Children's brand awareness

People are saying that the playboy stationery is harmless as children don't know what the rabbit symbol means.

I would argue that children are far more brand aware than we think.

A while ago I was watching tv with my 3 year old nephew. We saw an advert for Mars bars. There was no reference to chocolate in the entire advert - no shot of a chocolate bar. At the end of the advert the Mars logo appeared on the screen and the voice over said 'Mars - pleasure you can't measure' (again, no mention of chocolate). After the advert, my nephew said 'I like that chocolate' - 3 years old and he recognises the Mars brand!

What does the Playboy bunny say to girls? Girls should wear pink and make themselves look pretty for boys? I don't know but I don't think they're as naive as we'd like to think.

Vicar pulls down Playboy stationery

This article appeared in the Telegraph today. I wonder if we could join this protest? Something should be done, I think there is enough outrage now to really change things. Well done Tim Jones! I wish I'd done it!

Vicar pulls down Playboy stationery display
By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:19AM BST 22/05/2008

A vicar was so incensed to see Playboy stationery stacked on a shop shelf next to children’s merchandise that he decided to take direct action, and pulled down the display.
The Reverend Tim Jones, 40, said the pornography empire deliberately aims the bright pink pencil cases and note books, branded with the distinctive bunny logo, at young girls.
So, he decided to take a stand and threw the offending merchandise from shelves in the York branch of Stationery Box, after getting the full backing of the store manager.
Rev Jones said: "I told the assistant manager, who was on duty, I was going to be launching a protest at the shop, and I went over to where the Playboy material was on the shelf alongside the Winnie The Pooh and Mickey Mouse items.

"I started tossing it on the floor away from where people were. I also encouraged customers to sign a petition against the intrusion of commercial brands such as Playboy into goods and services targeting children.
"The long-term intention of their strategy is to encourage children to see the Playboy bunny as a friendly brand appropriate for children, preparing them for early commercial acceptance of Playboy pornographic merchandise.
"This constitutes a kind of institutional grooming of children for their commercial exploitation by the powerful sex industry. It is indirect but not accidental. It is deliberate, intentional, cynical and wicked and must be resisted."
Rev Jones, who has a seven-year-old daughter, has persuaded staff at the Stationery Box branch to remove the entire Playboy range pending a "merchandising review".
A spokesman for the shop said: "Because we respect the views of the communities that we trade in, and following Father Jones' visit, we have removed the product from sale in this store while we review our merchandising policy."
A spokesman for Playboy said: "We were surprised to discover that Playboy stationery has been so inappropriately positioned. Playboy's target audience is 18 to 34-year-olds so we clearly did not authorise or approve the placement of our product next to such well-known children's characters. We will be reviewing this situation immediately."