Watch Out, Marketers!!

This afternoon, Lucia brought me a piece of mail while I was folding laundry.  She was all excited to open it with me, since it seemed to her that I had won some type of award!  On closer examination, she understood (with some help) that the mail was from National Geographic Little Kids, and that the magazine had won a 2013 Parents' Choice Award of some kind.  We still opened the envelope and read the piece of paper inside.  It was an "Exclusive Offer Order Form" for a magazine subscription.  At first, Lucia was somewhat intrigued, but we talked through what the purpose of this form was, and that it was an advertisement for the magazine trying to get our business.
I told Lucia I thought it would be an interesting experiment to get the mail and go through it together and see how the advertisers are using words (and Lucia chimed in: "And pictures!!!  One time in a magazine I saw a picture of this room, and I thought, 'oooh, I want this room, this is such a cool room, but they were just trying to get me to WANT something and pay money for it!") to subtly encourage us to buy something or feel a certain way about a product.
She was all excited and wanted to start with that very piece of mail right away.  She got out a pencil and started crossing out and circling and highlighting manipulative statements that she discovered.  She was so into this exercise that she just had to write National Geographic Little Kids a letter afterwards.  She had the envelope all addressed and glued shut by the time I got up from my nap, but tonight, after bedtime, I couldn't resist showing David the whole ordeal and we took a little peek.  Enjoy! :-)

In case you can't read the pieces in the pictures, I will transcribe. :)
Top left scribbled out: "Save 37% off the newsstand price!"
Circled on right: "You Pay Only...."  Lucia's writing: "Pooh!"
Mid page scribbled out: "Irresistible photos and simple text to enhance early reading experiences" -- as she explained to me, she took issue with the word "irresistible".
Scribbled out below that: "FREE collectible Animal Cards in every issue!" ("How can it be free if we're paying for it?"
Scribbled through bold lettering: "ADDITIONAL GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS ONLY $12. SAVE $3 EACH!"

Here is her response envelope and letter:
"Dear Natinal Geographiick littile kids, I am not going to take your order.  becouse you are trying to make me pay 15 dollers for only a book!  I am wise, so I figerd out this.  So boo to you go away shoo!  from Lucia Abuhl"
She addressed the envelope with no help (having found the return address on the subscription form in the top left corner), and got this far into her address: 'Lucia Eden Abuhl 2220" :-)
This whole exercise made me smile.