What Québec Wants™

Déjà vu all over again?

Paul Hanley writes in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix that “consumer culture saturates kids’ lives” and quotes Susan Linn of the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood:

"The ability to play creatively is central to the human capacity to experiment, to act rather than react, and to differentiate oneself from the environment. It is how children wrestle with life and make it meaningful. Spirituality and advances in science and art are all rooted in play. Play promotes attributes essential to a democratic populace, such as curiosity, reasoning, empathy, sharing, co-operation, and a sense of competence -- a belief that the individual can make a difference in the world. Constructive problem-solving, divergent thinking, and the capacity for self-regulation are all developed through creative play.”

Hanley adds “this type of free play is being eroded in our commercialized, consumer culture. One international survey found that only 27 per cent of children currently engage in imaginative play, running around outside, playing dress-up, building forts. What do they do instead? Watch TV, play video games, surf the Net. Spending 40 hours a week in front of a screen is not unusual, it's typical.”

As is often the case in articles adopting this point of view, Québec is mentioned as having the most stringent rules in the world about marketing to children.

I’m personally in favour of ensuring kids get more free play and less screen time. But I’m less inclined to believe those who claim that new media is corrupting our children.

Here’s an historical look at what some have said about the corruptors of the past (from an article by Tom Standage entitled The Culture War published in the April 2006 issue of Wired Magazine)

Novels

"The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?"
- Reverend Enos Hitchcock, Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, 1790

The Waltz

"The indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced ... at the English Court on Friday last ... It is quite sufficient to cast one's eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs, and close compressure of the bodies ... to see that it is far indeed removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is ... forced on the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion." 
- The Times of London, 1816

Movies

"This new form of entertainment has gone far to blast maidenhood ... Depraved adults with candies and pennies beguile children with the inevitable result. The Society has prosecuted many for leading girls astray through these picture shows, but GOD alone knows how many are leading dissolute lives begun at the 'moving pictures.'" 
- The Annual Report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1909

The Telephone

"Does the telephone make men more active or more lazy? Does [it] break up home life and the old practice of visiting friends?" 
- Survey conducted by the Knights of Columbus Adult Education Committee, San Francisco Bay Area, 1926

Comic Books

"Many adults think that the crimes described in comic books are so far removed from the child's life that for children they are merely something imaginative or fantastic. But we have found this to be a great error. Comic books and life are connected. A bank robbery is easily translated into the rifling of a candy store. Delinquencies formerly restricted to adults are increasingly committed by young people and children ... All child drug addicts, and all children drawn into the narcotics traffic as messengers, with whom we have had contact, were inveterate comic-book readers This kind of thing is not good mental nourishment for children!" 
- Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 1954

Rock and Roll

"The effect of rock and roll on young people, is to turn them into devil worshippers; to stimulate self-expression through sex; to provoke lawlessness; impair nervous stability and destroy the sanctity of marriage. It is an evil influence on the youth of our country." 
- Minister Albert Carter, 1956

Videogames

"The disturbing material in Grand Theft Auto and other games like it is stealing the innocence of our children and it's making the difficult job of being a parent even harder ... I believe that the ability of our children to access pornographic and outrageously violent material on video games rated for adults is spiraling out of control."
- US senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2005

Children's Advertising - According to the WHO, Canada should look to Quebec's law for inspiration

MONTREAL, Jan. 8 /CNW Telbec/ - The Quebec Coalition on Weight Related Problems (Weight Coalition) is very pleased of a recent report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) that applauds Quebec's legal stance in regard to advertising aimed at children and encourages Canada and other provinces to follow suit.

via www.newswire.ca

Life is short. Have an affair.

(Or how to fuel controversy to get free publicity.)

Sun Media reports today that Noel Biderman, the CEO of the Ashley Madison ‘dating website for married people looking to have affairs’ is threatening to sue the Toronto Transit Commission for refusing to wrap its streetcars with his ad with the headline: "Life is short. Have an affair.” The result? More free publicity for someone who has figured out how to leverage controversy to raise awareness of and visits to his website.

Earlier this year, CTV had refused to air a TV commercial for Ashley Madison with essentially the same message. That too got Mr. Biderman tons of free publicity.

During the summer of 2008, Ashley Madison posted a billboard in Times Square with the same message. Fox and many others reported on it before it was removed due to complaints.

Mr. Biderman is quoted in the Village Voice saying that the ‘controversy has aroused massive interest’. I bet. And with more than 2.5 million users, Mr. Biderman must be laughing.

But he won’t win awards for creativity. His headline is rather close to one used in 2007 by a Chicago-based law firm that generated a fair bit of publicity on national scale. According to ABC News “the ad was the brainchild of Corri Fetman, who told ABC News' Law & Justice Unit, "Law firm advertising is boring…Everything's always the same. It's lawyers in libraries with a suit on and the law books behind them. They don't say anything. What, I should hire you because you have a law degree? C'mon. So we wanted to try something different."

Perhaps Ms. Fetman will consider suing Mr. Biderman for plagiarism. More free publicity.

Here's some unsolicited advice for Mr. Biderman. Invest in a bilingual site and try your shock advertising approach in Quebec. I'd be curious to see what reaction you get. Judging by this Angus Reid data, it seems that having affairs isn't as controversial:

What is morally acceptable?  Married men and/or women having an affair.

• Atlantic 10%
  
• Quebec 35%
  
• Ontario 10%
  
• Prairies 14%
  
• Alberta 10%
  
• BC 10%

For more on Quebeckers and cheating, read this post from last summer.

Tough call

The Montreal Canadiens organization offers teachers in Quebec a variety of learning resources themed around the legendary hockey team. Developed by Paton Publishing, it is described to teachers this way on the corporate website:

Canadiens@School is an exciting hockey themed resource designed to add a fun new twist to selected  components of the MELSQ curriculum. This resource offers engaging lesson plans, featuring both the Legends of the Canadiens and Today's Canadiens, that will capture your students' imagination and will help you make learning more fun! Plus, this program also provides you and your students with opportunities to win great Canadiens prizes, play interactive games where kids will learn while they play, and much more!

The free program, launched in 2007, is being used by 1,400 teachers in 1800 elementary schools. The Quebec government not only endorses it, it funds it - $125,000 in 2007 and $128,000 two weeks ago according to a report in La Presse.

Who would dare question the motives of the management of “the world greatest hockey team”? Well, some are. They argue that the whole enterprise, while providing valuable tools to teachers and their students, is nothing more than disguised promotional material targeting kids. Which is illegal in Quebec.

Saputo got a $44,000 fine for promoting its snack cakes in daycare centers with a character meant to encourage kids to stay active. See this previous post on the subject.

Michelle Courchesne, Quebec's Minister of Education isn't talking about it. But, Jean-Pascal Bernier, her press secretary is. "The Canadien is not a private company like others. It's part of history. It's an institution more than a company." (The translation is mine.) I guess this would also apply to Molson's, Seagram, Hudson's Bay Company...

But seriously, what should we make of this “branded content” in schools? It's a tough call.

Smoke and mirrors

Politics and brand marketing share much.

Last March, the online magazine Salon.com ran an interesting piece by Jeff Yang called Brand-aid. It argued that “on top of everything else it represents, the current presidential election is something like an ad agency review - - a chance to put a set of potential stewards for “Brand America” through their paces, to see the creative and strategic directions in which they’d take our product.”

In Salon's view, if Clinton were a brand, she would be Microsoft or Martha Stewart Living. McCain would be Winston cigarettes or Hummer, while his Republican rival Huckabee would be restaurant chain Applebee's.

Obama was seen then, as he clearly still is, as the coolest candidate, since he gets to be Apple or Nike.

But here’s a picture of the 44^th POTUS that’s not very Nike or Apple.

 

Much is said about Barak Obama's Blackberry dependency. But far less is reported about his hard to break smoking habit. We hear he’s trying to quit. Once a heavy smoker, he publicly gave up the habit, per his wife’s request, to run for president. But last June, he admitted to having “fallen off the wagon”.

Some even claim it’s a habit that could be part of his appeal. Another online magazine, Slate, suggested that there are “plenty of reasons for Obama's magic voice: where he grew up, how his parents talked, how he breathes. But perhaps most important is one Obama doesn't want to talk about: cigarettes. Smoking over time transforms a person's voice by thickening and drying out the vocal chords.” Now there’s one benefit the tobacco industry has not leveraged.

Image-makers have no doubt created a compelling brand for Obama. Cool and in control, “no drama Obama”. But the smoking doesn’t fit. Which is perhaps why there’s only one picture of him smoking (that I know of) on the web.

How times have changed.

Humphrey Bogart was cool and smoking.

 

And, In Quebec, smoking was part of Rene Lévesque’s brand.

So how cool is smoking among Quebec youth today?

The Youth Smoking Survey provides reliable data on trends in tobacco use. Findings from the 2006-07 survey reveal that 21% of Canadian youth in grades 5 through 9 have ever tried any type of tobacco product. This represents a 50% reduction since 1994. That’s the good news. But Quebec still has the highest prevalence of youth smoking.

In 2006-07, the percentage of youth that had ever tried smoking cigarettes ranged from lows of 13% in Ontario and 14% in Prince Edward Island to a high of 29% in Québec.

And cheap cigarillos are apparently now more popular with Quebec youth than cigarettes according to a Quebec government survey.

Last December, Ontario passed a bill to outlaw flavored cigarillos and require that non-flavored cigarillos be sold in packages of 20. To my knowledge, there is no such law in Quebec.

- - 

Back to Obama’s smoking habit. If he actually quits for good, there’s a brand that should consider rubbing off Obama’s brand. Obama apparently regularly chews Nicorette while not at events, and the release of a doctor's note from his primary care physician indicated that it has brought him a level of success. And while they’re at it, why not borrow the slogan as well?

“Yes he could.”

When it comes to advertising to children in Quebec, outside the box thinking can get you outside the law.

Advertising to children under 13 years old is illegal in Quebec. It’s a law most Quebeckers support. There are strict guidelines enforced by Quebec’s consumer protection branch and there is an effective complaint mechanism in place. Responsible marketers follow the guidelines by crafting their messages and adapting their media strategies accordingly.

Yet once in a while we hear marketers claim their ignorance after campaign posters show up in daycare centers and schools.

There was last year’s Igor campaign by Saputo for its line of muffins under the Vachon brand showing up in daycare centers. As part of the campaign, which featured an animated gorilla named Igor, more than 1,000 day-care centres in Quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes received CDs with original music, discount coupons, posters featuring the Igor character, as well as loot bags for children containing a booklet on the history of the character. It contravened article 248 of the province’s Consumer Protection Act, which forbids advertising to children under 13.

Now there’s ConAgra’s campaign for POGO (quite possibly the world’s best corn dog according to the company website) showing up on or near school grounds. If the ultimate objective is to stretch a small budget to get maximum visibility by stirring up a controversy, ConAgra got the return on investment it hoped for. Campaign posters showed up on or near school grounds, skateboard parks, etc. They’ve apparently been taken down since.

But the real “out of the box” thinking here is creative thinking… The Pogo campaign is built around a metaphor. Pogo, in the campaign, is referred to as “ boutte” (Quebec slang for a man’s sexual organ). Nice idea. I wish I had sat in on that creative presentation.

You should read Konrad Yakabuski’s piece in today’s Globe & Mail’s Report on Business for the details. Globe & Mail

Yakabuski quotes ConAgra’s marketing representative: “It's an irreverent, humorous campaign that's relevant for the target,” Andrew Armstrong, ConAgra Canada's vice-president of marketing, explained in an interview. “The whole idea is making fun of being a man. We, well, not capitalized, but tried to tie that in to the relevance of our product. It's like: Being proud of your Pogo and being proud of yourself.”

Perhaps it’s relevant to teenagers and a food product. I don’t have their insights into the Pogo eating experience and penises. But the disturbing part comes from ConAgra’s website which Yakabuski quotes in his article: “ConAgra Foods has a special responsibility to schoolchildren to provide healthy options and accurate nutritional information”. Schoolchildren? I guess they mean high schoolchildren. POGO is also pitched as a “hearty after-school snack” on the company’s website. Whatever the actual target group definition, they’re on thin ice with this campaign.