Have you ever felt guilty for something that you shouldn't feel guilty for? Something that is a really good thing and everyone else sees it as a good thing? Even the person who, without knowing it and not intending to, is the source of the guilt?
Earlier tonight I was at a funeral home. It was a wake for my cousin who died suddenly over the weekend. I haven't really talked much about it. I haven't even told my friends. None of them know. I don't know why. I guess I'm just not ready to tell them. Perhaps it's the effect of the ensuing shock. Who knows?
While I was at the funeral home I did the customary receiving line. I spoke with my cousins parents (my mother's first cousin is my cousin's father, we're all first and second cousins) and his sisters. Their putting on as good of a front as they can but I know they're devastated. When I spoke with my cousin's father, Frank, he congratulated me on my newborn daughter who is just one week old today.
You try to have a normal conversation in moments like these. Just to keep some sense of normalcy. Frank commented on how I have a son and a daughter and that now I have "a million dollar family". Could there be a greater sense of irony in this situation? I'm at his son's wake and he's congratulating me on my "million dollar family". How insanely screwed up is that? His 27 year old son is gone. What do you think he'd give to be back where I am now? More than a million dollars I'm sure.
So that's why I feel guilty. I feel guilty for having two beautiful, healthy, innocent babies at home while he is dying inside. I feel guilty for having the thing that has been taken from him.
Now I know that Frank is happy for me and that he doesn't hold it against me. It's not like that at all. It's just hard not to feel like my blessing is an accent and punctuation mark on his grief.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Cereal Conspiracy
After a long hiatus from blogging I am making my triumphant return. Okay, well, my return. We'll wait and see how triumphant it is. As someone who makes their living as a marketer, I can't help but scrutinize the various marketing messages that I encounter throughout my travels and the other day I had an epiphany. Let me explain.
It's common in marketing to look for simple approaches to convey your message. Sometimes templates or formulas are created and marketers blindly follow them. You find something that works and then you simply trade out the details to make it fit your product or service. It doesn't always work and in many cases leads to "bad advertising" but on the plus side keeping it simple has its merits.
So the other day I was talking to someone at work, standing at their desk, and I noticed they had a cereal box on their desk. It was Fruity Pebbles. Upon inspection of the box design I saw that the main graphic on the front was Fred Flintstone with a giant bowl of Fruity Pebbles behind him. There was a large scooping device made out of two spoons tied together with an extending arm attached to it. The scooping device was attempting to scoop the pebbles out of the bowl. Who was holding the scooping device? Good question. It was none other than Barney Rubble. If you're familiar with this cereal and its commercials you'd know that the concept is that Barney is always trying to get some of Fred's Fruity Pebbles. So I'm thinking all this and that's when it hit me. Many popular kid's cereals are marketed with this same core concept: The cereal is really good tasting. Someone has the cereal. Someone else wants the really good tasting cereal and tries to steal it.
Let's think about this. Pebbles: Barney stealing from Fred. Lucky Charms: The kids trying to steal the Leprechaun's cereal. Trix: The rabbit trying to steal from the kids. Cookie Crisp: The crook stealing from the children. What kind of message are we sending to our children?
"Look, this cereal tastes so damn good that you'll be willing to steal to get it. So good in fact that you would risk being arrested just to get your lips on this stuff."
I'm sure there are other examples that I'm just not thinking of. Of course, not all kid's cereals take this approach but I think enough of them do to make us at least take note. So the moral of this story is that not only are sugary kids cereals bad for your health but they could inadvertently land your child in prison.
It's common in marketing to look for simple approaches to convey your message. Sometimes templates or formulas are created and marketers blindly follow them. You find something that works and then you simply trade out the details to make it fit your product or service. It doesn't always work and in many cases leads to "bad advertising" but on the plus side keeping it simple has its merits.
So the other day I was talking to someone at work, standing at their desk, and I noticed they had a cereal box on their desk. It was Fruity Pebbles. Upon inspection of the box design I saw that the main graphic on the front was Fred Flintstone with a giant bowl of Fruity Pebbles behind him. There was a large scooping device made out of two spoons tied together with an extending arm attached to it. The scooping device was attempting to scoop the pebbles out of the bowl. Who was holding the scooping device? Good question. It was none other than Barney Rubble. If you're familiar with this cereal and its commercials you'd know that the concept is that Barney is always trying to get some of Fred's Fruity Pebbles. So I'm thinking all this and that's when it hit me. Many popular kid's cereals are marketed with this same core concept: The cereal is really good tasting. Someone has the cereal. Someone else wants the really good tasting cereal and tries to steal it.
Let's think about this. Pebbles: Barney stealing from Fred. Lucky Charms: The kids trying to steal the Leprechaun's cereal. Trix: The rabbit trying to steal from the kids. Cookie Crisp: The crook stealing from the children. What kind of message are we sending to our children?
"Look, this cereal tastes so damn good that you'll be willing to steal to get it. So good in fact that you would risk being arrested just to get your lips on this stuff."
I'm sure there are other examples that I'm just not thinking of. Of course, not all kid's cereals take this approach but I think enough of them do to make us at least take note. So the moral of this story is that not only are sugary kids cereals bad for your health but they could inadvertently land your child in prison.
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