Cause Marketing

Elmo’s World of Slick Cause-Related Marketing I confess I don’t have the experience abroad to judge if it’s a good idea to take Sesame Street … the 38-year-old American children’s TV show… to places like Egypt, Bangladesh, and South Africa. And I’m not sure to what degree the shows “work” in those countries. (In fact, neither are Sesame Street ’s producers. Here’s what their president and CEO Gary E. Knell wrote in their 2005 annual report : “As we’ve said before, we don’t pretend that media can, by itself, solve the many problems of the world, but we do believe­­­—and research confirms—that they can contribute to the solutions.”) I do, however, have a background in cause-related marketing and this 2-part ad, which appeared in BabyTalk Magazine in May 2006, leaves me cold. As we’ll see, even though it has the veneer of cause-related marketing, it’s actually just an advertisement for one of Sesame Street ’s licensees. American Greetings … the greeting card giant… was a Sesam...