Frank Piacitelli

A small promotional flyer that came with a cheap fast-food-joint toy is riddled with the phrase “hey kids, this is advertising!”. I would love to have been a fly on the wall in the boardroom meeting where this was approved. “We have to call out that it’s advertising.” “Yeah, but kids hate advertising.” “Well, we have to print it … hey, let’s really align with the kids by writing ‘Lame Advertisement’ or ‘Advertising. Whatevs.’” “Nah, the kids will see right through that. Let’s act all tongue-in-cheek over-the-top excited about it being advertising — research shows that 87% of nine-year-olds appreciate sarcastic self-mockery.”