According to the report, NOT A SINGLE COMPANY scored an A. There were a handful of companies that scored B’s, among them: Mars, QUBO, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Kraft, Cadbury Adams, Hershey, Dunkin’ Brands and General Mills.

A few companies managed to squeeze in C: Post Foods, PepsiCo, PBS, Coca-Cola, Disney, Burger King, Campbell Soup, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, Heinz and Viacom (Nickelodeon). The ones that did not do as good and scored a D are: Sunny Delight, Krispy Kreme, Cartoon Network, Ruby Tuesday, Subway, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Chuck E. Cheese’s.

I was able to mention all the passing companies in a 3 short paragraphs. I will need considerable more room for the ones that scored an F: Bob Evans, CBS, Dairy Queen, Discovery, Mattel, Univision, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Sierra Studios, Channel One, AMC, American Girl Magazine, Arby’s, Blizzard Video Games, Blue Sky Studios, Boys’ Life Magazine, Chilli’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Church’s Chicken, Carmike Cinemas, Cheesecake Factory, Chick-fil-A, Cinemark, Chipotle, Carl’s Jr, Hardee’s, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Denny’s Applebee’s, IHOP, Domino’s Pizza, Peanuts Comic, EA Video Games, GoldenCorral, Girls Life Magazine, Hansen Beverage, Hasbro, Barney, Bob the Builder, Thomas the Train, Hollywood Theatres, HP Hood, Jack in the Box, Kerasotes Showplace, Kids Discover Magazine, Klutz, Tips and Tricks Magazine, Little Caesars, LucasFilm, Major League Soccer, Marcus Movie Theatres, Marvel Comics, Little Debbie snack cakes, Bratz, Xbox, Major League Baseball, National Amusements theaters, NASCAR, National Geographic Kids, NHL, Wild Animal Baby Magazine, Ranger Rick, NBA, NFL, Nintendo, Outback Steakhouse, Panda Express, Panera Bread, Papa John’s, Fun Brain, Airheads, Perkins & Marie Callender’s, Pilgrim’s Pride, Aunt Jamima, Duncan Hines, Lender’s, Pokemon Company, Popeye’s Chicken, Quizno’s, Rave Motion, Red Robin, Regal Entertainment, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Hometown Buffet, Old Country Buffet, Sara Lee, Scholastic, Schwan’s, Sizzler, Sonic, Sony’s Playstation, Sunkist, TGI Friday’s, Texas Roadhouse, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Time for Kids, Bazooka, Ring Pop, Baby Bottle Pop, Waffle House, Wendy’s, Whataburger, WWE, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand Zoobooks.

So, how does the CSPI issue such letter grades? According to them, Mars was the highest graded one and their policy did not allow for its products to be marketed to children under 12 years old and covered most of the key media approaches (with the exception of on-package marketing and most marketing in high schools). They also claim that without significant progress in the next 24 months, the US will need to rely on government regulation, rather than self-regulation, as to address food marketing to children. This may not be far-fetched. Obama himself said: “The food industry overall could do substantially more to limit children’s exposure to foods with minimal nutritional value…guidelines for advertising and marketing of foods and beverages must be finalized, and the industry should be encouraged to implement these guidelines on a voluntary basis. If voluntary adoption is not effective…these guidelines should be made mandatory.”.

According to the CSPI though, any company that offers a kids’ menu is aggressively seeking their business. What they fail to see is that a kids menu is not a means to advertise to kids, it is simply an offering that HAS to be implemented in order to attract parents to the food venue. Parents are more likely to attend a location that offers a meal for their kids – this is really not something I would consider “advertising” to kids. Not every company on the list targets kids. Take the kids meal TOY industry…we target restaurants – yes, we manufacture toys that in turn are aimed to attract kids. Should we have a policy on how to target kids? If we did, how in the world would we stay in business? I mean, we do not offer food, but we certainly encourage kids to consume food.

Whatever happened to the popcorn….?

When a company admits they are at fault, when they embrace what they have lacked for years, when they make it public and challenge themselves to change public opinion, that is when they begin to capitalize on the mistakes of the past. I consider this to be one of the best advertising campaigns of all times, if in fact, they meet their goals.

I have to admit that I stopped ordering Domino’s Pizza as soon as I graduated from college. Their 30-minute guarantee and their very affordable pitch had me sold back then. After I became more selective in my dining choices, Domino’s was not at the top of my list. I will without a doubt try the pizza again very soon, maybe even before the Super Bowl. I am very curious to see if they have managed to improve the crust, sauce and also, customer service (which they did not mention on their ads, but I would imagine they would touch on as well during their improved re-branding efforts).

One thing is for sure: it took a lot of guts to come out in the open and lay it all out there in front of millions of people to see. Some may have made fun of it, some may have agreed with everything they have to say…but, also lots will agree that it took courage to come out and say it. Hats off to them…and hopefully, the next pizza I order will be in fact superior to the old ones.

While it is more likely to be found in batteries and metal products like jewelry, attention must be paid to the contents it could have on paints and even on plastic materials. Most people get a microscopic does of Cadmium by breathing and eating. Certain plants, like tobacco, ingest cadmium through their roots hence people will absorb it during digestion or inhalation. The nasty sides of direct contact with Cadmium include, but are not limited to, cancer, leaking of protein in the kidneys and progressive weakness of bones.

Cadmium is more dangerous for children due to their growing bodies are more susceptible to absorbing substances. To date, there has been one child’s death attributed to this heavy metal, it was in Toronto back in 1994. Cadmium is a know carcinogen, that just like lead, can hinder brain development in the very young. Consistent levels of exposure (through biting, sucking, etc) can result in high ingestion levels of these heavy metals.

The AP study that targeted children jewelry, showed some of the items tested with contents of 10% of cadmium or more. These are extremely high contents of this heavy metal. Currently, there are no required cadmium standards for children in jewelry.

However, safety testing for kids meal toys does test not only for lead and CADMIUM, but also against many other heavy metals that could be soluble migrated elements (ASTM F963-08). The test is performed to confirm contents of Antimony, Arsenic, Barium, Cadmium, Chromium, Lead, Mercury and Selenium. Further, there IS a LIMIT in the content of Cadmium and that is measured in milligrams per kilogram (parts per million). The limit established is 75 parts per million (0.00075%). While this is the limit, most of the kids meal toys produced for large corporations in the US do not even reach 10% of the limit (6 parts per million = 0.00006%).

While I am not condoning in ANY shape of form, the content of cadmium in items that target kids or adults for that matter, it is important to understand that certain industries do take into consideration safety and consider it as a priority. Hopefully this will help educate some people and will tame some misconceptions about the industry and safety.

With over 32,000 locations worldwide, the exposure of this campaign would be huge and also huge would be the budget allocated to said promotional period. McDonald’s believes that the movie will generate a lot of interest among a wide range of consumers, and that it would appeal to a variety of age groups ranging from 8 to 80. One thing that was not mentioned however, was how this would be perceived by parents with kids ages 0-8 years old.

Internet blogs, tweets and personal sites have been bombarding the web with negative comments about the fact that McDonald’s is giving away AVATAR movie toys in their happy meal. Some consumers feel that since his is a PG-13 movie that would automatically mean younger kids would not have access to watching the movie, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.

A PG-13 grading was issued to this movie due to its intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking. Age grading in a movie is also extremely subjective and parents should be making those decisions by themselves. The movie as a whole targets the whole sci-fi phenomena, and I am sure lots of families will also choose to go out and see them as a group, as a family. Like it or not, the movie is getting a lot of attention, and so are the happy meal toys included with the kids meal.

Here is a trailer of the movie:

Then, you can tear off a card from the actual happy meal box (I guess they came in handy this time) which can be directly used on the Star Wars/Happy Meal Website.

Basically the card reads: “Get the card, find a computer or laptop with a webcam and let the force be with you!” The process is quite simple and while kids are using it quite a bit, the program is also getting a lot of attention from teens and even from adults, yes, from adults!

And once you master to get it to work (this adult was not able to get it to work on the first try), you get to interact at a completely different level. Here is a promotional ad that McDs ran to promote the program.

The game has several phases. The first portion of the game deals with the test flight of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Delta 7 jet and the second phase deals with an actual fight against the evil Slave1 spaceship.

With augmented reality becoming more and more popular, it will remain to be seen if other brands will follow this trend. This is brand exposure at its maximum. It generates buzz, it is all over the blogs and consumers continue to feed on the frenzy. Brilliant marketing? McD’s is NOT doing the blogging or generating the buzz - they allow consumers and clients to do it - they simply provide the reason to do it. Brilliant in my opinion. Let others do the work for you. Wow.

Mars, Kelloggs, McDonalds, Lego, Mattel, Hasbro, Ferrero and BTHA have founded Digital Adwise, which is also supported by the advertising industry, including the IPA. This initiative aims to reach 77% of children who used the internet on a regular basis. Some claim that children are easy targets for marketers due to the large amount of time they spend online and watching television.

Digital Adwise plans to teach children about digital content through free online lessons and in a fun and engaging way. The program will be accessed by all primary schools in the UK. Digital Adwise is the newest addition to the industry’s media literacy program called MediaSmart; a non-profit program for school children ages 6-11, which develops and provides free educational materials to primary schools.

The program is already under heavy criticism by groups that feel this will further encourage kids to spend time online and that the initiative will only further benefit marketers and companies that seek to target kids primarily. Only time will tell how well the program works and if in fact, it will bring balance to the very controversial topic of marketing to kids.

A successful family marketing promotion is about balance.

No matter what great concept you come up with, how cool of a give-away you are going to use, or what kind of media you choose to communicate it; if you want your promotion to be a success (why wouldn’t you?), you NEED it to be balanced. The balance I am talking about is the balance between what parents like and expect versus what appeals to kids.

Let’s face it, as adults we still have a little inner kid in us. We still like to have fun and if we have kids, we want our kids to have fun and enjoy themselves, within reason, of course. Easy concept, correct? What happens most of the time is that certain promotional items are skewed towards either kids or towards parents. Some items are too safe and mean no harm or offense, so in some cases, they could be categorized as boring. A promotional concept that targets kids does not need to be offensive, aggressive or gross to capture the attention of the little ones, and they certainly do not have to be plain and boring to attract the attention of parents. So how do we keep concepts and ideas well balanced and in harmony?

There are several things to keep in mind but I believe the most important one and that one I have chosen to focus on is value; more specifically, perceived value.

Perceived value in Adults: This is something that is key to keep things in balance. When parents and adults think of perceived value, the first thing that comes to mind is quality and the relation of what they are paying versus what they are getting in return. There is a popular saying: “You pay for what you get”. Let’s dig in a little deeper. Today, there are lots of offerings at restaurants, online promotions, trial packages, etc., in which most of the time, the product/item/toy will be offered free of cost with a purchase of something else (ie: a toy is free with the purchase of the meal). That does not mean that parents are not to expect a high quality item for their kids simply because they are getting that given item free. Simply put, make sure your give-away matches your brand, EVEN if you are giving away the item free of charge. If you pride yourself of having a great restaurant, with a pleasant atmosphere, hip and trendy with delicious food, then the give-away needs to match your restaurant. If you use a coloring book with crayons, don’t use something generic and boring. Use something trendy with modern characters and tied to contemporary themes. If you have a brand that exemplifies staying green, that prides in using recycled goods and gives back to the community, then by no means should you use an item that consists of materials that oppose your cause. Stay with something green that fits your brand. Look around you – there are plenty of marketing flaws in which products and giveaways do not complement the brand; they actually fight it. Don’t be that brand.

Kids’ Expectations: What do they expect when it comes to value? Kids’ expectations are different. Kids want to have fun right now and right away. Kids are sophisticated and kids’ trends and likes change considerably faster today than several years ago. So make sure you stay current with trends, movies, with what is popular, etc. Kids today prefer brands that give back and that help the environment. They will value your efforts to do the same. Go with the flow and learn to appeal to those causes. It is never too late to start learning and adapt to trends. Kids and teens communicate at great speeds through texting, emailing, chatting, FB’ing, etc. Make one happy and soon you will have a big following. Make one mad, and by association, you already alienated not only them, but potentially his/her friends and classmates, which combined, represent a much larger potential group of clients. Kids will value your efforts to target them if you do it with respect and keeping their feelings in mind. Don’t be cheesy. Do not treat kids like kids. Kids are small adults and they do take notice of your efforts. Think like a kid.

So, what is balance? Balance is weighing the odds. What are the odds of this item being liked by kids and not turning parents off? Balance is harmony and the ability to put a smile in kids’ faces without making parents mad. That is balance.

Nichelodeon in partnership with Harris Interactive released a study that shows that 82% of families still watch TV together and 77% of families watch movies together at home each week.

Here are some additional findings that are key to note:
- 41% of parents and kids are listening to music together
- 36% are playing games together
- 86% eat dinner together at least once a week (did not specify if it is at home or dining out)
- 44% of parents say it is very important to raise daughters to be good w/money while 31% ONLY pushed the same to sons (what??)

While the study does not make mention of the economical changes that US has suffered in the the last 2 years, one of the things that we certainly need to take note of, is the fact that families seem to have been brought closer together by it. Yes, new media technology can sometimes affect social skills and to some point, family interaction, but, it is ultimately up to parents to show their children and teach them through example. What better way to do this than playing a good ol’ game of monopoly together?

Edelman Consumer Study released their new findings regarding support for “good cause” advertising and companies.

According to the study, 57% of consumers globally say a company or brand has earned their business because it has been doing its part to support good causes, with China leading the Asian countries at 85% followed by India at 84%. Further, 67% said they would switch brands if another brand of similar quality supported a good cause with Brazil leading this list at 83% followed by Italy at 74%.

Other interesting findings in the study were:
- 70% of people would prefer to live in an eco-friendly house than merely a big house (30%)
- 69% would rather have a brand that supports the livelihood of local producers than a designer brand (31%)
- 67% would rather drive a hybrid car than a luxury car (33%): Japan and France were the highest

As suggested by the report, the biggest global social changes include:
- 83% of respondents are willing to change consumption habits if it can help make the world a better place to live
- 71% of respondents think brands and companies spend too much on advertising and marketing and should put more into good causes
- 64% would recommend a brand that supports a good cause - up from 52% last year globally
- 59% would help a brand promote its products if there was a good cause behind it - up from 53% last year
- 44% are aware of brands that actively support good causes through their products and services, up from 33% twelve months ago.

This is in par with what kids are doing as well. On a separate study by Scholastic, these are the findings on how children are helping the environment:
- Turning off electrical appliances when not in use (40%)
- Recycle all paper, plastic and cans (38%)
- Volunteer to raise awareness (17%)
- Nothing (5%)

The overwhelming majority of kids (66%) believe the responsibility of saving the environment falls to their generation. Only 18% believe it is the government’s responsibility.

This is when parents need to give themselves an A. According to World Vision, a non-profit organization, more teens volunteer to support a charitable cause than have a part-time job (56% vs. 39%). Parents are the main influence on their teens’ altruistic behaviors. 91% of parents say they try to emphasize the importance of charity to their teens. Parents are more likely to donate money (77% vs. 26%), while teens are more likely to donate their time (56% vs. 46%).

Keep it up!

Three years and a half in the making, the movie was finally released in many Latin American countries. The Dolphin (El Delfin) movie, based on the book by Sergio Barbaren, who claims to be very satisfied with the results of the film thus far, is currently showing in Mexico and many other countries, and there are already talks of a sequel.

According to Barbaren, it was very satisfying to carry the message of his book to the big screen. “During the beginning of the project, which is an international production, the only thing I had to be concerned about was making sure the message of the book carried over to the movie, but the project grew so much that once Twentieth Century Fox got involved, I ended up reading more than 100 books in order to learn how to become a movie producer”, said Barbaren over the phone.

CNN does a 5 minute story on Dolphin, the movie.

But the Dolphin dreams will not end there, as there is a sequel being planned. The author of the book will only act as a consultant this time. “It was great being the producer of this film. It was three and a half years of work, but I have to admit that I am going to stick to writing.”

Fox has the first option to make a sequel out of the movie. I will remove myself slowly from the project, but will continue to oversee what will happen on the second movie, he said.