Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 4:40 PM by Gene

I just sent the following e-mail to the Neville Chamberlain-like Children's Advertising Review Unit and the morons at General Mills:

To whom it may concern:

General Mills is plugging "The Dark Knight", a PG-13 movie clearly unsuitable for children, on boxes of Cocoa Puffs cereal, a product aimed at children. I'm suspecting the company plays up the connection through TV ads. (I find no reference to the tie-in on www.cocoapuffs.com or the General Mills corporate Web site.)

This is cynical and unethical corporate behavior, and I complain, though I know at best I can expect empty apologies and maybe a press release. When it comes to movie promotions the CARU is a glorified arm of the MPAA, designed to give the industry cover; it makes the UN's Human Rights Committee look honest and effective by comparison. When you take action it's after the fact, and the punishment is a whap with a wet noodle. In short, [you] engage in the sort of A-1 corporate fanny-protection we expect from big business. I send this e-mail regardless, not deluding myself that it will do anything, holding you in contempt even as I press the "submit" button.

Yours,
[Eugene David]

I'll be surprised if I get a response -- and even if you e-mail the mythical Brent Jones of USAOKAY!!!!!, you at least get a FORM reply, even if it's the same one they've used since Al Neuharth was in diapers.

P. S. I discover on the Cocoa Puffs site the Minneapolis midget-brains are using the Web to do the exact same stupid self-defeating thing they'd have done with kiddie TV in the sixties and seventies -- and at least they sponsored Rocky and Bullwinkle...ONCE.

P. P. S. This appears to be a company-wide promotion, or rather a company-wide example of plausible deniability:

You must be 13 years of age or older as of 6/15/2008 in order to participate in this promotion. [sic]

IDIOTS.

(Via SlickDeals)