letters

In defense of BK

I'm a regular reader of your magazine and e-newsletter. Both of these are great resources that keep me up to speed on industry happenings. That said, I have a slight bone to pick concerning your “PG-13 Trap” article [Dec. PROMO]. Your magazine might have been a little too hard on Burger King.

I have designed kids meal toys for clients including McDonald's, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Jack in the Box and Dairy Queen. Usually, design/production of toys begins from six months to one year in advance of store appearance. Burger King would have had to select the Small Soldiers property at least nine months before the toys' in-store date, well before the movie was given its final rating.

I also recall that BK was surprised that Small Soldiers received a PG-13 instead of a PG rating. Though it was too late to halt the promotion, [BK] replaced all of its kids meal toy advertising with a generic kids meal commercial not featuring the toys. They also removed all in-store P-O-P and had a sign up saying that parents could request an alternate non-Small Soldiers toy, if desired.

Still, a very informative article.
Michael Hawkins
Red Rover Creations

Truckin' buddy

As a fellow Hess truck enthusiast, I was delighted to read Rod Taylor's piece [Dec. PROMO]. He'd be happy to know that I have my two Hess trucks for the year, one for my son and one as an “investment.” Having lived on the West Coast for the last decade, I have also converted many Los Angelenos into Hess truck fans, and have developed creative ways around the “two-truck limit” and getting them to people around the country by holiday season.
Joe Sena
TRIK:Media/US Concepts

Rod Taylor responds: This year's truck is excellent, but not quite as out of the box as last year's. I'm going to take a guess and say that in the next few years you're going to see another Hess boat, even if it's just a “fantasy” Hess hydroplane on its transporter.

She nailed it

I'm sitting in my favorite chair at home last week in a mood to catch up on some industry reading. I pick up the November PROMO and open to an article titled, “Drowning in RFPs.” As I was reading along I heard myself saying, “Right on,” “You tell it” and “Amen.” And I'm thinking, I want to kiss the author of this piece. When I come to the end I see that the bold and gracious Alison Glander of PowerPact penned the article and a big smile spreads across my face. She nailed it.

Like PowerPact, our company does not wantonly respond to every RFP presented to us. And being located in Bentonville, in the shadow of Wal-Mart, we receive our fair share of RFPs. However, just as the potential client uses the RFP as a mechanism to assess our capability and worthiness to serve them, we, like PowerPact, use an “Ideal Customer Profile” as a mechanism to help assess if the potential client's RFP is worthy of our time, effort and resources. Alison, you go girl!
Patrick Sbarra
New Creature, Inc.

[A reader second guesses our take on kids meal tie-ins with ultra-violent cartoon flicks; another Hess truck fan chimes in; and a rave (plus a kiss?) for a gutsy guest commentator]