They're Magically Malicious!
Complete these phrases and and think about what they have in common:
"I'm coo coo for _____!"
"Silly Rabbit, ____ are for kids!"
"Snap, Crackle, _____!"
"They're Magically ______!"
Astonished at how easily these ditties danced to life in your pre-frontal lobe?
If none of them registered, then you mercifully were raised outside the US and have had limited access to TV for a few decades.
These branded slogans for sugared-cereals share a common feature; they are all performed by animated cartoon-characters via stories.
Let's drill down on that last one.
Lucky Charms was created in 1963 at General Mills to fill unused capacity at the Wheaties and Cheerios manufacturing plants.
Internal product developer John Holahan had the idea of mixing peanuts in with cereal. But the "Madmen" hired to market that concept pointed out the popularity of charm bracelets at the time, and suggested that charms, instead of peanuts, might better sell consumers.
Marshmallows, or marbits, were to be the feedstock molded into charms.
What to produce? Problem solved.
Now how to sell it. How to convince the public that it is okay to have marshmallows for breakfast?
Concurrently, General Mills had created the cartoon series Underdog to successfully sell Cheerios, so they took what was working with Cheerios and a bit less than that.
Meet Lucky the Leprechaun, Sir Charms, or L.C. Leprechaun.
Lucky Charms was introduced using 30 second plots of character-driven animation, rather than the 22 minutes per episode of the Cheerios-selling Underdog.
They pulled out all the stops.
Colors! Rainbows of primary Colors. Conflict. Emotion. Singing. Novel shapes. Energetic poses and gestures. Timing. The rule of thirds. Music and sound design. Novelty in shapes. Squash and stretch. Anticipation and follow-through. Timing and spacing. Cycling and looping. Blinking and thinking. Exaggeration and double takes.
The entire bag-of-tricks from the history of theater, visual rhetoric, and aural novelty - brought to bear on "salting the viewers oats".
Salting the viewers oats?
The old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink."
An advertiser knows you can.
Just salt the horse's oats before you lead it to water.
Induce thirst.
Today, more than ever, this salty inducement is poured through the pupils and drummed into the ears.
General Mills has spent millions upon millions to grab our attention to salt our oats with persuasive media messaging.
They spend millions more protecting their I.P. in marbits too.
Below is their latest marshmallow patent, designed to dissolve in milk between 40 and 120 seconds
Patent No. 6,436,455 was granted to inventors for “Multi-Colored Aerated Confectionary Products.” This patent describes the multicolored marbits in which different colors dissolve at different rates in milk or water. (Patent No. 6,436,455)
This is serious business.
Have you ever seen a child wheeled through the Lucky Charms section in the store?
Reaching, screaming, demanding, and crying for the magic of the leprechaun's charms, the bird's nose, the rabbit's tricks, and the Snap, Crackle and Pop!
Chances are the child in you is screaming too.
They've already carved out their spot.
Remember reflexively finishing their carefully crafted phrase, "They're magically ______!"
The Leprechaun is in there too, right next to where your dreams live.
Those images and words got in there through your eyes and ears.
But your pre-frontal cortex overrides the diabetes-inducing message on the box and in your head. (Right?)
Logically it makes no sense to ingest what amounts to a pile of synthetic-vitamin-induced cardboard chunks mixed with a pile of colorfully formatted sugar. (Right?)
Hopefully, you will never view your breakfast cereals the same way again. But you may still sneak a bowl or two in anyway...
Behold the power of animated character-driven story.
Our experience teaches us that this generation, with it's access to billions of Lucky Charms-like messages via the internet, is profoundly served by learning the secrets of producing powerfully persuasive media-making skills.
They step back-stage and see what it takes to tell a story for the screen using sound and motion.
They recognize that it is built with a purpose, that it is nuanced, that it takes smarts to do - indeed it requires all the subjects they are learning in school.
This why we have spent years whittling down all these secret recipes of media persuasion into basic cooking-type lessons for young digital natives.
They. Are. Powerful.
They. Are. Relevant.
They. Must. Be. A. Basic. Literacy.
We can start as early as kindergarten(!) to sensitize kids to the media-saturated world around them via exploring/experimenting with the very strategies and creative techniques being used upon them.
Show them the knobs and pulleys behind the Oz-like curtain, and gives them same powers to use for good!
Having media-making super powers are Magically Delicious™.
We are thrilled to currently be influencing over 20,000 kids with this type of education. We are looking to turn that into 20,000,000. Join Us.
Thank you for joining me in this meditation on the power of persuasion using sound and motion.
Bon Animate!
Joe Summerhays
Founder - Animating Kids | Animation Chefs
PS. Some of you may have noticed the irony of advocating for visual and aural literacy using 889 written words! Perhaps this should have been a movie? Actually, we make the case with 130+ movies (3hrs!) and pictures over at Animating Kid's.
Again, if you haven't done so. Join Us today and help your young learners de-code and participate in the media world around them.
Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 60 Newtown Rd #49, Danbury, Ct 06810
"I'm coo coo for _____!"
"Silly Rabbit, ____ are for kids!"
"Snap, Crackle, _____!"
"They're Magically ______!"
Astonished at how easily these ditties danced to life in your pre-frontal lobe?
If none of them registered, then you mercifully were raised outside the US and have had limited access to TV for a few decades.
These branded slogans for sugared-cereals share a common feature; they are all performed by animated cartoon-characters via stories.
Let's drill down on that last one.
Lucky Charms was created in 1963 at General Mills to fill unused capacity at the Wheaties and Cheerios manufacturing plants.
Internal product developer John Holahan had the idea of mixing peanuts in with cereal. But the "Madmen" hired to market that concept pointed out the popularity of charm bracelets at the time, and suggested that charms, instead of peanuts, might better sell consumers.
Marshmallows, or marbits, were to be the feedstock molded into charms.
What to produce? Problem solved.
Now how to sell it. How to convince the public that it is okay to have marshmallows for breakfast?
Concurrently, General Mills had created the cartoon series Underdog to successfully sell Cheerios, so they took what was working with Cheerios and a bit less than that.
Meet Lucky the Leprechaun, Sir Charms, or L.C. Leprechaun.
Lucky Charms was introduced using 30 second plots of character-driven animation, rather than the 22 minutes per episode of the Cheerios-selling Underdog.
They pulled out all the stops.
Colors! Rainbows of primary Colors. Conflict. Emotion. Singing. Novel shapes. Energetic poses and gestures. Timing. The rule of thirds. Music and sound design. Novelty in shapes. Squash and stretch. Anticipation and follow-through. Timing and spacing. Cycling and looping. Blinking and thinking. Exaggeration and double takes.
The entire bag-of-tricks from the history of theater, visual rhetoric, and aural novelty - brought to bear on "salting the viewers oats".
Salting the viewers oats?
The old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink."
An advertiser knows you can.
Just salt the horse's oats before you lead it to water.
Induce thirst.
Today, more than ever, this salty inducement is poured through the pupils and drummed into the ears.
General Mills has spent millions upon millions to grab our attention to salt our oats with persuasive media messaging.
They spend millions more protecting their I.P. in marbits too.
Below is their latest marshmallow patent, designed to dissolve in milk between 40 and 120 seconds
Patent No. 6,436,455 was granted to inventors for “Multi-Colored Aerated Confectionary Products.” This patent describes the multicolored marbits in which different colors dissolve at different rates in milk or water. (Patent No. 6,436,455)
This is serious business.
Have you ever seen a child wheeled through the Lucky Charms section in the store?
Reaching, screaming, demanding, and crying for the magic of the leprechaun's charms, the bird's nose, the rabbit's tricks, and the Snap, Crackle and Pop!
Chances are the child in you is screaming too.
They've already carved out their spot.
Remember reflexively finishing their carefully crafted phrase, "They're magically ______!"
The Leprechaun is in there too, right next to where your dreams live.
Those images and words got in there through your eyes and ears.
But your pre-frontal cortex overrides the diabetes-inducing message on the box and in your head. (Right?)
Logically it makes no sense to ingest what amounts to a pile of synthetic-vitamin-induced cardboard chunks mixed with a pile of colorfully formatted sugar. (Right?)
Hopefully, you will never view your breakfast cereals the same way again. But you may still sneak a bowl or two in anyway...
Behold the power of animated character-driven story.
Our experience teaches us that this generation, with it's access to billions of Lucky Charms-like messages via the internet, is profoundly served by learning the secrets of producing powerfully persuasive media-making skills.
They step back-stage and see what it takes to tell a story for the screen using sound and motion.
They recognize that it is built with a purpose, that it is nuanced, that it takes smarts to do - indeed it requires all the subjects they are learning in school.
This why we have spent years whittling down all these secret recipes of media persuasion into basic cooking-type lessons for young digital natives.
They. Are. Powerful.
They. Are. Relevant.
They. Must. Be. A. Basic. Literacy.
We can start as early as kindergarten(!) to sensitize kids to the media-saturated world around them via exploring/experimenting with the very strategies and creative techniques being used upon them.
Show them the knobs and pulleys behind the Oz-like curtain, and gives them same powers to use for good!
Having media-making super powers are Magically Delicious™.
We are thrilled to currently be influencing over 20,000 kids with this type of education. We are looking to turn that into 20,000,000. Join Us.
Thank you for joining me in this meditation on the power of persuasion using sound and motion.
Bon Animate!
Joe Summerhays
Founder - Animating Kids | Animation Chefs
PS. Some of you may have noticed the irony of advocating for visual and aural literacy using 889 written words! Perhaps this should have been a movie? Actually, we make the case with 130+ movies (3hrs!) and pictures over at Animating Kid's.
Again, if you haven't done so. Join Us today and help your young learners de-code and participate in the media world around them.
Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 60 Newtown Rd #49, Danbury, Ct 06810