In-School Commercialism: A Back to School Checklist

Sept. 14, 2017 An update on the unhealthy cues sent to kids with BoxTops for Education, via Harvard Chan School of Public Health podcast  which nails the core problem quite succinctly. The program is "Leveraging poor school funding and caring parents to promote the purchase of poor quality foods." Also, here's fresh research on the Gatorade/hydration spin-spotting from the … [Read more...]

Healthvana: Peace of Mind In The Dating App Era?

Oct. 30, 2014 Update! With 'healthy Halloween' tweets on Twitter, I checked back on my own post here to see why it's getting a spike in 'retweet' circulation, and now see there's been huge press lately from Good Morning America to NPR, VentureBeat and beyond this fall, so congrats to Healthvana for media making a difference in public health! (An entire HealthBeat Conference … [Read more...]

Culture Clash: STD App’s Naming Gaffe Goes Viral

July 19, 2014 Update: Mahalo and 'Ho'omaika'i 'ana (thank you and congratulations) for the corporate social responsibility exhibited by the Hula app founders and developers who have officially renamed their HIV/STD testing results app "Healthvana" as promised for a mid-July reveal! (more news here and follow up story to come)  May 6, 2014  30 days later, AP NewsBreak/The … [Read more...]

Toys R Us Throws Mother Nature Under the Bus In Prankvertising

Nov. 8, 2013 Update! Colbert gives a ‘Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger in his Nov. 6 edition, Forbes adds a resource roundup of the backlash among moms, (though I'd add it's not a gender issue as dads are equally ticked) C&NN's Suz Lipman adds her voice/views, and Ad Land calls out “concern trolls,” thoughts?Nov. 4, 2013 “Don’t bite the hook,” is my mantra for using media … [Read more...]

SureFire Girls: Life Literacy For Teens in a Power-Packed Conference

Oct. 8, 2013 As the parent of a teen graduating high school, spring was like a surreal montage of college tours, anticipation, excitement and questions swirling in my brain.Did I give her enough savvy to navigate credit/debit financial literacy, branding and budgeting? Does she have body awareness and boundaries to carve out her own comfort zone in complicated core … [Read more...]