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What is it with people lately - some people will do anyfrickinthing for a buck. There's been several news stories about this kind of thing popping up. The can of worms is now opened; the human race has sunk to an all-time low.
Baby on block
Imagine your logo on her newborn
So what sort of person will offer up her baby, not yet born, for ad space?
How about Michele Hutchison, 26, stay-at-home mother, nine months pregnant, Langhorne resident, and Neshaminy High graduate who sees a story on television about a woman offering to temporarily tattoo her body with ads for cash?
"I jokingly said to my husband that we should do this on my baby," Hutchison said. "The next day I couldn't get it out of my head."
And so, in a flash, her future newborn son - or, at least, the right to advertise on his future clothing - has become a commodity for sale on the Web sites Craigslist and eBay, where a similar auction run by a Canadian couple was recently ended after a torrent of bad press.
Hutchison sees nothing wrong with or exploitative about auctioning (minimum bid, $1,000) the right to provide her with logo-emblazoned babywear, in which she will garb her son throughout July as her family goes about its summer travels. And sends pictures as proof. She'll also accept logo-fitted strollers or other equipment. (Auction ends on Monday at 07:55:56 PDT, eBay says.)
"We put Old Navy on my son every day," Hutchison said of her 5-year-old first born, Dylan. "We're advertising that for free.
"Everyone looks at babies. We're going to be out and about all the time. For one, around the Fourth of July weekend, we want to go down to the beach."
So far, she says, the only negative reaction has been from her sister. "She just doesn't think it would be good for the baby to get that much attention. I really don't see the difference between [this and] putting other advertisements on him."
Besides, is it any worse than advertising to babies, which has become commonplace, as any mother who's picked up a Cheerios advertisement masquerading as a board book can attest?
"We've moved way beyond commercials," Harvard psychologist Susan Linn, author of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood, said in a recent interview in New England Psychiatrist magazine. "Marketing is in the fabric of children's lives - their education, their social system."
But really, is it any more offensive than dressing your baby in a $58 designer T-shirt featuring a Rolling Stones logo, complete with trademark tongue and lips now on sale at a fancy baby store near you?
Linn said she found nothing amusing about Hutchison's quest. "Babies are increasingly targets for marketing," she said. "What this woman is doing is turning her child into an object to be bought and sold, basically."
Hutchison's postings say she will not accept any advertising that is of a "sexual nature or that has anything to do with alcohol or drugs... we will not allow anything that has any profanity on it, no cursing!"
Plus, no girly stuff for her little guy, due to be born by cesarian section June 7 and to be named Devon Joshua Hutchison.
Todd Feldman, president of the Dan Ryan Group, an Erdenheim advertising firm, says the market is so dense that this kind of lark might appeal to someone - especially with the added lure of publicity.
"It's the ultimate buzz marketing, wouldn't you say? There's people who have sold advertising on a bald head. So there's a lot of that going on these days as the market is trying to find new ways of penetrating through the clutter."
Other recent examples include a couple on eBay who sought ad space for their daughter's wardrobe "to finance college education/filmmaking gear," as reported on Filmmaker Magazine's bulletin board. And then there's a couple from Canada, never fully identified, who pulled their eBay ad that offered to let companies place ads on their baby's outdoor clothing for a year.
The eBay auction that caught Hutchison's attention is run by Rob Taormina, 25, and his fiance, Kristen Noelle, 23, both professional models. They offer to wear and expose (via Web site, advertising, and other publicity and appearances) any company logo.
A bid of $25,000 will take it outright, but as of yesterday, nine bids had nudged up the price to only $20.50.
Hutchison says her plan is much simpler: no Web sites, no tattoos, no undue publicity (oops), and they'll do it for only a month. Little Devon Joshua will never know the difference, she said.
"I figured this would help with the baby's needs," she said. "We're doing our normal things that we do. I'm not going out of my way to go anywhere specifically. It's only for a month. I can deal with that."
As of last night, though, the bidding was up to only $9.99.
Baby on block
Imagine your logo on her newborn
So what sort of person will offer up her baby, not yet born, for ad space?
How about Michele Hutchison, 26, stay-at-home mother, nine months pregnant, Langhorne resident, and Neshaminy High graduate who sees a story on television about a woman offering to temporarily tattoo her body with ads for cash?
"I jokingly said to my husband that we should do this on my baby," Hutchison said. "The next day I couldn't get it out of my head."
And so, in a flash, her future newborn son - or, at least, the right to advertise on his future clothing - has become a commodity for sale on the Web sites Craigslist and eBay, where a similar auction run by a Canadian couple was recently ended after a torrent of bad press.
Hutchison sees nothing wrong with or exploitative about auctioning (minimum bid, $1,000) the right to provide her with logo-emblazoned babywear, in which she will garb her son throughout July as her family goes about its summer travels. And sends pictures as proof. She'll also accept logo-fitted strollers or other equipment. (Auction ends on Monday at 07:55:56 PDT, eBay says.)
"We put Old Navy on my son every day," Hutchison said of her 5-year-old first born, Dylan. "We're advertising that for free.
"Everyone looks at babies. We're going to be out and about all the time. For one, around the Fourth of July weekend, we want to go down to the beach."
So far, she says, the only negative reaction has been from her sister. "She just doesn't think it would be good for the baby to get that much attention. I really don't see the difference between [this and] putting other advertisements on him."
Besides, is it any worse than advertising to babies, which has become commonplace, as any mother who's picked up a Cheerios advertisement masquerading as a board book can attest?
"We've moved way beyond commercials," Harvard psychologist Susan Linn, author of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood, said in a recent interview in New England Psychiatrist magazine. "Marketing is in the fabric of children's lives - their education, their social system."
But really, is it any more offensive than dressing your baby in a $58 designer T-shirt featuring a Rolling Stones logo, complete with trademark tongue and lips now on sale at a fancy baby store near you?
Linn said she found nothing amusing about Hutchison's quest. "Babies are increasingly targets for marketing," she said. "What this woman is doing is turning her child into an object to be bought and sold, basically."
Hutchison's postings say she will not accept any advertising that is of a "sexual nature or that has anything to do with alcohol or drugs... we will not allow anything that has any profanity on it, no cursing!"
Plus, no girly stuff for her little guy, due to be born by cesarian section June 7 and to be named Devon Joshua Hutchison.
Todd Feldman, president of the Dan Ryan Group, an Erdenheim advertising firm, says the market is so dense that this kind of lark might appeal to someone - especially with the added lure of publicity.
"It's the ultimate buzz marketing, wouldn't you say? There's people who have sold advertising on a bald head. So there's a lot of that going on these days as the market is trying to find new ways of penetrating through the clutter."
Other recent examples include a couple on eBay who sought ad space for their daughter's wardrobe "to finance college education/filmmaking gear," as reported on Filmmaker Magazine's bulletin board. And then there's a couple from Canada, never fully identified, who pulled their eBay ad that offered to let companies place ads on their baby's outdoor clothing for a year.
The eBay auction that caught Hutchison's attention is run by Rob Taormina, 25, and his fiance, Kristen Noelle, 23, both professional models. They offer to wear and expose (via Web site, advertising, and other publicity and appearances) any company logo.
A bid of $25,000 will take it outright, but as of yesterday, nine bids had nudged up the price to only $20.50.
Hutchison says her plan is much simpler: no Web sites, no tattoos, no undue publicity (oops), and they'll do it for only a month. Little Devon Joshua will never know the difference, she said.
"I figured this would help with the baby's needs," she said. "We're doing our normal things that we do. I'm not going out of my way to go anywhere specifically. It's only for a month. I can deal with that."
As of last night, though, the bidding was up to only $9.99.
posted by Miss_Vicki at 8:17 AM
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