Marketing, Marketing Everywhere

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Major food companies are planning "to halt advertising junk food to children under 12 throughout Europe," but in the U.S., McDonald's 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, 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, 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 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?"