******************
Mixing the Magic of Disney with the Quality of Behr®
Create the happiest rooms on earth with Disney Color by Behr, available exclusively at The Home Depot.
******************
Someone worked on this. Someone who does what I do, every day.
Maybe Disney was looking for a way to extend their reach to the ba-jillions of kiddlets who love their Disney characters, and the parents who consistently reach into their pockets to pacify them.
Maybe Behr was just looking for a way to extend their reach to consumers, tapping into the market of adoring parents who would NEVER paint their baby's room with something as mundane as "Blue"…. Oh no, it has to be ATTA BOY BLUE or CINDERELLA'S BALL GOWN. No kidding.
Go ahead and look… you know you want to.
Someone came up with all those names.
Someone developed the tagline, "Mixing the Magic of Disney with the Quality of Behr®".
Someone wrote the web page copy that begins, "Create the happiest rooms on earth…"
And in case you didn't know, certain colors and characters have been designated for "Infants & Toddlers", "Kids", "Girls", "Boys", and "Tweens & Teens". God help you if you select a pirate color for your little girl's room… do not pass go, go directly back to "Girls".
All I know is that Mickey Mouse has NEVER stepped foot/paw/whatever into our home at 8001.
The television is shut away in the basement, where the girls never interact with it.
The computers are behind closed office doors, where the girls can only use them with our supervision and for viewing home movies and photos.
On Sunday I took TinyE on an outing to Home Depot, where I thought she would enjoy looking at the flowers as I picked up some mundane home repair products. Silly Mommy.
Someone in the paint department handed a sticker to TinyE when she was getting restless, and when we got home I promptly applied it to her favorite place – her belly.
And then she pointed at the mouse character on her tum and announced with delight, "Mishey Mouse!"
And all I could think was, "MY GOD! THEY GOT TO HER!"*
My next thought was, "This is from the child who still speaks in one-syllable, one-word sentences?"
My next thought was, "Why not Papa John's?! That's one brand this household practically worships!"
And Dave's response was, "She can't even say ELVIS!"
I wanted to blog about marketing to children, and everything Dave and I have done to limit our girls' exposure to marketing and branding hoo-ha (children have been shown to have brand preferences by age 2…).
And then I found this: Hands off my kid's brain, bozos.
It's a long post, but I found myself agreeing with every sentence. It's worth the read. And I figured.... why redo it?
* Research has yet to reveal the source of possible Disney infiltration. Next up…. Researching the research process behind designing Mishey Mouse. How did they know???
7 comments:
Hearing TinyE say "Mishey Mouse" was just the cutest thing I've heard in a long time. I hope we can get a video of it.
I vaguely remember pointing to Mickey and Minnie and identifying them to her but after Sunday I searched the whole house for ANYTHING with Mickey on and found nothing, no books, no plastic figures, no magnets, no loose pictures, nothing. When she comes over next time I'm going to ask her if she can find Mickey Mouse.
Read in the paper the other day, Dear Abby I think, about a 3 year old going around singing "Viva Viagra". This made me so happy that TinyE is growing up without TV. Her mind and body run a mile a minute coming up with new creative things to do and say.
PS. Just a little reassurance, when reading her I Spy book the other night she pointed to the little tiny yellow plastic mouse and said "Mishey Mouse", So she may not be totally indoctrinated into the Disney culture.
The ONLY thing I can think of is Gunther's "Mickey Pants" dog toy! That's the only time I've heard us talk about anything Mickey-related in front of her.
Before anyone thinks I'm insane or obsessed, let me admit here: I know we can't keep her from everything. Just please indulge us this moment as we realize that our parental control has its limits.... limits which will only be further shattered as our girls continue growing up. Dang it all!
Make your house explode with an orgasm of Disney Magic. Splatter Goofy's love all over your children's walls!
Kevin Sawyer.... the original writer for Behr/Disney paints...
I couldn't agree with you more! At 14, Andy finally made it to Disney World. And that's because was invited by a friend. The other two are still waiting. . .
Incidentally, The Little Gym, which normally has "Good Manners" or "Ways We Learn" as their weekly class theme, has "Enchanted" - Disney's new movie - as next week's theme. We were encouraged to dress as princes or princesses next week, which would make forward rolls, balance beam, and running around like a maniac somewhat difficult I think. Yes, Disney has partnered with The Little Gym. Oh well.
The way she says "Mishey Maas" is very cute.
Also, in reply to that other blog you mentioned, Vulcans do not exercise "Mind Control" on other beings. She repeatedly perpetuates this Terran stereotype based on ignorance of the peaceful use of telepathy in Vulcan culture.
You know one of the greatest things I learned in elementary school was in sixth grade, when Ms. Van Buren led a unit on advertising techniques - transference, association, repetition, etc. It was fascinating to me and led directly to my later interest in psychology classes and the Kenobiesque manipulation of my peers.
Post a Comment