My youngest daughter's birthday is toward the end of this month. When asked, she says she would like Webkinz and Nancy Drew books. She already has an American Girl doll. American Girls are rather expensive dolls that stand about 2 feet tall, for which you can purchase rather expensive clothes and rather expensive accessories- suffice to say, my daughter won't be getting another one anytime soon. However, she strategically left an AG catalog around the house, so for kicks I browsed through it.
Each year there is a "Girl of the Year." This year's American Girl is "Lanie", who is described as "an energetic girl who discovers the world in her own backyard." I thought about that, and what the marketing angle was for promoting activity without leaving home. The more I mused on it, I came to a couple conclusions: 1) As the obesity rate in American children has risen and life expectancy is actually expected to go down, it's not a bad idea to push the idea of being energetic; and 2) The premise of exploring your own backyard to have fun is probably a sad but accurate commentary on the state of our economy. If a girl's parents are too strapped to take her anywhere, she might as well make the best of playing at home (and again, the yard calls for more active play than, say, a television or computer). It's interesting, though... almost counter-intuitive. As the world shrinks due to connectivity and globalism, it's apparently not as important to tout imagining faraway lands and cultures; with most modern phones we can look up information on them in an instant. American Girl, then, is basically telling girls: focus inwards, take stock of what you have around you, and reinvent yourself.
That's not such a bad message. We have satellite and cable television, the World Wide Web, WiFi, 3- & 4G phones... The world has opened up. So if we're going to develop our imagination- our innovation- we may need to rethink our sources of inspiration. And what better place to start than our own backyard?
The internet is Obbee's proverbial backyard. It's where we play in our pursuit of sales leads for professionals in the real estate, mortgage, insurance and debt & loan modification industries. We know every inch, from the back door to the fence, as we gather motivated, qualified prospects in real time. It's the field in which we're active,
- Dave
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