The Power of Ads

We received our first piece of mail post-Christmas, three flyers and one piece of business. As we sat around the lunch table enjoying a homemade batch of soup, using Alanna's ingenious method of simmering canned tomatoes in just a little bit of butter and an onion sliced in half, I leafed through the slim offerings while the boys slurped away.

As I starred at the Walmart flyer featuring the familiar logo and slogan I decided to test the penetration of the ubiquitous brand.

"Hey kids, here's a question for you," I started. "What is the Walmart slogan?" carefully covering the masthead of the flyer to ensure the integrity of the test.

Ben's eyes twisted as his wrinkled brow did its dance in contemplation of the question. Dylan's head tilted as the words hung on the tip of his tongue. Together in almost perfect unison they blurted out, "Save Money. Live Better."

I was as surprised as I was flabbergasted.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Well, we see it on TV all the time," said Ben, matter-of-factly and mildly amused with my reaction.

The fact is that you could have waved a million dollars in front of my face and there is no way I could have pulled that slogan out of my head. Zellers-where the lowest price is the law, is right there, pasted in my brain along with McDonald's I'm lovin' it. Walmart is nowhere to be found. Maybe its a generational thing. When I was young we had The Bay and K-Mart and I'm certain I could have recalled their slogans of the day on demand like my boys did earlier today. But Walmart just hasn't sunk in to this middle age mind.

What are the brands that are resonating with your children? Are you aware of them? It might be fun to do a little random quiz around the dinner table tonight.