BP's Brainwash Marketing for Kids., page 1

The McDonaldization of BP. The key to McD's marketing strategy is to get them when they're young, and then have life long customers. In 2007 BP decided to follow their lead as we'll see...



McD's ("clown food") isn't even very good by fast food standards. With the exception of their fries, it can be hard to imagine how much of any of their 'burgers' are able to compete with the likes of Burger King, Hardee's, etc. Yet year after year McClown's manages to stay #1.



How do they do it? With jungle gym playlands that feature space shuttles, a cast of characters seemingly modeled after Sesame Street, kiosk game stations that feature next-gen game system free to play, custom Megatouch machines built into the wall set on freeplay, and so on.



Now as far as I know, hardly ever going into BP, they haven't gone as far as Megatuch games built into the walls. However, they've still opted to market directly to kids in order to gain unwitting lifelong customers. McClown's does the same, and when the kids grow up many remain faithful customers not even knowing why.

McClown's is the pinnacle of this sort of Brainwash Marketing, but the fact is BP has taken on that marketing strategy no less.

Perhaps you're different and pay attention to which company you buy your gas from. BP certainly hopes so: They're spending about $35 million on this worldwide campaign for their service stations (or "retail network"). BP head of marketing Ann Hand acknowledges that the classic industry research says people choose stations mostly because of location or price, but adds that BP's tracking studies show some brand awareness does exist. "This campaign is the next step," she says. "Can we build more brand loyalty? Would you cut across traffic, or go a block out of your way?" www.slate.com...

A few years ago a friend who watches TV told me about the commercials. Sure enough I found them on their website. Later I stopped in a BP anf found their playbook - activity set complete with collectible cards of their cast of cartoon characters.

I asked the attendant about the customer response to the activity set, and as I suspected he said that kids love the playsets and nag parents to stop in at BP.

I had forgotten all about it for a long time until today, and then I remembered that I still had the activity set:







Please excuse the shoddy images. The display on my camera is screwed up, and it's a hassle to hook up my scanner. I might hook it up if there's enough interest.



[edit on 22-5-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

Originally posted by compwiz32190
That is just ridiculous. Explain to me why they would be trying to market to kids....it is just a gas station.

Brand Loyalty

Kids do not drive, nor do they really care about gasoline.

They do now:

It's just a creative advertising campaign and I don't see how it could be read into as "marketing to children".

How is a creative advertising campaign for kids, not marketing to children?

Considering the fallout BP is sure to get from the oil gusher, they might need to break out this campaign again. Maybe they still run those ads, I don't know I don't watch TV.

reply to post by compwiz32190

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I take it you don't really understand how advertising works. I'd never heard of the term Macdonaldization before, it's a really great word, sums up the ads very well. Jeez those ads crack me up, I don't even know why I find it so funny...

reply to post by Mesdoline

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McDonaldization

McDonaldization (or McDonaldisation) is a term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1993). He describes it as the process by which a society takes on the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational modes of thought, and scientific management. Where Max Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as having become a more representative contemporary paradigm (Ritzer, 2004:553).

I sort of misused the word. I first read it in a big college sociology textbook I bought from a used book store. But it's such a cool word I just had to do it

Marketers plant the seeds of brand recognition in very young children, in the hopes that the seeds will grow into lifetime relationships. According to the Center for a New American Dream, babies as young as six months of age can form mental images of corporate logos and mascots. Brand loyalties can be established as early as age two, and by the time children head off to school most can recognize hundreds of brand logos.

While fast food, toy and clothing companies have been cultivating brand recognition in children for years, adult-oriented businesses such as banks and automakers are now getting in on the act.

Magazines such as Time, Sports Illustrated and People have all launched kid and teen editions—which boast ads for adult related products such as minivans, hotels and airlines.
www.media-awareness.ca...

Seven-year-old Marley loves Happy Meals from McDonald's. She used to get Chicken McNuggets, but now she chooses a cheeseburger to go with her fries and Sprite. Her father, Patrick, is a chef, trained at the Culinary Institute of America, but Marley prefers McDonald's to his cooking. After a trip to McDonald's, Marley eagerly surfs onto McWorld.com, where she can enter a code from her meal to get a "behind-the-scenes look at iCarly," a kids' TV show (boys can use their code for a Star Wars promotion).

Patrick pulled the plug on his television a few months ago, in part to shield his two young daughters from advertising, but the McDonald's marketing execs have reached Marley all the same. Because he's health- and environmentally-conscious, Patrick does not take her to McDonald's often, but after a long day of school and extra-curricular activities, sometimes a little nagging is all it takes for Marley to convince her dad that she's hungry now and only food served at a drive-thru will do.
www.organicconsumers.org...

The Advertising to children wikipedia page is rather bland.

How about quotes instead:

Adults may be fair game for marketers, but children are not. Children cannot distinguish sales pitches from information unless taught to do so. Food companies spend at least $10 billion annually enticing children to desire food brands and to pester parents to buy them. The result: American children consume more than one-third of their daily calories from soft drinks, sweets, salty snacks and fast food. Worse, food marketing subverts parental authority by making children believe they are supposed to be eating such foods and they—not their parents—know what is best for them to eat.

Today's marketing methods extend beyond television to include Internet games, product placements, character licensing and word-of-mouth campaigns—stealth methods likely to be invisible to parents. When restrictions have been called for, the food industry has resisted, invoking parental responsibility and First Amendment rights, and proposing self-regulation instead. But because companies cannot be expected to act against corporate self-interest, government regulations are essential. ... Controls on marketing may not be sufficient to prevent childhood obesity, but they would make it easier for parents to help children to eat more healthfully."
—Marion Nestle in The Nation (Sept. 11, 2006)

"We're relying on the kid to pester the mom to buy the product, rather than going straight to the mom."
-Barbara A. Martino, Advertising Executive

"Brand marketing must begin with children. Even if a child does not buy the product and will not for many years... the marketing must begin in childhood."
-James McNeal, The Kids Market, 1999
www.media-awareness.ca...

Here goes a clip about advertising to children, from the film The Corporation, where you hear a bigshot marketer scum woman brag about manipulating children, and getting them as lifelong customers:



Finally got around to uploading it.

reply to post by Digital_Reality

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Man, that was worth me going to the trouble of hooking up the scanner to get a better image of that:

reply to post by Mesdoline

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Alright I'm gonna scan the whole thing. If enough people edit pages we could put together a spoof website

www.bpforkids.com is available...

Subvertising overdrive

[edit on 25-5-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

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