Kidzania: Work as Play

This is the most fascinating thing I've read this week, an article about a chain of theme-parks for kids where they can play at... real life! State of Play

Right now, in eight malls spread across three continents, thousands of children are dressed as pilots and flying digital planes from mock cockpits, anchoring news broadcasts in fully functional TV studios, or wearing helmets and extinguishing faux flames with real water cannons. This is KidZania, a multinational chain of family entertainment centers, where kids try out professions that have been downsized, simplified, and made fun. At these soccer field-size franchises in malls from Tokyo to Lisbon, children play at being adults. Children can play surgeon, detective, journalist, courier, radio host, and dozens more jobs. They can buy and sell goods at the KidZania supermarket, take KidZania currency that they earn to an operational bank staffed with adult tellers, and be security guards escorting KidZania currency around the park. They can assemble burgers and pizzas, which they can then eat, or give makeovers to other paying children. At the planned KidZania Santiago, Chile, minors will be able to play at being miners. One-size-fits-all costumes supersize the cute factor. The result of all this is mass-produced adorability.

I'm sure when I was a kid I would have thought this was really cool-- it's like a miniaturized world where you can do "real stuff." But there are pros and cons. It's good that it teaches kids about earning money at a job and using that money to buy things. But it's a little creepy that the corporate sponsorship makes it seem like kids are being indoctrinated into a branded world. Also, as critics have pointed out, it's not very creative. By putting kids in an environment where everything has been realistically reproduced, you leave nothing left for them to imagine. Kids can happily use a cardboard box to play restaurant or bank or doctor's office, without McDonald's or HSBC or Crest having to sponsor it. Also, visiting KidZania is pretty expensive-- in Tokyo, it costs $150 for a family of 4, which seems a little steep given all the advertising you're subjected to. What do you think? Would you take your kids to KidZania?

Ads in Free iPhone Apps

I'm still loving my iPhone, despite the extra expense each month. Of course, as I'd expected, they've introduced the iPhone 4 and dropped the price of the model I bought by $200, but the iPhone has been such a life-saver over the last 3 months, some of that money has probably been made up by not having to buy extra gas because of getting lost on road trips. I had no idea I'd end up using the Google Maps feature so much!

I've also been having fun playing a free Scrabble-like game with a friend of mine who lives across the country. I've always enjoyed word games, and it's a great way to stay connected. Especially since I'm pretty consistently slaughtering her. Anyway, the one downside to the game is how intrusive the ads are-- after every turn, they pop up and take over the whole screen for a second or two until I can manage to dismiss them, and there's always a bar across the bottom of the home screen with an ad. A couple of times, I've been very tempted to just click on the button that takes you to purchasing the ad-free version for $2.99. But then I keep holding back, telling myself to just suck it up and save the 3 bucks.

This is always my dilemma-- I know $3 is not a lot of money. But I guess I think it's good practice to say no to spending on any occasion where it's possible. So an ad flashes in front of my and wastes a second or two of my time, so what? As a general value and guideline for life, I want to be the kind of person who is willing to put up with a little inconvenience, who isn't a prima donna. This may be only a very small and insignificant way of asserting that value, but heck, why not just do it? It's not that I live a 100% spartan lifestyle where I always take the cheaper, more difficult option, but that's the point: every time you say no to spending, it allows you to say yes to something else in the future.

How do you feel about ad-supported apps? Are you willing to pay a few more dollars not to see ads?

How Not to Hurt a Romantic Relationship... and a Free Dating Site for Beautiful Girls!

I was reading an article at LifeHack.org called 10 Ways We Hurt Our Romantic Relationships. This was one of the 10 ways:

5. You spend like a single person

This was a hard lesson for me to learn — until it broke up a 7-year relationship. When you’re single, you can buy whatever you want, whenever you want, with little regard for the future. It’s not necessarily wise, but you’re the only one who has to pay the consequences. When you are with someone in a long-term relationship, that is no longer a possibility. Your partner — and your children, if there are or will be any — will have to bear the brunt of your spending, so you’d better get in the habit of taking care of household necessities first and then, if there’s anything left over, of discussing with your partner the best way to use it.

This is an increasing problem these days, because more and more people are opting to keep their finances separate, even when they’re married. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of arrangement in and of itself, but it demands more communication and involvement between the partners, not less. If you’re spending money as if it was your money and nobody else has a right to tell you what to do with it, your relationship is doomed.

The funny thing was that the article was accompanied by this ad for a dating site:



100% free for beautiful girls! Whatta deal!

Smirnoff Vodka Water???

While riding in my TV-screen & GPS-equipped taxi, one of the advertisements I noticed was one for a new beverage called Smirnoff Source. I had to google it when I got home, because I couldn't quite believe the ad was for real: it's bottled water with alcohol in it. Huh???
Here's a post about it on Jezebel and here's the press release. At first I thought it was water with vodka in it, but it's actually considered a "malt beverage:"

Smirnoff Source(TM), the new premium malt beverage offering from Diageo North America that combines pure spring water with alcohol is now on beer retailers' shelves and high-end bars throughout the Northeast. At 3.5 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), this new premium malt beverage, with a hint of citrus, has fewer calories and lower alcohol by volume than most popular domestic beers.

Who's the marketing genius that came up with this? "Hmm, will people buy watered-down alcohol if we say it's watered down with pure spring water and put it in a fancy bottle?" I wonder if this product will actually be successful!