Would Getting Rid of Ronald McDonald Make Us Skinny?

Hey Ron!

How's it going man? Long time no see. I remember I used to really like you. Which says a lot because I grew up terrified of clowns.
But not you.
No sir.
You were the nicest guy in the whole wide world.
Ronny, you were the man who loved bringing hamburgers, toys, and utter happiness in an otherwise dull and rainy Seattle day.
My fondest memories was when I was 6 years old and you came to visit my elementary school and you threw rubber chickens in the gym's basketball hoop. Dude, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen at that age.
Ronald McDonald was my hero.
I loved Happy Meals. There's nothing like holding that box with the golden arches handle.

But I'm here not to give you props but to chastise you. In the end you are no better than that clown from the movie "It." Your greedy corporate officers approved sinister marketing campaigns that pitted me against my mother's home cooking. No, her food did not come with a toy or in a fun box so how could she compete? How could I, at the tender age of 4,5 or 6, know any better?

According to Consumer Reports magazine, "young children have difficulty distinguishing between advertising and reality in ads, and ads can distort their view of the world."

Research has shown that children between the ages of two and five cannot differentiate between regular TV programming and commercials. Young children are especially vulnerable to misleading advertising and don't begin to understand that advertisements are not always true until they're eight.

You, Mr. Ronald, knew this very well and took full advantage of it. Now children advocate groups want you dead, but no, you are Steven Segal. You are "Hard to Kill." Shareholders want to keep you going and the President and CEO of Micky D's because of all the wonderful things you do.

And you do good work.

I really like the Ronald McDonald House and charities you are involved in. Unfortunately, I wish you would be doing a lot more than that by promoting better food items, teach kids how to count calories, portion control, and engage others in healthy exercise.

It's not your fault that America is fat. It's not your fault that I am considered overweight for my height. But I do believe that with your power and influence you and make a better difference in the lives of young children who will forever remember how you reached out to them like you did when I was a young kid.

About the Author: E. LaVielle is currently a Senior Account Manager for a software company in Seattle, WA, with a degree in Marketing from Western Washington University and over 7 years of work experience in marketing, health insurance, and e-commerce. Her passion for marketing made her write this blog. Seriously...it did.

Dove: High Praises for Positive Beauty Campaign

It is a sad world we live in when 7/10 young girls between the ages of 7-12 years old say they don't think they are good enough or suffer from low self-esteem. What is causing all of this?

We've witnessed the effects of marketing cigarettes to children and have seen many policies put a kibosh on it, however, should we also be looking at other products and images that may shape a child's mind and self-perception for the rest of their lives?

Let's look at the beauty industry for a bit.

Lets face it: The idea of beauty is not always dictated by the everyday human, but by the culture and it's dominate media force. What is stereotypically beautiful in the US is not what's beautiful in Korea or India. A lot of these were set by powerful marketing campaigns and now we see these as the norm.

Dove is doing something different from their competition. They are taking ladies of all different shapes and sizes and celebrating them. None of these people are surgically enhanced and they look proud to be who they are. Their mission is "to make women feel beautiful everyday by widening stereotypical views of beauty." It's a refreshing breathe of air that people young and old can learn from. Their Campaign for Real Beauty and Self Esteem fund have reached 3.9 million people with the hopes to reach out to 5 million by the end of 2010.
Learn more about their Campaign for Real Beauty: http://www.dove.us/#/cfrb/about_cfrb.aspx

I commend the marketers at Dove. They are one of the pioneers of socially conscious marketing competing in the the harsh beauty industry today.

About the Author: E. LaVielle is currently a Senior Account Manager for a software company in Seattle, WA, with a degree in Marketing from Western Washington University and over 7 years of work experience in marketing, health insurance, and e-commerce. Her passion for marketing made her write this blog. Seriously...it did.

10 sneaky marketing tactics you need to avoid - iMediaConnection.com

"Great Article! It's true that as a marketer you are always faced with that "gray" area that can get you and your company in trouble."

It can be tempting to get crafty with your online marketing practices, but certain shortcuts will harm your brand more than you think. See why you need to steer clear of these common deceptions.

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What Kind of Meal Can You Purchase for $3?

I just got back from my honeymoon (I know: congrats!) in Vietnam. It was my first trip outside of North America and I was really shocked by many of the cultural differences that were evident every step of the way. One of the things that really made me think was how cheap fresh vegetables and fruit were in comparison to packaged snack foods. Why buy a small bag of salted potato chips when you can buy a bushel of bananas, jack fruit, and oranges for the same amount? Even our dinner at fancy restaurants ended with a plate of fruit and not a wildly decedent dessert. Hardly anyone in Vietnam is fat or obese. In fact, I was probably the fattest person (height/weight-wise) around.

Could there be a connection here?

In America people are responsible for themselves by exercising good stewardship in choosing what and how much to eat. It's freedom of democracy demonstrated by what's stocked at our grocery stores. And don't get me wrong, I love having all these wonderful options especially since I can afford it. But what if you can't afford it? What can you buy with $3?

Curious to try this mini-experiment, I ventured to my nearest grocery store: PCC. Ok, so a PCC is for the rich yuppies who automatically feel healthier with one step through the door, but this is an experiment of convenience. I imagine you may get similar results at a Safeway or Fred Meyers if you went mostly organic. Most of the foods that would fill me up were packaged processed snack foods or small bakery items like cookies and a roll. In the canned food aisles I can get a can of organic beans and or soup. In the produce aisle I could buy 1 organic apple and a head of lettuce with $3. I couldn't even afford one of their frozen dinners at $3.99. Next I went to my local convenience store, good ol' Seven-Eleven! With $3 I can get a hot dog with all the fixings, a large beverage, and a small bag of chips or candy bar. Wow! Dinner, drink, and a dessert to boot.

I just didn't understand: How come all this junk food is so cheap? Then I learned about government incentives for companies and farmers. Apparently there are many government incentives put in place to entice farmers of America to overproduce more corn and soybeans than needed, resulting in a drop in prices. The incentives were paved with good intentions until large food corporations squeezed themselves into the middleman position. Some farmers under contract with large corporations have been bullied into piling on mountains of debt in order to meet their demands in making their processed foods.

A quick side note: The average chicken farmer in America makes about $16,000/yr. That's about $8.33 an hour. The rest is paid to the corporation and it's shareholders. Does that sound like the government incentive helping these guys out?

Dr. Barry Sears, author of Toxic Fat: When Good Fat Turns Bad, argues, “The problem lies with America’s continually subsidizing of corn and soybean production.” Government subsidies generate “an oversupply of cheap refined carbohydrates and cheap vegetable oils that when combined give rise to increased diet-induced inflammation.” This inflammation in turn “activates the genes in people who are genetically predisposed to gain weight with relative ease,” giving rise to all the health problems connected to excessive weight. Medical spending for obesity is estimated to have reached $147 billion in 2008, an 87 percent increase in the past decade.

Simply put: Cheaper Processed food = Fattest Country in the World!

People keep saying that if we want a healthier America, government should no longer subsidize farmers one penny, leaving the market free to give us the information we need to make good decisions. They look to the Obama administration and Congress to do the country an enormous favor if they stopped assisting the production of food that contributes to poor nutrition. This would be real progress toward better stewardship of our bodies, and better health, right? Yes, but this is not the only solution.

The quickest change can be influenced by socially conscious consumers, marketers, and food companies. Already we see an organic movement increasing by 25% each year, and marketers and food companies are scrambling for new marketing strategies to appeal to a healthier lifestyle. Even then we need to be wary of these products and read the labels. The more we spend on healthier food products the lower the prices will be. The rule of supply and demand will always prevail on tangible items.

As marketers we need to promote campaigns that create consumer awareness about healthy living for a stronger and vibrant America. We need to take a stand against deceptive marketing tactics, and as a marketer within your company you have a lot more power to change things than a mother with an obese child with diabetes. So what if you lost that soda pop account! Let Joe Blow Marketing Group (a fake name I pulled out of thin air) take the blame for contributing to the obesity epidemic. I certainly don't want that on my conscience and neither should you.

About the Author: E. LaVielle is currently a Senior Account Manager for a software company in Seattle, WA, with a degree in Marketing from Western Washington University and over 7 years of work experience in marketing, health insurance, and e-commerce. Her passion for marketing made her write this blog. Seriously...it did.

ConsciousMarketer.blogspot.com: The Mission for this Blog

Hello World!

I told myself a while ago I was never going to become a blogger and write a bunch of jibberish for nobody to read. Terrible with grammar and too busy to spend my free time hammering the keys (which I do all day for work), I thought bloggers had no social lives outside of waiting for comments on their articles to roll in.

But one day I snapped and changed my mind. Here I am today. You want to know why?
It's because I'm pissed off and tired of marketers and companies not holding themselves accountable for influencing our society, culture, and way of life. As a person working in the marketing industry I admit I've worked on my fair share of tobacco and fast food projects without blinking an eye. Looking back on that I realize it was wrong. It's funny how I don't even smoke or eat fast food regularly, yet somehow I may have contributed to America's obesity epidemic without realizing it.

So who is going to stand up to their employer and tell them we should not take jobs with companies who are toxifying our social and economic environment? In this economy it's hard to be picky. "We should be happy for the jobs that we do have," is what I've been hearing over and over again. Money speaks louder than our conscience especially when the bills are overdue.

Recently I viewed "Food Inc." and the thing that struck me is that the US Government does not have the power to change a company's marketing strategy. A company will change it's marketing strategy only if the consumer wants to spend their money on it. The example shown in the film was Walmart striking a deal to carry Stonyfield Farms Organic Yogurt. Sure, it was the potential of making a lot of money in the organic movement that motivated Walmart, but in the end, it may result in a healthier consumer, right? That's what owner of Stonyfield Farms, Gary Hirshberg, thinks. Although I frown on Walmart's motives, I can respect Gary's opinion on this.

Consumers need to continue this trend towards healthier and wholesome products, and as marketers we need to help point our clients into a socially conscious way of marketing their products. The end result would be (in my dreams) a mentally, physically, and environmentally healthier world to share for generations to come.

This blog will highlight burning topics associated with socially conscious marketing while spot-lighting marketing firms, companies, and other bloggers (I know you are out there and I will find you) who are passionate about bringing socially conscious marketing to the forefront.

About the Author: E. LaVielle is currently a Senior Account Manager for a software company in Seattle, WA, with a degree in Marketing from Western Washington University and over 7 years of work experience in marketing, health insurance, and e-commerce. Her passion for marketing made her write this blog. Seriously...it did.