, that's so that when you're pulling off the highway this summer on the road trip, and there's a BW and a Motel 6 and a Super 8 etc., the kids will yell BEST WESTERN!!!!
And to keep the peace, that's where you'll stay.
Yeah, advertising pisses me off so much, now that I have kids. They will see an ad and immediately say they must have or do whatever it is...ugh. And thank god for PBS, and the first half of the day on Nick Jr and Disney channels they only show commercials between shows--which my kids never watch, because the show's over so why would they stay SEATED??? wild little hellions.
At one point (the 70s?) there was a serious effort to ban advertising aimed at children. The advertisers organized and blocked the legislation. Since that time advertising to children has become a well organized craft, with conferences and journals where they are fairly upfront about how evil they are, and plot ways to get eviler.
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