Truth in Advertising

Last night I helped out a co-worker who is an Account Director by day and a Girl Guide leader by night.

LS has a generous spirit and a giving heart, and she's had some trouble of late.

A couple of weeks ago she was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. It came on suddenly at a work function. It's under control now, but when she asked me if I'd come and talk to her Girl Guide troop for their business communications and advertising badge, I couldn't say no.

I spend almost no time with eight and nine year old girls, so I didn't really know what to expect. Instintively, I knew they'd be ten times harder to please than a boardroom full of old boys. Probably ten times smarter, too.

I'd spent a good portion of Sunday afternoon making my own "Find a Word" game, designing exercises where one girl got to be the reporter and the other got to be the one interviewed, and designing lessons to teach them how to structure a story. I was over-prepared.

My favourite part of the evening came during the question and answer about my job.

During the part where I was trying to teach them to look critically at the messages that television advertising delivers about the products it wants them to buy, a little girl started waving her arm around all Horshack-like.

"Miss!," she said.

"Yes," I said.

"One time my Mom and Dad went out and I had a babysitter and my Dad said I could get pizza and I really, really, really, really wanted to order that pizza from Pizza Hut. It was on tv. You know the kind with the cheezy stuff in the crust?"

"Yes," I said.

"It was crap." she said.

Girls rule.