MSNBC’s Ads of the Weird blog is a little creeped out by Duracell’s new kidnapping commercial, and so are we. Making people feel bad about something is advertising’s job, we get that, but trying to scare parents into thinking their kid will be stolen from the playground by the classic man-in-a-van is going a little overboard. (Watch the commercial below.)
As MSNBC puts it, “It kind of makes us pine for that irritating, but light-hearted, Energizer bunny.” Plus, you can use the bunny to point out where the bad man touched you.
“Trust Duracell to Scare the *$#%! Out of You” [MSNBC]
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This commercial simply plays on the paranoia we have instilled in every young parent. Im not saying that there are no bad people in the world but when a corporation like Duracell exploits such events its lowers their position to a degree.
A different path: The kid wanders off in a crowd and the “kid finder” helps you determine the direction and ultimately you find him. Why play on the kidnapping possibility?
i dont see any problems with this commercial. it clearly states the products purpose and for the around 99% of the population which doesnt suffer from a survere anxiety disorder it isnt at all disturbing.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that commercial. They are not saying your kid will be taken if you do not use their product; they are saying a very important, sometimes life saving device uses their product because it is dependable. Whatever else you perceive the ad saying is on you. As a marketing/business student I love the series of ads Duracell has rolled out over the years.
I’m totally freaked out by the fact that “Lojack for kids” is available. My parents had a system like that called, if you are out of arms reach, we will close the distance an whip you with the hand. Amazingly, I never wandered away.
Well, clearly the device failed in the end anyway. By the time the mother found the kid, the pedo had already given him a balloon for a job well done.
What about if you’re INTENTIONALLY trying to lose your kid? Buy Ray-o-vac instead?
Honestly, what’s wrong with this ad is the big hug at the end. No “DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN” or realistic post-stress mommy yelling.
That’s when I have kids, I’ll keep them away from family and friends; 98% of child abductions are from them. And raise them Buddhist not Catholic; (cough).
Or make sure my tykes play with more photogenic ones; see the “needing to outrun a bear” strategy.
Sigh. From the cuddly Energizer Bunny ads to ones hawking histrionic, local-news-fueled urban legend. How far they’ve fallen.
considering the day and age i don’t see a problem with a parent lojack their child
Oh please, nobody wants your rotten kids…
@Trai_Dep: It’s a shame there aren’t kids out there who are like the fainting goats. When they get excited, their muscles lock up, and they topple over. The people who raise them say that they wold mix these goats in with more valuable goats, and if a predator attacked, they would stiffen up and fall over, and the others would get away.
So they show the Mom dumping out her back to find her locater and then cut to her tugging her stroller in her desperate search for lil Kevin. So that means she either 1) left all her stuff laying on a blanket or 2) took the time to repack all her stuff, all the while her baby is being touched by a bad man with a balloon.
+ Watch video
Its cross marketing. Brickhouse either split the costs or paid duracell directly for that.
I dont see the problem. Seems like a good partnership. I mean when you think about it, any brickhouse ad is going to be disturbing.
@mdoublej:
fo sho ! little bastard!
@Roclawzi: I agree and that makes the commercial especially bad. If they had showed a situation like Git Em SteveDave suggested and the kid was autistic or simply lost (no van shot) at least they wouldn’t be suggesting the product can do something that it can’t.
If Woody would have called the police, none of this would have ever happened.
Oh, and the ad was a bit creepy.
I’ve never used a Brickhouse Child Locater before. My wife and I developed a helmet equipped with a red beacon and audible alarm, and we make our 3 year old wear this anytime he plays in public. We love our son dearly and would only trust Duracell to power his helmet, as his safety is our main priority.
Quick question: why would a device which is in constant need of reliable power be dependent on non-rechargeable batteries that always need replacing? Or does Duracell make LiPo packs now? Cus I own dozens of machines that use rechargeable LiPo or NiMH batteries and not a one of them is made by Duracell. Also, since when do defribulators or in-house alarms rely on Duracell batteries?
Second bit: I used to volunteer at a children’s science center. I will never understand why, but parents would neglect and ignore their kids all day, and then have a fit if they hurt themselves or they went missing. We once had to lock down the building and call the cops (all at a mother’s insistance) just to find one kid who, as it turned out, was waiting exactly where Mommy left him three hours ago when she decided to leave the building to go shopping. He was curled up and crying because Mom had forgotten about him and he thought he’d been abandoned.
@Platypi:
I once at my two year old daughter on a picture bench at Disneyland and walked away about eight to ten feet (MAYBE 2-3 seconds) and when I turned around to take the picture she was gone. Luckily we were on Tom Sawyer Island so the area was small and with the help of security guards, we had her back in just a few minutes but the job description for a lot of 2-5 year olds is built around disappearing in a heartbeat.
@woot: Just because kidnapping is highly unlikely doesn’t mean that your kid won’t wander off and hit by a car in the parking lot.
The crazy thing is the Ad could have used the same product and been effective if it was less serious and perhaps more of a “damnit where’s that kid?” kind of moment. But the music and the white van make you pretty uneasy.
Does Duracell sell any type of batteries used to power laser pistol or rifle gun sight? Now that would be a F-N great commercial!
“When PFC. Johnson wants a reliable battery to power his rifle to sight in an Iraqi insurgent for a one shot kill, he trusts Duracell. BANG.”
I don’t know that I’d actually use this product, but there is a vignette from my childhood that would actually make a decent ad for it (far more compelling, and plausible, I think, than the kidnapper):
My mother took my (toddler) brother and I on vacation. We got out of the car at the motel, and she sent me ahead to the room with a suitcase. She looked away for a moment and didn’t see my brother go with me – when she looked up, there was no toddler in sight, with an unsecured swimming pool in one direction and a busy road in the other. She panicked, not knowing which direction he was headed, and afraid to turn her back on either pool or road to search for him. Fortunately, she managed to flag down a passerby, who agreed to watch the pool while she looked for him. But that little episode probably took a couple of years off her life, and at least knowing which direction he’d gone in would have made things much easier.
Okay, is anyone else disturbed that BrickHouseSecurity posted this on youtube as a video response to “Chandra Levy found dead Missing Kids”? I don’t think the commercial itself was all that terrible, but I find their aggressive marketing on youtube a bit… off.
THANK YOU, MSNBC & Consumerist.
This ad has so many cliches it makes me sick. The classic van. The dumbass mother who turns away for 5 seconds. The kid who manages vanish in a wide-open park. Soo stupid…
the mom left the kid in a hot car.
@deweydecimated: haha exactly!! I rode my bike with a friend too many blocks away once and when I got back my mom flipped out. I pretty much was convinced I deserved some sort of jail sentence.
I thought that she would have found her kid tooling around in a podracer, or hanging out with a couple of dudes in earth-colored robes. Come on, don’t tell me that I’m the only one who saw a resemblance…
@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: I used to agree with you, before I had twins (way back in 1984) they learned the fine art of “divide and conquer” early on. I only used them when they were toddlers in they stroller, because they would definitely wander off, and were very friendly babies. When I knew we were going to be in a crowded place, I would also dress them identically (never at any other time, I hate that) so I could say “she’s wearing this outfit” one of the twins was notorious for disappearing in milliseconds. While I used to think the leash thing was cruel, I prefer it over a lost kid
It would have been funny if when she emptied out her purse the kid fell out of it.
Oh,Kevin.
Would it not be better to outlaw vans?
(/sarcasm)
I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a commercial within a commercial, but I barely watch tv anymore so maybe not.
Wow, so buy Duracell, or your kids will die. Great promo.
OH wow, that’s so weird. While I was reading this, the ad came on comedy central. Strange LOL.
@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: So you’re recommending that we breed fainting-goat kids to mix in with the normal ones, so that they’ll distract the predators who attack playgrounds?
@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: I wish I could give you a second star.
If you watch the news even occasionally or catch “Nancy Grace” more than once a week then you know it’s not failing batteries, men in vans with lollipops or even creepy uncles that this kid needs to be watching out for, it’s his own MOTHER!
@SkyeBlue: If I catch Nancy Grace more than once a week, it’s a disease, and it slowly kills me.
I’m more concerned with this ‘Child Locator’ thing. Where is the transmitter?
After seeing this ad I will no longer be using Duracell batteries. A law needs to be passed that grants children the right to refuse being tracked.
“Get paranoid about your child’s safety and start tracking him/her today”. Nice little PR move from the Industry.
I’m sure I’ll hate to see how this device is used on children in ten years. Thank God I am not a child in these times.
This commercial is really stupid. The kid just was flying a kite out of the lady’s screaming range. And just because there was a van driving away doesn’t mean your kid got kidnapped. And doesn’t it seem evil that she would put a GPS locator thing in her child and basically spy on everywhere they go?