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January 10th, 2007

New Lows in Advertising?

The mail from Monday brought in its usual assortment of goodies. I got a second copy of the first issue in my JPG subscription, the electric bill (rates going up 25%, awesome ComEd!), and a postcard with two little girls on it.

It was a formal photo, and the two were little ones – 5 or 6 – with gappy smiles, dresses, the whole nine yards. “Funny,” I thought, “There aren’t any little girls in the family. Who are they?”

I turned the card over to find a hand-written message. Names have been changed to protect the unscrupulous:

Mr. McAleer: To have a happy 2006 see Joe. – Ashley. I agree – Kate.

The message was clearly written by kids (two of them) and was real – the ink was real, at least, because it made an impact on the surface of the card. I looked up to see that this postcard came from Joe Smith, Photographer.

That’s right! Joe Smith either has kids writing his ads for him, or is faking it to make people think he has kids writing his ads for him.

This whole thing just felt like a new low… I was really, really stunned by it. When people are using kids in an effort to promote “synergy”… you know something’s wrong.

Posted in Consumer Commentary

Robert January 10, 2007, 10:29 pm

Is it not too late for a happy 2006?

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