Have a look at these two advertisements – they are very different in what they say about nature.
Toys ‘R’ Us advertisment.
Chipotle advert.
Which did you like best?
You may have noticed that adverts have appeared in the right hand sidebar of this webpage. I’ve not been terribly keen on the idea of having them but given the time invested in producing this blog, which recently passed the 1000 posts mark, then it seemed too idealistic not to enter the world of Mammon (or rather, let him have a toehold on my sidebar!). Do not fear, I do not expect to be packing up this blog and retiring to a life of luxury on the proceeds.
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the TOYS ‘R’ US advert was quite scary. And not in a good way.
I see three blank Post-it notes, but I can’t write on them
When Ralph Underhill put up his “Sticks” cartoon I was going to reply with a STICKS R US ‘comment’
Toys R Us ad not very interesting and ‘cheap’ – lasting 90 seconds
Chipotle – good quality lasting over 3 minutes – could fragment / re-edit and use say 40 second slots in longer campaign
Placement of both ads is important – Chipotle’s ad too long for TV (?) but OK as a stimulating ‘ad’ between kids films / DVD (?)
Target audience? kids vs parents – pester power?
That’s all Folks !!!
The script writer behind the Toys ‘R’ Us advert is in sore need of a damn good thrashing.
An overreaction I concede – it has been a long day.
I think Project Wild Thing needs to be shown to the board of Toys r Us!! What an appalling advert. Of course children love toys but to use toys versus the natural world like this is so deplorable and cynical. Thankfully I no longer have to purchase from their stores.
The Chipotle advert is great but HIGHLY misleading. You could be excused if you thought that Chipotle was a veg only Mexican grill when in fact they nothing of the sort. They do however use Freedom foods which I find interesting, only in the fact that this is highly subjective.
One aspect of farming they touched on which I am increasingly concern with is the use of pharmaceuticals in meat production, surely this is something we need to address. All in all, I’m pretty glad I choose to harvest my own fish and meat direct from nature and not a Supermarket chain!
Both are educational for the adults. If you need to sell the wildlife then you need toys that advertise the wildlife like Kitty, Screamer and Horus. Ask the question – Why did he scare the crow at the end when it was the crow that showed him the modern world of food production!!
Admittedly the presentation is very different in each, but are they so far apart when it comes to the crunch? Both very cynical, though one much more subtle than the other.
Mark, I don’t know how much feedback you’ve had regarding the sidebar ads, but for what it’s worth (no pun intended), one indiscriminate ad is one too many. I could possibly put up with it if they were environmentally-orientated, but is there no rest from PPI?
Graeme – quite a lot of the sidebar ads are environmentally oriented – RSPB membership, forestry courses, solar panels. But the way that they work, Google scans the website and places ads which seem to match the words used on the website. I guess there must be feedback when someone clicks on an ad too. So I have no choice over the ads – except by writing about the environment.
If you have another idea for how I could recoup a little bit of money for the time invested in this blog then that would be great. Is each post worth 1p to you – if so then you owe me £10. And there are 8000+ of you who visit this website each month – that’ll do nicely, thank you. how about if they were worth 5p each? Cheques made payable to Mark Avery, please.
LOL, I assumed that you wrote the blog for the love of it, when you’re not counting your book royalties :o)
You raise a valid point, though. How can the effort be rewarded if needs must? Funnily enough, this is rather pertinent, as I’m about to join the ranks of the time rich/income poor by embarking on a downsizing experiment. The only obvious benefit being it’s in a British county that has breeding Hen Harriers. I’ll let you know how I get on!
Graeme – please do!