This musing is less about the kids than a general observation about the silliness of drug ads. Do you remember the good old days where pharmaceutical companies were prohibited from advertising on T.V.? Now, I don't think it is possible to watch an hour of T.V. without seeing a drug ad. I can't believe these ads are effective. More time is spent by the announcer revealing all of the potential side effects than the attributes of the drug. The one that caught my eye this morning was a new drug that helps people stop smoking. Some of the potential side effects: suicidal thoughts, depression and death. I've never been a smoker, but why would somebody pick a drug that could cause their death instead of a patch?
These ads defy everything that I learned in my B-School marketing classes. Spend millions of dollars on expensive television ads where most of the air time is used to talk about the downside of the product. Other than politics, in what other industry does this happen?
Imagine if this were used to sell food products, like hot dogs. The opening frame would show a happy family eating hot dogs at a baseball game. The announcer says "Hot dogs are an All-American food for your family to enjoy not just watching America's favorite past-time, but at any time of the day." Then the announcer would start in on the warnings: Consult your doctor before eating hot dogs. Hot dogs contain nitrates which in some cases may cause cancer. Hot dogs can also pose a choking hazard for young children, so use caution while eating. Hot dogs also contain high levels of cholesterol and may raise the risk of heart attack in some people.
It is crazy! No other company would spend money to tell the population about the bad effects of their products - nobody would buy them. But, drug ads must be effective because pharmaceutical companies continue to use them to promote their products. It truly has me stumped - and amazed at the same time.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Television: Part I: Parental Locks
This week, I took advantage of the "parental lock" on our digital cable T.V. I knew the day would come - I just didn't think I would need to use it now.
Some background: the boys wake up REALLY early in the morning, so we let them watch T.V. in our family room. Usually they watch CNN because the choices at 6:00 a.m. are news, cartoons that they outgrew when they were 4 or infomercials. But, at some point, they discovered a channel that I think is called "Real TV". What caught their eye when they were flipping channels was lights and sirens - for whatever reason, the boys are still fascinated with firetrucks and police cars.
The problem: this weekend, the boys were playing with their hot wheel cars, and Andrew pulled over Mark for drunk driving and being "passed out" at the wheel. I about gave myself whiplash turning to see what they were talking about. A few questions later and they showed me the channel. It is like COPS on steroids. Talk about a parenting reality check!
So, I activated the parental lock and blocked that channel. If only I had a videotape of the next morning when the boys were trying to figure out what happened to their channel. They tried for awhile to figure out the password and then gave up. I was so smug at being able to outsmart the 9 year olds, until they got savvy with On Demand.
Around September 11th, On Demand Discovery channel had a show about the Twin Towers. Mark still wants to be a firefighter, so you can imagine why he was drawn to some of the footage. But, not exactly the footage that I would have preferred the boys to be exposed to at their age. The downside to the parental lock is that it doesn't work On Demand. How could a cable company give you the ability to control your kids worlds and then leave a great big loophole?
Not one to give up easily, I resorted to a low-tech solution: The remote control goes to bed with me. And, the boys are too lazy to manually change the channel from the one it is on before I go to bed: CNN.
Some background: the boys wake up REALLY early in the morning, so we let them watch T.V. in our family room. Usually they watch CNN because the choices at 6:00 a.m. are news, cartoons that they outgrew when they were 4 or infomercials. But, at some point, they discovered a channel that I think is called "Real TV". What caught their eye when they were flipping channels was lights and sirens - for whatever reason, the boys are still fascinated with firetrucks and police cars.
The problem: this weekend, the boys were playing with their hot wheel cars, and Andrew pulled over Mark for drunk driving and being "passed out" at the wheel. I about gave myself whiplash turning to see what they were talking about. A few questions later and they showed me the channel. It is like COPS on steroids. Talk about a parenting reality check!
So, I activated the parental lock and blocked that channel. If only I had a videotape of the next morning when the boys were trying to figure out what happened to their channel. They tried for awhile to figure out the password and then gave up. I was so smug at being able to outsmart the 9 year olds, until they got savvy with On Demand.
Around September 11th, On Demand Discovery channel had a show about the Twin Towers. Mark still wants to be a firefighter, so you can imagine why he was drawn to some of the footage. But, not exactly the footage that I would have preferred the boys to be exposed to at their age. The downside to the parental lock is that it doesn't work On Demand. How could a cable company give you the ability to control your kids worlds and then leave a great big loophole?
Not one to give up easily, I resorted to a low-tech solution: The remote control goes to bed with me. And, the boys are too lazy to manually change the channel from the one it is on before I go to bed: CNN.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Soccer Mom Who Doesn't Wear Lipstick
My conservative friends...my apologies in advance. This is a political post with opinions that you may disagree with, but I really hope not.
I have made no secret of the fact that I strongly support Obama to be President. I supported him in the primaries, and I took the kids with me to one of his rallies. It was an opportunity for them for many reasons, which I will describe in a subsequent blog post.
The kids know why I support Obama, and one of the main reasons involves the pure nature of the political campaign of 2004. I absolutely abhor misleading political ads, and the 2004 campaign seemed to reach a new low. Yes, my conservative friends, I know that both sides engage in misleading attacks. However, it is the nature of what is being misled that has upset me so much - it is one thing to mischaracterize a vote and another thing to smear a person's integrity or character. It is the latter that especially has no place in our politics in my opinion.
I want to raise the kids to be informed voters, i.e. voters who can distinguish between a misleading ad and the actual facts. The last two weeks have given us an opportunity to put into practice my philosophy. The kids are familiar with the internet, so I added a new website to their repertoire: http://www.factcheck.org/. When the ad appeared claiming that Sarah Palin told Congress "Thanks but no Thanks" to the Bridge to Nowhere, we fact checked it and found that it was misleading. Ditto on the "Lipstick on a Pig" ad. We have done the same with Obama - his ads claiming that McCain supports troops in Iraq for 100 years was fact checked.
However, despite my best of intentions with the kids, "fact checking" ads has had an unintended consequence. Mark asked me last night if every politician lies. That made me very sad, and yes, ashamed, of our country's state of politics. What does this style of politics teach our children? I think this is a legitimate question for both liberals and conservatives. Why can't campaigns just run truthful statements? I have no answer. I didn't know what to say to Mark - other than we are only fact checking some, but not all ads, because I don't want him to grow up to be a cynic like Dan.
So .... my conservative and liberal friends - please comment - please tell me why both sides are not standing up and demanding that our politicians follow the rule that we, as parents, insist upon our children following: honesty.
I have made no secret of the fact that I strongly support Obama to be President. I supported him in the primaries, and I took the kids with me to one of his rallies. It was an opportunity for them for many reasons, which I will describe in a subsequent blog post.
The kids know why I support Obama, and one of the main reasons involves the pure nature of the political campaign of 2004. I absolutely abhor misleading political ads, and the 2004 campaign seemed to reach a new low. Yes, my conservative friends, I know that both sides engage in misleading attacks. However, it is the nature of what is being misled that has upset me so much - it is one thing to mischaracterize a vote and another thing to smear a person's integrity or character. It is the latter that especially has no place in our politics in my opinion.
I want to raise the kids to be informed voters, i.e. voters who can distinguish between a misleading ad and the actual facts. The last two weeks have given us an opportunity to put into practice my philosophy. The kids are familiar with the internet, so I added a new website to their repertoire: http://www.factcheck.org/. When the ad appeared claiming that Sarah Palin told Congress "Thanks but no Thanks" to the Bridge to Nowhere, we fact checked it and found that it was misleading. Ditto on the "Lipstick on a Pig" ad. We have done the same with Obama - his ads claiming that McCain supports troops in Iraq for 100 years was fact checked.
However, despite my best of intentions with the kids, "fact checking" ads has had an unintended consequence. Mark asked me last night if every politician lies. That made me very sad, and yes, ashamed, of our country's state of politics. What does this style of politics teach our children? I think this is a legitimate question for both liberals and conservatives. Why can't campaigns just run truthful statements? I have no answer. I didn't know what to say to Mark - other than we are only fact checking some, but not all ads, because I don't want him to grow up to be a cynic like Dan.
So .... my conservative and liberal friends - please comment - please tell me why both sides are not standing up and demanding that our politicians follow the rule that we, as parents, insist upon our children following: honesty.
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