A couple of articles I read today reminded me of how powerful marketing can be and why I got the hell out of that line of business so that I could become a lawyer and have influence on...no one. Oops, sorry, that's why I became a Mediocre Mama.
It turns that not only do those McDonald's trans fatty acids make the food taste oh so good, the paper does too. Or at least that's according to the average toddler. If I am reading this article correctly, even vegetables taste better if there's a golden arch around it. It got me and the Dad thinking that as soon as the Captain becomes aware of McDonald's, I'm going to go get myself a big stack of McDonald's wrappers. As for McDonald's reaction to the study? Well, they claim that they are going to be improving marketing to children under 12, only promoting Happy Meals with fruit. Seems like it's hardly charitable, but considering some of their older marketing techniques, I suppose it's an improvement...
And in another shocking revelation, the Baby Einstein videos, the most irritating videos on the market, which from my understanding of the title are supposed to have your kid figuring out the theory of relativity by the time they are 18 months, actually make your kid dumber. I have long suspected this but lacked the data or patience to sit my kid in front of these videos to test the theory (hey, it's all in the name of science). I am, however, contemplating launching my own study...is there a correlation between how irritating a video is and your kid's stupidity? I submit, for your contemplation, that the generation I babysat for, that grew up on Barney and The Power Rangers, seems to have produced a slew of Einsteins. You know, like Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen twins.
2 comments:
We might have to be careful about your video/irritating show theory. I grew up on Mighty Mouse, Tom& Jerry, and the Roadrunner, then moved to He-Man, Transformers, and the League of Justice. Does that mean that I thrive on meaningless violence, and occasionally feel the need to inject some shallow, easy to accomplish "justice" in my life, while pretending that I am "super" ?
Oops. (Dibs on Aquaman, the most inexplicably useless in the League.)
Now wait. For starters, those are videos you watched when you are a bit older. Second, I'm talking about baby and toddler videos - a whole different level of irritation. Third, I'm sorry, my theory only addresses the fact that irritating shows make you stupid, not that violent shows make you violent. Violent shows may make you smarter for all I know - perhaps teach a kid how to stick up for himself (not very Montessori of me, is it?). Finally, as a former Thundercats, Dungeon's and Dragon's, He-man watching girl, I'm certainly not one to judge television violence. Nope, I'm just talking about big purple dinosaurs and teletubbies.
MM
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