Week 8: Healthy Flavored Halloween Treats

I found this video on this link and just had to share. I thought it was hilarious and appropriate for this time of the year. We all know most kids will say anything that comes to their mind with no filter. Anyone remember that show "Kids Say the Darndest Things" hosted by Bill Cosby? Once again, I think this video would also fit perfectly on that show as well.

So this whole semester we have been talking about consumer behavior and why we buy the things we do, why we act the way we do, and basically our consumption patterns and how it all relates to our ideal and actual sense of self, lifestyles, and values. However, I don't think kids fit the model of most of our arguments through out the semester.

You'd have a hard time getting adults or teenagers to be this open and candid. Most would be afraid of coming off rude. In the book Nudge, they talk about how other people and their opinions influence us and our choices/answers. I can't remember the specific example they used, but it was a similar focus-group situation and one person out of the group was specifically there to say the opposite of what everyone else was saying or say an answer that was obviously incorrect.

This person was very confident and convincing with his or her answers. Eventually, others if not all of the group began to agree and change their answers/opinions to ones that were obviously incorrect. However, they did not want to go against the norm or draw attention to themselves.

If they were to replace this situation with adults instead of children and had one person in the study say all of the treats were fabulous and tasted so good. I'm sure at least a few other people would be nudged to agree with them. Or they might be more polite and discrete about there lack of satisfaction with these healthy tasting treats.

This whole video is a commercial for Crest and Oral-B. At the end it says "there is nothing more horrifying than Halloween without candy"and then the slogan pictured above. I think this is a very clever marketing strategy.

I'm not a parent, but now a days it seems as if parents are much more concerned with their children eating healthy and organic then mine ever were when I was younger. It seems as if parents do not want their kids eating a lot of candy and instead try to find healthy alternatives for candy (which is impossible, obviously). This commercial was instead targeted toward parents. It shows them what a Halloween without candy would look like and then gives them something to do to help the problem of so their children eating so much candy. And lets be honest, nobody wants a Halloween without candy. So Crest and Oral-B have stepped in and attempted to make parents relax.

Holidays especially ones like Halloween alter our consumption behavior as well. Never would it be ok to eat our own weight in candy and dress up as Miley Cyrus banging on neighbors doors demanding candy. But on Halloween this is expected. Thanksgiving is like this as well. In my family, we do not eat anything all day before eating Thanksgiving dinner 3 or 4 times that evening. Holidays change our consumption patterns and what we would normally view as ridiculous behavior is expected on these days.

So overall, I wanted to share this video because I thought it was so funny and cute. Especially the part when Adrianna announces "I threw up" and the focus-group leader says " You threw up? Ok" so nonchalantly and unconcerned. However, this video and holidays in general relate to consumer behavior overall.