Hasta La Creative!

Coming up with promotional freebies that will stand out in the sea of swag at BlogHer is always a challenge. But one brand may have taken its creativity a bit too far this year.

Bright Starts, a major producer of toys and toddler gear, was apparently on hand at the massive mom-blogger conference this weekend—and giving out realistic-looking pill bottles promoting its Baby Laugh Index microsite. Inside were Red Hots, packaged as some sort of giggle pills that “may cause serious laughter.”

These were promotional items created for adults attending the conference, and not something you can expect to see on store shelves. Still, as blogger Morgan Shanahan points out, it’s a bad idea to put candy in medicine containers, especially when you know they’re likely to end up back in homes with children.

“Pills are not funny. They’re not toys. They’re not even swag,” Shanahan writes. “They’re deadly when placed in the wrong hands. So what were you thinking, Bright Starts?”

UPDATE: An AdFreak reader points out that Sam’s tried something similar in 2009 and quickly apologized for the promotion.

We reached out to representatives of Bright Starts parent company Kids II and will update if we hear back.

UPDATE 2: Miles Bohannan, vp of marketing communications for Kids II, sent the following statement to AdFreak:

Our “prescription for laughter” in a pill bottle was part of a booth experience designed to support Bright Starts’ “Fun Comes First” campaign, which also featured a “Baby Laugh Index” quiz and a “dress as a baby” photo booth—all very tongue-in-cheek reminders of the importance of baby laughter.

Once we realized that the giveaways were concerning to some, we immediately stopped passing them out. We certainly understand and regret any misunderstanding this has caused, and welcome the opportunity to visit further should that be helpful.

Hat tip to Heather Spohr on Facebook.

To highlight the global tragedy of children being sold into prostitution and hard labor, agency kbs+ has released three new spots for World Vision Canada's "No Child for Sale" initiative. Each spot starts with a beautiful childhood scene and ends with the stark reality of life for a child slave.

The videos are beautiful, moving and completely heart-wrenching. The "Bedtime" spot depicts lovely scenes of children falling asleep and being tucked in bed, and ends with a painful shot of a young child lying on a bed under the gaze of a pedophile customer.

The juxtaposition of the two very different childhood experiences is brutally effective. These spots—as well as the additional creative assets on the website—provide the viewer with some eye-opening awareness, and hopefully encourage all of us to take action to help end human trafficking and child slavery worldwide.

CREDITS

Agency: kbs+

TV:
Director: Miles Jay
Production House: OPC/FS
Editor: Jackie Roda
Editing House: School Editing
Online Creative Credits: Fort York VFX
Color: Eric Whipp, Alterego
Music: Me&John, Pirate Toronto
Broadcast Producer: Clare Cashman
Chief Creative Officer: Matt Hassell
Executive Creative Director: Dan Pawych
Art Director: Travis Cowdy
Writer, Creative Director: Lyranda Martin Evans
Account Team: Marie Magnin, Chantelle D’Aoust

Print:
Photographer: Hasnain Dattu
Retoucher: Mark Jackson
Chief Creative Officer: Matt Hassell
Creative Director: Marketa Krivy
Art Director: Braeden Laverty
Writer: Alyssa Geffen
Account Team: Marie Magnin, Chantelle D’Aoust

Interactive:
Executive Creative Director: Dave Sylvestre
Senior Art Director: Matthew May
Art Director, Illustrator: Carlos Lopez
Senior Copywriter: Lynne Valeriote
Design Production: Matthew May
Senior Development Consultant: Pat Lam
Development: Lollipop
Producer: Camelia Jitariu
Account Team: Erin Abbatangelo, Tiffany To
Business Lead: Robin Whalen
Agency Account, Integration Lead: Erin Abbatangelo

There's a reason children's shows always seem to have more diversity than anything else on television. It's because kids look to TV as a window that helps make sense of the world, and when they don't see anyone resembling themselves reflected back, they can be left feeling isolated and weird.

That can be especially true for children who've lost their hair due to chemotherapy, which motivated a Brazilian cancer charity to create a fun project: Bald Cartoons.

The advocacy group Graacc partnered with several popular cartoons—including U.S. hits like Adventure Time and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, along with classics like Peanuts and Garfield—to have characters shave their heads in solidarity with young cancer patients.

The resulting clips and posters show these children they're not alone. You can see the results yourself in the incredibly touching video below, subtitled in English. 

The program is looking for more cartoonists to contribute their work.

Avec l’aide de quelques enfants très créatifs, Alix Martinez a tirée des portraits d’enfants, non pas sur la terre ferme, mais submergés sous l’eau. L’artiste arrive avec amusement et imagination à recréer des scènes sportives comme le golf, le football et le tennis. Une magnifique série à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Photographiant ses enfants avec sensibilité, Alain Laboile nous dévoile des clichés d’une grande beauté, comme des instants volés d’une belle journée d’été. Des images magnifiques en noir & blanc, figeant le temps et offrant par la même occasion des souvenirs impérissables pour sa famille à découvrir dans la suite.

Depuis leur naissance, les jeunes Yaroslav et Vanya ont développé un lien avec les animaux, qui ne cesse de se renforcer à mesure qu’ils vieillissent. Fascinée par cette relation privilégiée, leur maman Elena Shumilova a décidé de capturer quelques-uns de ces moments de tendresse. Suivez leurs aventures dans la suite.

Unilever asks a heavy question—"Why bring a child into this world?"—in a four-minute video touting Project Sunlight, its new  global sustainability initiative. The consumer-goods titan created the short film in collaboration with acclaimed director Errol Morris and many of the same folks from Ogilvy's South American office who created the award-winning "Real Beauty Sketches" for Unilever's Dove brand.

Actually, this is a film within film, as real expectant parents share their hopes and fears about the world their kids will inherit. They also react as they watch a movie that mixes footage of violence and despair with hopeful messages about the future. The tone is emotional, but positive, backed by a pensive piano cover of The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?"

"Your child could have more possibilities of having a healthier heart than any living person today—and the same chance of a broken heart," the narrator says. "No one can escape that. … And by the time they find the right person, our children will have better chances of meeting their great-grandchildren than we ever did."

Nearing 2.5 million YouTube views in just two days, the clip clearly resonates with many viewers, such as this commenter on Unilever's Facebook page: "I cried at this video. … Righteous work! I hope more people see this video and are inspired."

Of course, not all viewers were won over. One YouTube commenter scoffed at the premise of a consumer brand helping save the world: "So they claim they 'save lives?' They make soap, people. Look, if they really cared they would invest all the billions of euros they make in profit into cancer research or something … Unilever is once again trying to take credit for something they have no business taking credit in by putting together some overdramatic commercial to fool people into thinking they are not in business to make those billions of euros."

The existential implications of the central question—"Why bring a child into this world?"—are so intense, I give Unilever points for having the guts to go this route in the first place.

But do we really need a big company to ask such questions? Is it Unilever's place to curate such a conversation which, no matter how well intentioned, is ultimately designed to improve the image of its brand and boost the bottom line?

Via Mashable.

Le Conarte a fait appel à l’agence mexicaine Anagrama pour créer un espace de lecture pour les enfants au sein d’un entrepôt, situé dans un ancien site industriel. Le résultat est une plateforme ultra design et multi-fonction surplombée par des luminaires aux formes asymétriques et colorées. Un projet superbe à découvrir.

David Wile et April Maciborka présentent Pucker, un projet collaboratif autour d’une série de photos d’enfants en bas-âge goûtant le citron pour la première fois. On a peu de mal à comprendre pourquoi ils décrivent l’agrume comme une source de divertissement tant les visages qu’ils nous offrent sont expressifs. À découvrir en images.