Day 111: The Power of the Straw

My children love straws.

I’m sure most kids love straws, but my kids really love them Few beverage opportunities pass without at least a single request for a straw.

You’d say they’re a little straw-obsessed.

So this morning I’m fixing Riley a cup of water. I gave her the choice of cups, and she chose an orange see-through (i.e., translucent) cup.

Fair enough.

Then she wanted the lid.

Fair enough.

I dug through our “kids plastic junk” drawer and found it. But this particular lid necessitates a straw, and I could not find the rigid plastic straw that came with it.

And we’re out of straws.

So I started digging around, and I found some old, still wrapped, McDonald’s straws.

Mind you, there is no marking or branding on the plain white straw paper.

I know they’re McDonald’s straws due to the fact that they’re larger in diameter than other fast food straws, and the plastic is slightly more rigid.

So I unwrapped the straw and started to determine whether it would fit in the cup’s lid (it wouldn’t).

“That’s a McDonald’s straw,” Riley says.

All 2 years and 5 months of her (to the day, ironically).

What?

How could she possibly have learned that?

Seriously?

When we drove through Joplin, Missouri, and a similarly aged Piper identified Sam’s Club from the exterior sign, that impressed me.

But this?

This is incomprehensible.

The power of branding is so strong that my 29-month-old daughter can recognize and identify a straw from the world’s largest fast food proprietor.

I allow for the possibility that by “McDonald’s straw” she simply meant “fast food straw.” But this kid in neither vague nor generic.

She knows what she wants and asks for it again and again (and again).

A simple white piece of plastic adorned with a single red stripe and a single yellow stripe is sufficient to elicit unprompted recall from a toddler.

Consumers: we have no chance.

Oh, and while my wife was at the grocery store a few minutes ago, she called me. My 10-year-old says, “Tell mom we’re out of Ziploc bags … and straws.”

Shot: Canon EOS Rebel T1i w/ Canon EFS 18-55mm

1/200 sec, program (oops, I forgot and left it on), f/4, ISO 100, focal length: 20 mm

Built-in flash (fill flash)

Photoshop: auto levels, darkened sky using curves, crop

Tagged as: Advertising, family