From Jim Metrock:
ExciteBots is a new video game ($37 – $50) from Nintendo for the Wii game system. The game was release on April 20. Nintendo has enlisted BusRadio to pitch the game to its captive audience of high school, middle school, and elementary school bus riders.
The commercials are the same for all age groups.
Below are six commercials for ExciteBots that aired on BusRadio’s morning elementary school show on May 4, 2009.
These ads are listed in the order they were heard by students on their school bus. The ads for ExciteBots don’t start until after the third song of the morning. The entire morning show on BusRadio is about one hour long so you can tell the kids are getting an intensive dose of ExciteBots in a short period of time.
BusRadio is playing hardball with its youngest audience. They are hammering these product promotions into the heads of the youngest school children. Some of the children being targeted by BusRadio are less than a year out of kindergarten.
BusRadio brags about their captive audience. Now everyone can clearly see and hear how they abuse this audience with their relentless advertising barrage.
No school board member and no transportation director ever agreed to this type of commercial assault on young school bus riders.
| 1st commercial for ExciteBots |
BusRadio’s "DJ Chickenwing" tries to get riders excited about the new advertiser. This is an unfair tactic by BR. The DJ is trading on the trust children have placed in him.
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| 2nd commercial for ExciteBots |
Now the main DJ, Mxxxxxx Bxxxxx, urges elementary school kids to call BusRadio and enter the contest to win a Wii and games. These type of ads are the most powerful BusRadio can run. Little children can’t help but like these wacky DJs who play music for them. Few children this age understand these DJs will ask them to buy anything if they are paid enough. Children may not understand that the contest is a lure to get them to purchase the ExciteBots game.
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| 3rd commercial for ExciteBots |
"Extremely versatile creature…" This ad is professionally done by Nintendo. [After the commercial listen to DJ Bxxxxx pitch Vocal Corner Store’s web site. Bxxxxx flat out tells kids on the elementary school bus that this company "will be able to make you a star." More about this advertiser later, now back to ExciteBots.]
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| 4th commercial for ExciteBots |
"Excitus Botus" Keep in mind when children hear this fourth pitch for ExciteBots, the morning elementary school BusRadio program about halfway through.
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| 5th commercial for ExciteBots |
The first commercial featuring DJ Chickenwing (a BusRadio employee) is replayed.
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| 6th commercial for ExciteBots |
"An incredibly competitive species" A third spot from Nintendo.
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Again, children have heard up to six commercials for one product from the time the bus picked them up in the morning to the time they reached school. Children also heard commercials from Adidas and Vocal Corner Store on this particular morning.
Is this how we want the school day to begin for these young students?
