Truth in Advertising - Response to rin's blog.
Tyaeda
Published
09/16/2011
As soon as I saw rins blog it reminded me of a Huggies commercial that I have been bitching about for a couple weeks now. Huggie Slip-On's are diapers that are designed and marketed for babies that move around a lot.
Here's the commmercial:
Now, do you see anything wrong with that? It seems to me that they left out a step or two, and I believe it was on purpose.
Catch, Slip On, Release - My Ass! It's more like catch, pull off (smearing baby shit all over your child's legs), Clean mess in the traditional way, clean off their legs, struggle with child to get both legs in the diaper, take diaper off again because it's on backwards, struggle again, release.
It really pisses me off that they were so impractical.... not because they tried to tell mothers that it would be easy... but the fact that if they didn't leave those obvious steps out of their marketing scheme, people would see the obvious design flaws right away (like I did, and I'm not even a mom) that makes this so called "make your life easier" product pointless.
I know for a fact that if some inventor were to try and sell this product on his or her own, without the help of a giant company such as huggies, people would laugh in their face... I can picture the episode of Dragon's Den now - "I'm out" across the board.
I could go on forever about Truth in advertising, and how limited it is. Another marketing pet peeve of mine is fine print. I have 42" HD TV, and I consider myself a fast reader, with perfect vision. The fine print in most commercials, especially the ones for the most expensive products like cars, and insurance policies, are impossible to read, yet those companies are legally required to put it there.
As a former website designer who completed many a multimedia course, I know that everything that appears on commercials is on purpose and very carefully planned out. Marketing uses psychology as it's number one tool. From the actors they use, to the color of their logo and packaging... it all has a significant purpose. It's like poker... it's not the cards you have in your hand, as much as it is how you play them. Just like I can play 2 -7 off, like pocket aces and win, a good marketing team can convince you that you want/need their product. It takes a skilled player to call a good bluff, it can be as risky as bluffing it's self. Once you buy the product (I show my bluff after I won) you feel duped, but you already lost. I already have your chips. They already have your money.
Here's the commmercial:
Now, do you see anything wrong with that? It seems to me that they left out a step or two, and I believe it was on purpose.
Catch, Slip On, Release - My Ass! It's more like catch, pull off (smearing baby shit all over your child's legs), Clean mess in the traditional way, clean off their legs, struggle with child to get both legs in the diaper, take diaper off again because it's on backwards, struggle again, release.
It really pisses me off that they were so impractical.... not because they tried to tell mothers that it would be easy... but the fact that if they didn't leave those obvious steps out of their marketing scheme, people would see the obvious design flaws right away (like I did, and I'm not even a mom) that makes this so called "make your life easier" product pointless.
I know for a fact that if some inventor were to try and sell this product on his or her own, without the help of a giant company such as huggies, people would laugh in their face... I can picture the episode of Dragon's Den now - "I'm out" across the board.
I could go on forever about Truth in advertising, and how limited it is. Another marketing pet peeve of mine is fine print. I have 42" HD TV, and I consider myself a fast reader, with perfect vision. The fine print in most commercials, especially the ones for the most expensive products like cars, and insurance policies, are impossible to read, yet those companies are legally required to put it there.
As a former website designer who completed many a multimedia course, I know that everything that appears on commercials is on purpose and very carefully planned out. Marketing uses psychology as it's number one tool. From the actors they use, to the color of their logo and packaging... it all has a significant purpose. It's like poker... it's not the cards you have in your hand, as much as it is how you play them. Just like I can play 2 -7 off, like pocket aces and win, a good marketing team can convince you that you want/need their product. It takes a skilled player to call a good bluff, it can be as risky as bluffing it's self. Once you buy the product (I show my bluff after I won) you feel duped, but you already lost. I already have your chips. They already have your money.
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