Am I the only one who sees this ad as wrong wrong wrong?

In Redbook the ad says this:

"The CURE for your little soldier"

next to a pic of an 8 y/o blond, green eyed boy wearing 2 of the bandages.
Ad further says:
NEW Curad Camp Camo can add some rugged protection....fun colors for boys and girls.



website here:

http://curadusa.com/products/bandages/camouflage-bandages.asp

And today I'm about as anti-military and non-violent as you can get.

Back in the mid-60s, my friends and I were out all summer long with our plastic helmets and rifles recreating the latest episodes of Combat! and Rat Patrol. (Combat!, by the way, was an excellent program that usually ended very somberly over the negative impact of war on regular people. I still recommend it as essentially an anti-war show and a fairly accurate historical rendering of WW2.)

In fact, I think we grew up kind of understanding war better than the kids today who use no imagination whatsoever when playing truly bloody, vulgar video games. At least we when we feigned death it was a friend who fell to the ground ... not some impersonal, 'unreal' cartoonish video character.

Frankly, I am one who believes that the subconscious effects violent video games will someday come back to haunt us with people inured to the real costs of war.

So, the bandages are a bit hokey, but even as a practitioner of non-violence, I think that letting little kids play and use their imaginations is okay.

It was often pretty somber, I suspect that at least some of the writers were WWII vets who had seen combat themselves.

That show definitely didn't make combat look like a lot of fun, unlike many other war shows on TV.

ANYTHING for $. ;)

:eyes:

So yes, I have a problem with this. I for sure wouldn't buy it.

... you know, in case I have to hide out in the universe of "My Little Pony."

- not much of a fashion, IMO, but it is. Camo bookbags, shirts, shoes, etc.

of military personnel.
Daddy's serving in Iraq, kid skins his/her knee, and mommy puts on a camouflage bandaid for her little soldier.
I don't see it as nefariously as the OP, but I concede the point that it can be taken that way.

...hunters also wear camo. Or are you also against hunting?

calling "my" 8 y/o son a "little soldier" and glorifying war....THAT is the issue and that is what the ad is doing.

I am undoubtedly the least militaristic person I know. Normal, well adjusted kids know the difference between what is real and what is pretend. I would have been digging the cammo band-aids.

Advertising has already been shown to be insidiously brain washing for profit. It plays on the games children play and encourages the idea that wars are fun and that the violence in wars is OK. The people designing these band aids are doing it for only one reason. Profit.

Jesus, they're like the frigging Borg. Resistance is futile. You are not a citizen. You're a consumer. Here. Buy war. Ain't it cool? Read the damn print on the box. 'We help heal'. That's the height of cynicism if you ask me. They promote all things war and top it all off by saying 'help heal' like they really care.

If kids want to play war then there's plenty to pick from already. Kids with imagination will play with a wooden stick and call it a Smith and Wesson or see it as the coolest zap gun in the universe.

support the notion that they'll ever need it.

:shrug:

and the cutesy-pink smaller bandages were strictly marketed to girls, that would bother me. But I don't think camo bandages are likely to turn a kid pro-military or pro-killing.

I see people wearing t-shirts or camo shorts all the time. I wouldn't sweat it.

:shrug: