No Halos for Halos (Marketing the Low Road)

When I think back on commercials that I remember (and isn't that the point ... to remember the ads and hence, probably the products), the ones that stand out are funny ("where's the beef?"), self-deprecating ("I can't believe I ate the whole thing"), or emotional (think Hallmark).  Often, commercials tell a story and most often, they are a reflection of our times.

I've had the following thoughts welling up inside me for a long while but because I've been watching more than the average amount of television during this weekend's East Coast blizzard, I've seen more than the average number of commercials too.  And I'm wondering when taking the lowest road possible began being a popular choice for companies and their marketers.  I haven't done any real research here.  What follows are just my thoughts, impressions ... my opinions.

These are stories that I really hope are not a reflection of our times but at the same time, I'm afraid that they are:

I think the worst offender in my part of the world is the company that markets the little mandarin oranges known as Halo.  If you go to their website, you'll find a tab called videos with most of their commercials all there for the viewing.  They have names like "Tantrum," "Little Pony," and "Duct Tape."  Each of these commercials features a child in the "lead role" doing some things that would have been considered punishable by spending a considerable amount of solo time in a time out spot when my kids were young or possibly a swat on the rear when I was a kid.  Let's look at them.  You can see them here at halosfun.com.

So, in Duct Tape, the mom confesses to her daughter that she gave the last Halo to the girl's baby

Note that the baby still has duct tape on his shirt.

brother.  "That's okay, " she sweetly says.  Mom, clearly relieved at this benign reaction, backs out of the kitchen, shutting the door, where, it is revealed that the daughter has duct taped her baby brother.  Yes, I suppose it's funny ... but call me crazy, putting a toddler at risk and having your mother clearly fear your reaction to what would otherwise be a minor disappointment in life (I mean, little girl go have a banana instead) is nuts.  In what reality is the mom afraid of her little girls' spoiled brat reaction.  Why is she putting up with that?  How did this parent let this happen?  Why has that behavior never been corrected?

Okay ... I'm probably reading 'way too much into this, right?  Let's look at another one.

Little Pony.  That sounds cute, we think.  Little Pony.  In Little Pony, we see a dad waking up in the

morning to find a stuffed animal horse's head (a pretty big one) severed from it's velvety stuffed animal body laying in the bed next to him in an obvious reference to the warning issued in The Godfather.  In the bedroom doorway stands an angry little girl, with an empty box of Halos.  Actually, I don't know of any well-adjusted (read not psychopathic) children who would destroy a beloved stuffed animal nor any kids under the age of ten who would be familiar with a Godfather reference.  Deliberately breaking a toy in my house would have also netted a decent amount of the afore-mentioned time-out time.  And it would have been a while before any new possessions would have landed in the lap of this child.

But what do the parents of these children do?  They reward them with a trip to the grocery store where their carts are loaded up with cartons (in plural) of sweet Halos.  The Little Pony girl stands in the store, grooming what's left of her toy horse with a maniacal expression.  Be afraid people, this kid is big trouble.

My favorite (or I suppose least favorite) bad commercial is actually called Tantrum.  They called it

Tantrum!  In it, a child who is clearly old enough to verbalize his needs using rudimentary vocabulary, is sitting in a grocery cart while his dad is doing the weekly shopping.  They pass the display of Halos in the produce aisle and the little boy launches into a fit of protest.  The dad experiments with pushing the cart ... in front of the display the child is pleased; past the display on either side, the fit ensues. Dad understands what his child is trying to tell him; however,  rather than looking his child in the eyes and gently saying (and by saying, I mean parenting), "This is not how we ask for things in our family," he rewards his spoiled child with cartons of Halos.  This is the commercial I saw numerous times this weekend which caused my thoughts to finally spill onto this page.

I wonder if any of these commercials are award winners.  It wouldn't surprise me if they were.  But what is the message they are really sending?  To me, which will come as no surprise to those still reading here, the message is that some parents today have confused notions about what their role is in  their children's lives.  It is not to walk in fear of their kid's bad behavior and tantrums, thereby placating them with rewards.  It is, instead, to give them the coping skills to face life's little disappointments and hopefully, with enough coping practice, to face life's big disappointments and challenges head-on with perseverance and maturity.  Not having enough mandarin oranges in the house is a little disappointment not a major catastrophe.  We need to learn to deal with it.

In 2014 my least favorite commercial belonged to Famous Footwear.  It's called "Converse Confidence."  It's a back-to-school spot, I think.  In it we see a girl coming through the school's cafeteria.  She's boldly strutting around, telling the lunch lady, "Keep the change" and proceeding to a table with what could only be described as a defiant look.  She sits down with a group of girls, throws her tray on the table with a thud and plops her sparkly Converse-clad feet up on the table, daring the girls to call her out.  They don't.

I wanted Famous Footwear to know that this is not confidence.  So I tweeted them:

The commercial says they are selling confidence.  And I've no doubt that having the right shoes for the right occasion does bolster confidence in a way (I mean, I'm a girl so I get that).  But that's a temporary kind of confidence.  Real confidence means you're able to treat a school cafeteria worker with kindness and respect, not in a disdainful patronizing way.  Real confidence means smiling at your classmates in the cafeteria, not staring them down.  Real confidence is always polite so that rather than tossing your tray on the table, you'd use all your powers of friendly persuasion and ask "Mind if I join you?"  Only people lacking in self-confidence act the way this child does, to mask their insecurities.

However,  Famous Footwear really made up for this one in my book.  In 2015 they produced a commercial called "Family Dinner" in which a family with two dads and two children can be seen sitting down to dinner and depositing all their electronics into a basket so that they can really connect during the meal.  A hundred thumbs up for this one!!

One more ... if you're still with me, I promise it's the last one.  It's from my own cable company,

Optimum.  It looks as though it's taking place in an important government office or the U.N. or some other venue in "officialdom".  A moderator is watching a little girl sign a contract and the camera pulls away as we see her shaking hands with .... her little brother?  It's the big sister/little brother peace treaty.  The camera pans the crowd who have gathered to witness this historic event and we see the mother, beaming at the sight of her kids getting along.  Of course, this turns out to be happening in her imagination as we quickly return to her reality.  She has just installed multi-room DVRs and we can clearly see little brother and big sister watching two televisions in adjacent rooms, taking in their different shows.  A family spread apart by electronics and a lack of effort.  No attempt to teach compromise or taking turns.  You know, basic things best learned at home with gentle coaxing and appropriate modeling from the adult(s) in the home.  No, this mother is so pleased she's come up with this great solution--separation and a higher monthly cable bill for the multi-room DVRs.  

All this was to say that advertisers seem to be deliberately seeking out a lower road to get our attention, appealing to our need for quick fixes for the problems in life.  These are commercials with very long life spans so it appears that this approach is working.  I'm sorry this is the impression of life in the U.S. that some companies want to give the rest of the world.  I'm sorry that this is the commentary we have about family life ... that tantrums are acceptable and arrogance is okay and brothers and sisters needn't try to get along.  It's kind of sad.

However, as stated above, this is merely my opinion.  Your mileage may differ ...