CBeebies advertising next program

CBeebies have started to advertise their next program upon nearing the end of a program. I am not too sure on the merit of this from the perspective of a parent. I cannot write from experience but wouldn't children be more inclined to stay and watch the television? If there are clear breaks between programs, children will not be as influenced.

Children knifed to death

News these days feature a lot of incidents of children getting stabbed to death by other children. It is important to ask why some children can so easily stab someone let alone kill someone. One thing that springs to mind is the low moral values. I cannot think that children who carry knives have no intention of killing someone. They just don't seem to care enough about life.

Why have the moral values of some children disappeared? I am tempted to say that the violent video games, films and music are the problem. They do not influence everyone but I think certain children are easily influenced. It would be nice if game manufacturers could produce an entertaining game that can educate good moral values. The market for such games is wide open compared to the violent games. More points for players who show a good moral character.

There is perhaps hope for this because I read the other day that hip hop or rap music is not as popular as before. My explanation for this is to do with the children who have parents that grew up on such music. Since children like to rebel against their parents, these children cannot easily rebel with rap music They are perhaps ready to rebel by becoming morally good.

Welfare system that favours single parent families

Contrast the following two scenarios.

1. Single parent with 2 children under the age of 11, works 16 hours a week on the minimum wage, receives 487 pounds (with the aid of tax credits).
2. 2 parent family with 2 children under the age of 11, must work in total 116 hours a week on the minimum wage to receive the same amount of pay.

This clearly shows that remaining single is better than getting married if you are trying to make ends meet.

It would be interesting to know if there are any other equally ludicrous welfare systems around the world?

Guerrilla marketing ethics?

The idea of marketing is to make your product or service well known. The marketing can be negative but it can command a lot of publicity. Is it worth it? I don't believe that the following advertisers had any intention of negativity. Surely the best thing would be to have a positive marketing campaign that reaches out to as many as the negative?

Take for instance, Sony Ericsson who wanted to get the public to try out some functions of the mobile phone. They got people to look like tourists who wanted their picture taken with the phone and attractive women who sat in bars to start a conversation about their purchase. Once the people found out that they were not genuine, the campaign became negative. The moral seems to be, if you are advertising, make sure you are upfront about it. Especially when you are, in effect, invading their space.

IBM decided to chalk symbols on the streets of San Francisco. Some technologically minded people liked it but others thought it as graffiti. Although the chalk was biodegradable, it took weeks for the stuff to be removed. The moral is to try and be in the good books of everyone.

Some offensive images can arouse suspicion. For instance, Cartoon Network decided to place these images. Some residents in Boston thought they were bombs. I remember the news showing the city grid-locked. The moral is to be aware of the past incidents that could have changed people's sentiments.

Smells and sounds are a relatively new medium to be exploited. They have been used to try and gain a bigger impact but the more unusual and unknown it is, the more people would be scared. Paramount Pictures teamed up with the Los Angeles Times to trigger the theme music of Mission Impossible whenever a newspaper was baught at a newspaper rack. People had thought it to be a bomb. Sending smells through an underground system to advertise a drink did not go down too well because it could be thought of as poisonous gas. Besides, forcing someone to smell something is not a good idea. The moral again is to consider the sentiments shaped by recent events. And don't force something upon the unsuspecting public.

Examples from BusinessWeek: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/02/0209_guerrilla/index_01.htm

Petition: Dog DNA database

On the 10 Downing Street website for petitions, I have found someone who has started a petition. Follow the link below if you would like to sign up to the petition.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/K9DNADatabase/

The website states that you must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petition.

DNA analysis to identify dog owners who leave a mess

The idea of creating a database of dog DNA to clean the public areas does not seem to be new. A Freakonomics article in the New York Times (another link), a remarkable 12 year old girl's proposal, and Vienna and Dresden have proposed the same idea.

The idea is pretty simple. Firstly make sure that every dog is licensed. During this licensing process, the DNA can be collected through the saliva of the dog (existing dog owners' dogs can be included perhaps the next time they go to a vet). The data can be stored in a database. Now if a dog owner decides to leave the mess behind, the dog dirt can be collected and DNA analysed. A suitable fine should be imposed and sent to the dog owner's address.

I do hope that the health of our children can be protected with this simple idea. No more risk of blindness. The initial cost may be high but it will be a fraction of the cost of setting up the equivalent for us humans.

Dog muck on my daughter

I have just come back from the park with my daughter who had stepped on some dog muck and picked it up. She was crying during the way back because she thought she did something wrong. I had to explain to her that it was not her fault. It was a particular dog owner's fault.

I am usually very careful but this time, some children playing football had hid the thing under some leaves. They were old enough to know better that hiding it would not have prevented them from getting dirty themselves if they had stepped on it. Anyway, they did not mean anything bad and it is beside the point.

There may be a solution to this. I will write shortly.