2007-08-07

Harsh Marketing Lesson #1

Sea-Monkeys are not monkeys.

We've all seen the cute commercial of these little creatures who live in the sea. For a few bucks you can have your very own colony of them. It's something that every kid has - or wants. And every kid who gets them learns the harsh lesson, sea-monkeys are not monkeys. They aren't cute. They don't have little families with a daddy, mommy and a couple of kids. They are brine shrimp. Definitely not cute. It's cruel lesson in the reality of marketing. The child learns that not all marketing firms tell the truth.

One has to wonder how in this day and age of lawsuits, how has this company not been sued for false advertising. I haven't done the marketing research, but I'm guessing a truthfully labled package of dried brine shrimp won't sell anywhere near as well as "sea-monkeys." Every generation this lesson must be learned again. Every generation there's a new group of kids whose hearts are broken when the much looked forward to sea-monkeys turn out to be ugly brine shrimp.

I guess the real question is, why do parents do this to their kids?

2 comments:

Jeff Brandmeyer said...

Somewhere in Huntington Beach, there's a sadder, but wiser, six-year-old. . .And who's to say that there aren't people in the world who go on to have rewarding careers in the brine shrimp industry--all because of an early and life-changing exposure at an impressionable age?

Bill A said...

LOL....

Brine shrimp mogules huh? I guess it's a possiblity.