# Most Shameless Kids Advertising? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** commercials-ads\ **Created:** [April 25, 2022, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390 "2022-04-25T01:09:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/1 "2022-04-25T01:09:42Z")
Growing up, advertising directly to children was something done aggressively by almost every relevant big company. Maybe it still is, I do not watch any of it. One reads about newer laws and restricted hours and corporate responsibility and hopes that is really a thing. Probably there is a lot of shameless stuff still around anyway. Aren’t there whole shows that are just that? Dietary changes mean I am eating less carbs and less cereal, and these days I usually opt for the healthier stuff. Most of the time. In a weak moment, shopping when hungry, I brought home an attractively priced box of Post Honeycomb cereal. The back of the box, in Canada, has been the same for years. It has puzzles, all with a Honeycomb theme. Find dozens of hidden pieces of cereal on the box. Fill in the blanks to get “bring home the Honeycomb”. Unscramble the name of the pictured band, The Post Honeycombs. This being Canada, the same things are said in French. The entertainment value strikes me as very limited. **But as shameless as this may be, there are probably worse examples. Feel free to share, current or past examples. How you feel about it, or whatever else you want.** ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/2 "2022-04-25T02:07:58Z")
Since you brought up cereal, I remember cereal commercials used to always end with: “Honeycomb cereal is a part of this complete breakfast”. Then it would show a bowl of the cereal sitting next to a bowl of fruit, with maybe some buttered toast and some OJ. Clearly their intent was to make you think sugary cereal is somehow good for you. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/3 "2022-04-25T02:12:56Z")
Most of the cartoons my generation grew up with during the 1980s including GI Joe, Thundercats, Transformers, My Little Pony, MASK, Rainbow Brite, and Jem and the Holograms were all truly, truly outrageous efforts to advertise to children in the guise of entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/4 "2022-04-25T02:23:51Z")
Anything in the 90’s with a 1-900 phone number that would go “Kids, ask your parents permission to call this fun phone number!” Nobody I knew asked their parents permission to call the phone numbers that automatically charged you the moment you dialed the number. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/5 "2022-04-25T02:25:36Z")
Honeycomb is, by weight, 1/3 sugar. That’s not great, but not so bad just before or after a workout. I think Post Sugar Crisp might be closer to 60% sugar? Probably there is worse; sugar cereals were a _bona fide_ attempt to make a cereal as sweet as birthday cake, after some industrialist’s kid expressed that breakfast desire. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/6 "2022-04-25T03:01:14Z")
Wendy’s Frosty Cereal is the latest (why not just title a cereal Box O Sugar?) I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/7 "2022-04-25T03:02:00Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Clearly their intent was to make you think sugary cereal is somehow good for you. Can’t remember who, but some comedian quipped it should be, “Adjacent to this complete breakfast.” ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/8 "2022-04-25T03:17:45Z")
Past example, which I think I’ve posted before: when I was 4 or 5 years old, there was a TV commercial for PF Flyers, a sneaker for kids. The ad showed a boy wearing PF Flyers and jumping high, high, high in the air - basically flying. I so badly wanted those shoes because I too wanted to fly. I convinced my parents to get them for me - I still remember how forlorn I was when I jumped and jumped but didn’t fly like the boy in the commercial. I’m sure the writers of that ad knew full well that very young children would think that the shoes would make them fly. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/9 "2022-04-25T03:43:57Z")
Kind of reminds me of those ads in the back of comic books. X-ray specs! Ventriloquist device! Sea Monkeys (wearing lipstick)! ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/10 "2022-04-25T07:52:17Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Most of the cartoons my generation grew up with during the 1980s including GI Joe, Thundercats, Transformers, My Little Pony, MASK, Rainbow Brite, and Jem and the Holograms were all truly, truly outrageous efforts to advertise to children in the guise of entertainment. This is what immediately leapt to my mind as well. Shameless and amazingly effective - some of those lines are still selling nicely literal decades later. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/11 "2022-04-25T10:32:53Z")
It was nothing new. When I was a kid there was a show the FCC insisted was nothing more than a 30 minute commercial for toy cars. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2faOHCNFB6o/hqdefault.jpg "hot wheels-intro") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2faOHCNFB6o) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/12 "2022-04-25T10:50:54Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Shameless and amazingly effective - some of those lines are still selling nicely literal decades later. They even invented the word “toyetic” to describe how suitable a show is for making toys out of. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/13 "2022-04-25T12:45:29Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Can’t remember who, but some comedian quipped it should be, “Adjacent to this complete breakfast.” Yeah, it’s funny how something so misleading just flew over my head as a kid. It would have been just as correct if they’d put a bowl of cereal in a field with a bunch of trucks and tanks and said, “Part of this powerful military convoy.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/14 "2022-04-25T13:22:33Z")
Wasn’t there a Cecil column about a comedian asking kids to send them their parents money? Soupy Sales, IIRC? Not really “advertising”. Lots of good historical examples. Is the problem still as prominent today? ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/15 "2022-04-25T13:45:08Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Wasn’t there a Cecil column about a comedian asking kids to send them their parents money? Soupy Sales, IIRC? Snopes did one. > **[Soupy Sales' 'Green Pieces of Paper' Scandal](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/greenmail/)** > > Scandal erupted when children's TV host Soupy Sales asked his young viewers to send him 'little green pieces of paper.' ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/16 "2022-04-25T13:49:02Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > It has puzzles, all with a Honeycomb theme. Find dozens of hidden pieces of cereal on the box. Fill in the blanks to get “bring home the Honeycomb”. Unscramble the name of the pictured band, The Post Honeycombs. […] The entertainment value strikes me as very limited. Somewhere out there is a graphic designer trying their best to make a cereal box interesting for kids and knowing full well that they’ll just be staring at their tablet/phone/tv anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/17 "2022-04-25T14:14:30Z")
“Be sure to drink your Ovaltine…Ovaltine? A crummy commercial?” At least you didn’t have to wait by the mailbox for your Little Orphan Annie decoder ring. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/18 "2022-04-25T14:31:56Z")
Maybe. If I had to guess, though, this design has been on the boxes for thirty years. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/19 "2022-04-25T14:36:14Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Maybe it still is, I do not watch any of it. It’s pretty much the same as ever, except that they’ve had 50 or so years of practice by now. So they’re better at knowing how to scheme up hyperkinetic ads to gull children into wanting their candy, toys, or whatever. They’re still making TV series and toys in tandem; look at “Blaze and the Monster Machines” or “Paw Patrol” for modern-day examples of wildly popular early childhood shows that were almost certainly engineered from the start with toy and merchandise sales in mind. And there are a bunch of crap games that seem to have been invented strictly for the TV commercial value, because the games themselves aren’t even good by the standards of games aimed at six year olds. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390/20 "2022-04-25T14:40:22Z")
I struggle to describe the social benefits of The Hamburglar, a bizarre creation however you look at it. The only recent commercial I have seen is one showing Grimace playing a shootaround with the Toronto Raptor mascot. It’s still strange, but far less so since the original gang, which could possibly only have been conceived using some drugs of great potency? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shameless-kids-advertising/963390.md?page=2)