Mr. Bob Ulrich, CEO
Mr. Michael Francis, EVP, Marketing
Target Corporation

Mr. Ulrich and Mr. Francis:

As a proponent of ethical advertising for children, I never thought I’d have an issue with the Target Corporation.

Sure, you had that little problem with the Target Rounders. But that was an agency’s fault, not yours.

But now: I can hardly believe that you, the Target Corporation, my Minneapolis-hometown Target Corporation, the Target Corporation that gives back $3 million each week to communities, the Target Corporation that supports safe homes and families and family violence prevention – would promote itself by this?

courtesy Bennett4Senate

You see, Mr. Ulrich and Mr. Francis, it’s hard enough to raise girls to become healthy adults these days. And you’re not helping.

I know you are busy keeping stockholders happy, but if you have time, you might want to read: 

Using Media Education to Raise Awareness about Domestic Violence (from the Media Education Foundation);
Dads & Daughters: A Safe and Fair World for Girls;
Media’s Effect On Girls: Body Image And Gender Identity (from the National Institute on Media and the Family); or
Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls (and America, Too!).

If I could, I would return the check for seven thousand-odd dollars that you gave to my daughter’s school last year, and give up all future donations, just to ensure that we’d never see an ad like this again.

Sincerely yours,

Lisa Ray
Former Customer, East Lake Street Target
Minneapolis

via Shaping Youth

UPDATE: Bob Ulrich is retiring. So I’ll cc: Mr. Gregg Steinhafel.

Comments are closed.

Nancy Nord, acting chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, spoke to the National Press Club today about the CPSC’s “challenging year.”

Nord spent a lot of time letting listeners know that it’s not the CPSC’s job to inspect imports. Congress hasn’t given them the proper authority! Corporations are responsible for their products! I mean retailers! Retailers are responsible! And you should see the mess that Congress has made out of the current product safety legislation! It’s not Nord’s fault, okay?!

Plus someone, it seems, has blown this whole toy safety standards thing way out of proportion:

– it reached “near hysteria levels,”
– politicians “jumped on the bandwagon,” and
– the hazard to children was “distorted.”

Nord called the media concern over lead poisoning “hoopla,” citing that there have been no reported deaths, injuries, or illnesses from ingesting lead.

She must have forgotten about four-year-old Jarnell Brown (but I’m sure his family hasn’t).

Even though it is not the CPSC’s responsibility to inspect imports, Nord announced several exciting initiatives: improved import surveillance, a new cargo tracking system, and increased CPSC authority. But not to inspect imports. 

She’s right, of course — the CPSC isn’t responsible for the problems with toy safety in the United States. But I don’t think that’s what all the hoopla was about. We (press, Congress, parents, and consumers) were concerned that Nord didn’t want additional funding for the CPSC. And that the industries her agency regulates paid for her domestic and international travel. And that she might care a little too much about the how toy manufacturers will react to increased penalties for safety violations.

Maybe Nord should spend a little less time trying to explain away the agency’s PR problems.

She’s got some of her own.

Junk food ads banned in the U.K. The ban extends only to programming for kids younger than sixteen. Debate ensues.

Can public airwaves really be required to show opposing viewpoints on public issues? Of course! But what if the opposing viewpoint says don’t buy what the advertisers are selling? Adbusters is taking on big media and corporate advertising in Canada. (via Shameless)

The Toy Safety Association will release a draft of their “new” toy safety rules on February 1. Meanwhile, sweatshop workers in China break about 40,000 fingers each year. So how can workers adjust their face masks while spraying lead paint on our toys? Oh, never mind, they don’t wear face masks.

Ganz is not just in trouble with parents; now small retailers have had it, too.

(parent.thesis) asks, When will kids’ online safety be taken seriously? And by “safety” they mean “rampant commercialism” (among other issues). Izzy Neis comes to the rescue with What to Look For in Online Safety Destinations for Kids.

Toddler Size, via Feministe

 See also:
Dear Washington Post, children cannot be oversexualized
In which I make my daughter cry, or, hey Beyonce, you’re not helping me here
A sexualized Miley Cyrus? One word: Disney.

Amy at Shaping Youth asked me a while ago to examine corporations who market using philanthropy as the hook (as in Build-A-Bear’s Huggable Heroes).

Generally, I despise any campaign that appeals to altruism in order to sell more product. But secretly, I’m hoping to find something, anything, to change my mind.

Guess that’s not going to happen today. I ran across this great post, There is No Free Rice, about the United Nations’ interactive site where rice is donated to hungry countries based on how well players do in a vocabulary game. I read about it on several blogs.

Now it looks like the site was rigged so that the advertising messages that appear on the page are geared toward the player’s vocabulary — and therefore spending — levels.

What’s the harm? So what if advertisers are buying the rice? Aren’t starving people being fed here?

The harm is that the players – and many are children – are being manipulated into playing by thinking that they are contributing through by getting the anwers right. They aren’t. They are contributing through the number of times an advertiser’s message shows up while they are playing.

So kids will still walk away thinking that they are helping someone less fortunate. What they won’t know is that they are helping someone more fortunate — much more fortunate – too.

More predictions for 2008 from the marketing world (or, how else can we stick our logo in front of kids’ faces?):

AdWeeks’s hot trends in advertising for 2008 includes the catchword “authenticity:”

Next year, among other things, marketers will be more careful about the facts that support the ads. Antonio Navas, worldwide cd at Ogilvy & Mather in New York, says marketers won’t have much choice. “You cannot hide,” he notes, “because people are the critics.”

Funny how we people feel strongly about the truth-in-advertising thing.

And even more! ways to reach potential customers, especially in gaming:

More gamers, of course, equals more eyeballs for advertisers. And in-game advertising has been projected to grow from $56 million in 2005 to between $732 million and $1.8 billion in 2010 . . . . 

. . . . agencies will have to evaluate whether the current methods of in-game advertising—primarily billboards and product placement—are as effective . . . . look for more game sponsorships [such as live events and contests] with other partners to promote their products.

And elsewhere:

In 2008, online videos, Webisodes and other potential branded-entertainment productions are going to look better than ever, giving advertisers more sophisticated platforms in which to advertise.

Advertisers will also be looking, of course, towards making branded-entertainment inroads on people’s cell phones.

BrandWeek forsees positive things for word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) in 2008. The good news is that more marketers are seeing the wisdom in adhereing to the established WOM industry standards.

The bad news: not everyone does.

Unilever’s “Go Green and Small With All,” which used in-classroom magazine and Web ads to recruit participants, targeted elementary school kids . . . . Its ambassadors were encouraged to get their families to make small, green changes at home (like using concentrated All detergent) . . . . .

Using young students as ambassadors “reaches our target audience of mothers of school-age children,” says Helayna Minsk, marketing director for All. Incorporating it into a contest “encourages . . . word of mouth and got kids involved collectively,” she adds.

My prediction for 2008? More parents will reclaim their children and not give corporations free access. Find a place for that in your market niche.