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I don't know how dumb of an advertising move this was, but it sure pissed me off. In case you've never heard of it, the Elf on a Shelf is an ugly little elf doll that you move around your house nightly before Christmas every year to convince your kids he's a real spy for Santa so they're threatened into behaving. We have one, and I hate finding a new spot to put him every night where the kids can't reach him, and to convince them that he's really real and not just a stuffed doll, but my oldest (5-year old) gets excited as hell looking for him every morning and talks to him as if he's real, so it's cute enough to continue, I guess. So, I'm watching TV one day before Christmas last year and on comes a commercial that shows kids SO excited because they're getting an Elf on the Shelf for Christmas! You see them tearing open the package and there's the drat doll in the box. It completely negates the entire point of the doll (the kids aren't allowed to touch it or it'll lose its "magic powers") by showing them it's just a toy in a box they can take out and play with. Plus, what the hell do you do with it after they open the box? Try to convince them that it's really one of Santa's elves that showed up to keep an eye on them? And if they open it on Christmas, as the ad shows, then what do they do with it the rest of the year? It just becomes another doll, unless you take it away from them and then try to bring it out the following Christmas and tell them it's really an elf. And of course, the commercial aired on Nick Jr. or Disney Jr. or one of the other kids' channels where the little ones could see it. Perfect! Every time my kids were in the room with me after that while the TV was on I had to sit there with the remote at the ready in case this goddamn commercial came on again so I could hurry up and change the channel before they saw it and had a million questions about whether the stupid doll was really an elf or just a toy we bought them. Thankfully, I only saw the ad once; hopefully someone realized how bad of an idea this was and pulled it. Haven't seen it yet this year.
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Dec 7, 2014 20:20
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 09:02 |
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AlbieQuirky posted:It's a terrible thing, but it's weird that the commercial undermined the marketing premise that had been in play for several years, which was "Parents, buy this elf doll and book and have a game with your kids where you pretend it's real." This is it exactly. I'm no fan of the Elf on a Shelf or the concept behind it, but my husband liked it so he bought one. My 5-year old and 2 1/2-year old absolutely love it. Personally I was more worried that they'd be scared of it (a creepy little elf doll moving around the house at night would've given me nightmares) than that they wouldn't believe in it. But then the ad comes out that's completely opposite of the whole marketing strategy behind it (which could've also destroyed the fantasy for a lot of little kids), and I have to wonder WTF they were thinking.
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Dec 8, 2014 07:29
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