No Tryouts. No Cuts. No Competition. - May 26th, 2008
I seem to be obsessing about the copy writing on packaging lately. I’m not sure why, but bear with me–I’m sure this too, shall pass.
This photo shows a box of tasty Girl Guide (or should that be ‘Girl Guides’?) cookies that I recently bought. On the box, they prominently feature text that reads “No tryouts. No cuts. No competition. It’s the great greatest team she’ll ever join.”:
This text reflects an ongoing trend (I wrote about it previously) toward reducing or eliminating competition among children. I often hear members of Generation Y–the early beneficiaries of this trend–characterized as being superb collaborators and team members, but under-motivated in the face of competition.
Of course, these are just enormous generalizations that make demographers and marketers happy, but I could see a correlation there. I really know nothing about child development and psychology, so I just point out this Girl Guide box as a sign o’ the times.
On a vaguely related topic, I’ve been enjoying reading this discussion of parenthood on Jen’s blog.