I found it!
Sep. 22nd, 2010 12:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
I spent all day trying to find this video!
I would love to tell you what it's about, but you absolutely have to experience it firsthand. It's short!
After seeing that on the news I was so stunned that I just sat there for a full minute before turning to Ana (poor Ana!) and treating her to a 20 minute rant on just how bad it was. Notably, once it was explained to her, Ana forgot that she was disagreeing with everything I said on general principles and agreed - that's the suckiest ad ever.
The rant actually topped my Lunchables rant (poor Eva!) in terms of sheer epic anger, though not in scale - the Lunchables was three separate rants, dragging Evangeline back to the scene every time, as different aspects of their villainy became apparent to me. (And all she'd done was ask if I'd buy her one as a treat! Short answer? NO.)
I would love to tell you what it's about, but you absolutely have to experience it firsthand. It's short!
Poll #4535 Poll on the video!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7
Now that you've seen that amazingly failacious* video, what do you feel like doing? Check all that apply.
View Answers
Laughing
4 (66.7%)
Crying
3 (50.0%)
Killing somebody
2 (33.3%)
Abandoning my unborn child in a safe and responsible manner rather than doing something I'm sure to regret
2 (33.3%)
Failacious - is it a word?
On a scale of 1 to 10, ranging from "incredibly insulting" to "I hope the aliens don't nuke us for sending this crap out into space", how bad was that ad?
View Answers
Mean: 7.50 Median: 8.5 Std. Dev 3.20
Mean: 7.50 Median: 8.5 Std. Dev 3.20
| 1 | 1 (16.7%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 3 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 4 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 5 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 6 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 7 | 2 (33.3%) | |
| 8 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 9 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 10 | 3 (50.0%) |
Is it more insulting because the rap was just so bad, or because it trivializes a real and serious issue?
After seeing that on the news I was so stunned that I just sat there for a full minute before turning to Ana (poor Ana!) and treating her to a 20 minute rant on just how bad it was. Notably, once it was explained to her, Ana forgot that she was disagreeing with everything I said on general principles and agreed - that's the suckiest ad ever.
The rant actually topped my Lunchables rant (poor Eva!) in terms of sheer epic anger, though not in scale - the Lunchables was three separate rants, dragging Evangeline back to the scene every time, as different aspects of their villainy became apparent to me. (And all she'd done was ask if I'd buy her one as a treat! Short answer? NO.)
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 05:42 pm (UTC)Viewed charitably, it seemed to me like an inept delivery of something which they think will help certain people.
I'm not in the target audience (due to my age, for starters), so I don't know what the best way to reach them would be - though it did seem like an adult's concept of "what kids these days find cool" rather than what kids actually find a reasonable way to convey the message.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 05:52 pm (UTC)There are a few cases every so often where babies are found in toilets or in dumpsters, or abandoned in an unsafe way, such as on a doorstep in winter. And some of these babies die, of course. I have no idea how many such babies are never found at all. And it's all very sad and tragic, but the mothers aren't doing this because they're bad kids, and it's not because they're stupid and ignorant either. Maybe some of them are, and I guess a lot of them are in serious denial right up until they give birth, but the main problem isn't them, it's the fact that they feel (and probably rightly) that they can't speak to anybody to get real help.
Of course, if they could talk to their parents about it without fearing for their wellbeing they wouldn't be in this problem in the first place. If they could talk to their parents, maybe they could get birth control, or maybe they could tell their parents they were raped, or maybe they could openly get an abortion or have the baby put up for adoption (or even keep the baby, that being the third option here).
So here you have a serious issue (babies dying) that's caused by serious problems. You have these girls who are scared and alone and feel they have nobody to talk to, who don't see that they have any choices at all, and who have a big problem that's about to get a LOT bigger.
I don't think they need to be convinced "Seriously - don't kill your child". I don't think that's the problem here. (And if it is, I doubt this commercial is what's going to help.) I think the problem is that they really don't know what to do.
Instead of a tacky and cheesy song, they could get the same message out much more respectfully and appropriately by airing a simple PSA that says "If you are about to give birth to a child you can't keep, and are scared, you should know that you can leave your baby up to the age of whatever-age-it-is at any hospital or police station and they will be taken care of. You do not have to give your name or address, you do not have to be a citizen, and you do not need your boyfriend or parents' permission to do this."
The kids in this situation don't need to be talked down to or cajoled into this, they really just need to have the information.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:01 pm (UTC)Was that the message of the commercial?
I couldn't understand all of it, but I got the "if you don't know what to do" rather than "instead of killing it" vibe.
Instead of a tacky and cheesy song, they could get the same message out much more respectfully and appropriately by airing a simple PSA that says "If you are about to give birth to a child you can't keep, and are scared, you should know that you can leave your baby up to the age of whatever-age-it-is at any hospital or police station and they will be taken care of. You do not have to give your name or address, you do not have to be a citizen, and you do not need your boyfriend or parents' permission to do this."
I would have found such a commercial much more appealing, too.
I hesitate to speculate what will reach the target audience best, though, because I have really no idea.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:06 pm (UTC)Given the context of the law, it almost has to be.
Actually, the commercial is a little misleading. They talk about adoption, but when you go the normal adoption route you have far more options and the adoption is more guaranteed. I know that in some states babies abandoned in this way are actually in a bit of a limbo, because neither parent is identified to give up parental rights.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 10:20 pm (UTC)So, evidently, yes, QED the MA Baby Safe Haven law does have a PR problem and teens need to be informed that it exists and how to use it.
As to whether something less tacky would work better, I dunno. In this case, based on the neighborhood (this is where I work) I suspect it needed to be in Spanish.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-23 08:13 am (UTC)EDIT: No I have not thought out how the mechanics of such abandonment of an unborn child would work :X
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:21 pm (UTC)I'm also curious as to why you dislike Lunchables. I mean, I'm not a fan of them either, but not so much that I wouldn't by them for my kids once in a blue moon if they asked.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:40 pm (UTC)As for the second... *cracks knuckles*
1. Lunchables are garbage. They have little to no nutritional value, however, they attempt to deceive consumers by pretending they do - for example, they might include a measly single vegetable in their newer varieties, or include a juice "drink" that's primarily HFCS.
To make matters worse, most of their ingredients are actively bad - food coloring, artificial flavors - ugh!
2. Their very packaging is garbage. When I make a lunch at home, I can bring the stuff home and reuse it. Even if I decide not to, I can recycle what I used. That foil can be made into a can. That paper bag can go in my compost. Not so with Lunchables!
2a. Of course, I can make the exact same thing as a Lunchables contains except cheaper and healthier. (Yummier too.) Lunchables gives an inferior product at a higher cost. It's like stealing! By buying them, you're wasting your money, money that could go to get good food or toys or books or clothes.
3. And the fact that they advertise directly to children is reprehensible. Adults should know better when Lunchables compare kids who eat them to Van Gogh, or claim that they're healthy. Children have too little experience to understand that when Lunchables tell you that you'll be cool and popular if you open them at lunch, they're just LYING to you so you give them your money (that could go for something you REALLY want). And so children, convinced by these LYING ads, ask their parents to buy them something disgusting and unhealthy and expensive. Parents don't like to listen to nagging either, so either they say no and make their kids think they're mean, or they say yes and do something that's not good for their children, their wallet, or the world. It is utterly abhorrent for a company that sells absolute garbage to manipulate families in this respect.
I'm not sure I convinced her on my points, and maybe discretion would've been the more valorous choice here, but I pretty much ensured she will NEVER ask me for them EVER again.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 10:05 pm (UTC)I don't know if it is. Maybe? That comm updates fast, though, it's probably several pages down.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 07:37 pm (UTC)Though they don't really stand out from the pack in that regard. The amount of advertising that's directed at children is really scary.
when Lunchables tell you that you'll be cool and popular if you open them at lunch
The funny thing is that was true, at least at my elementary school. Kids were big fans of the unhealthy cheese and crackers, evidently. (In retrospect, I bet that the ability to get parents to comply with brand-related requests was a marker of status, too, though I doubt that elementary school kids would have been consciously aware of that.)
Also, that ad is indeed terrible. This is why you shouldn't hire marketers for straightforward PSAs, they feel they need to justify their budgets and end up producing that sort of extruded focus-group product.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-23 06:33 am (UTC)That seems to me like what they call in German a Milchmädchenrechnung (literally, dairy maid's calculation): something that doesn't take into account everything. (LEO suggests "naïve fallacy; naïve assessment of the situation" though that might be a bit strong.)
If you just look at money, you may well be right; however, purchasing something ready-made is faster than making the same thing from scratch, so people for whom time is scarce and/or valuable may consider that factor when determining the total "cost" to them. (Sort of like the criticism sometimes levelled at free software that "it's only free if your time has no value".)
Not saying that Lunchables are "part of a balanced and nutritious meal" (fun how things are only ever "part" of one and never a complete, balanced and nutritious meal in and of themselves), just that that particular argument is a bit weaker than your others.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-23 11:08 am (UTC)It takes more time than that to go to the store.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-23 11:29 pm (UTC)(I ate a lunchable once. I was in high school when they came out and smart enough to see that while neat little circles of ham and cheese the same size as the crackers were kind of cool, I could achieve the same damned thing with a cookie cutter and use home-cooked ham as well, thus improving the flavor. Or I could just live with square cheese that hangs over the cracker. ;)
I am continually amazed at how many people just cave to their kids and buy junk for them to eat. My mother occasionally allowed me to pick out ONE candy bar. Occasionally. And I might also be allowed to get an orange Crush, but more often not. Other food was NOT my choice and my opinion was NOT solicited, at least until I got into high school. Then I was allowed to input suggestions such as which meat, which cheese, what kind of bread to buy--but buying readymade crap instead of meat, cheese, and bread was still not on the table as an option.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-24 12:58 am (UTC)