1
Who is the target audience of this advertisement and how can you
tell? (Be sure to refer to age, gender, race and class)
2
Who is represented in this advertisement? Does the ad
misrepresent any groups and/or values? How?
3
What is the implied message of this advertisement? Do you agree
with it? Why or why not?
4
What is the slogan of this advertisement? Is it an effective one in
your opinion? Explain your answer.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15,
2009
Kiddie Advertising
In today's Ottawa Citizen:
Canada's big-name food and drink companies are meeting their
commitments to advertise less to children and to promote more
nutritious products and an active lifestyle when they do target youth,
according to a compliance report from Advertising Standards Canada.
The article references the Canadian Children's Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative, which companies such as McDonald's, Kellogg
and Kraft voluntarily sign on to.
It states:
In advertising directed to children, it is appropriate to favour foods
that contribute important nutrients that may otherwise be at
insufficient levels in children’s diets; moderate the consumption of fat,
saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sugars, and sodium, which are
generally over-consumed in the typical Canadian diet; or, of particular
importance, moderate total calories in their diets.
Sounds great, eh? But this little gem was buried in the Citizen article:
The nutrition criteria also varies by company. The guidelines that
McDonald's uses meant the only brand it advertised directly to children
last year was its Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal with milk and apple
slices. McDonald's has also changed the way it uses its famous Ronald
McDonald mascot in advertising and the red-headed clown character
now promotes an active lifestyle, not hamburgers and fries.
Okay, so McDonalds complies with this by putting Ronald in yoga pants
and telling them to eat their McNuggets with milk and apples dipped in
sugary sludge? Seriously?
Suspiciously, McDonald's nutrition calculator doesn't even seem to
have options for kids meals. But I'll propose that deep fried chicken
and caramel are not exactly "healthy" meal choices. Fun, sure. Even
tasty. But it's not something I'd let my son eat regularly. It's treat food
— not sustenance.
And there's the problem. McDonalds is still advertising to children. (As
are others, but McDonald's is the leader.) It's still targetting kids so
they'll associate McDonald's engineered flavours with comfort foods
early on, and will drag their parents to the golden arches at every
opportunity.
This is progress in responsible advertising? I must be missing
something.
Or maybe I'm just mad because my son recently told me that my
gourmet, hand-made, organic beef burgers grilled with hickory smoke
and served on a whole wheat bun don't taste as good as McDonalds.
That's right — they got him too.
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2009
Holy Branding!
There was an item on CBC today about an Alberta milk ad featuring a group of
Hutterite farmers:
Apparently, the ad's been around for a couple of years. In the spirit of the slow news day,
however, someone finally got around to noticing that what's strange about it: most
Hutterites won't pose for pictures, let alone ads. (Even though these guys, apparently, do.)
Religious orders and consumer products have a long and involved history. From the days
of Benedictine monks creating beers, liqueurs and cheeses that are still popular
today, to the famous Shaker furniture of the colonial U.S., sectarian reputations for craft
and wholesomeness created some of the western world's first real "brands" (in the true
sense of the word).
In a less organized fashion, Old Order Mennonites own the brand of choice at every
farmers market I patronize, from Ottawa and St. Jacobs to Woodstock, New
Brunswick, and a village near Sault Ste. Marie. For a family like ours, who look for
organic foods and natural processed meats, the carts, hats and bonnets are a sign of
quality. And the practitioners can't be unaware of their favoured status over many of the
aging hippies and produce resellers who make up the rest of a typical organic market.
But is it credible for a provincial milk association, representing producers of every
cow and creed, to use the Hutterite religion to promote product purity? Especially when
doing so violates a belief held by some colonies that photos are sinful graven
images?
I'm not offended on religious grounds, but it does seem to break some branding
commandments. What do you think?
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CANADIAN PRODUCTS ADVERTISINGCREATIVE DIRECTOR'S BLOG
TOM MEGGINSON
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA
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