Marketing, Marketing Everywhere

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Major food companies are planning "to halt advertising junk food to children [7] under 12 throughout Europe," but in the U.S., McDonald's [8] has found "a nifty way to reach kids ... advertise on report cards." The fast food giant "picked up the $1,600 cost of printing report-card jackets for the 2007-2008 school year in Seminole County, [Florida], in exchange for a Happy Meal coupon on the card's cover." The promotion is an apparent violation of the Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative [9], which McDonald's joined last year. Initiative members agree "to limit advertising to children under 12 and focus on better-for-you options." In other advertising news [10], a New York billboard for an A&E television show "uses technology ... that transmits an 'audio spotlight' from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium." A&E deemed the "creepy" voices-in-your-head effect perfect for the show, which is about ghosts. But Gawker [11] asked, "How soon will it be until in addition to the Do Not Call list, we'll have a Do Not Beam Commercial Messages Into My Head list?"