Moonshoes Analysis

From late 1980 to early 2000's, Moon Shoe ads have been presenting kids with another toy, specifically made for foot wear, that deliver the astronaut vibe straight to elementary school children. The toys are colorful, the ads show everyone bouncing around, and the music is there to oomph up the fun on screen.

I guarantee that any owner of these toys, whoever's brave enough to admit they owned them, will tell you how awful the device turned out to be. Anybody in their twenties or thirties may have tried a pair and hopped right out of them after harming themselves, damaging property, or being unable to jump higher than without the Moon Shoes on. Why did kids buy into this in the first place?

The same reason why kids buy any other toy or product, good advertising. These overpriced pads with springs popped onto TV with such ferocity and passion that no kid without curiosity wouldn't at least annoy their parents to the toy-isle. It didn't matter what they said, no matter how advised it may be, the shoes looked awesome on screen.

If you watch ad's aimed for children, you'll spot a pattern that marketers have in place. Fast cuts, fun music, and interesting people. Moon Shoes follows this formula with a rock-pop song, lyrics that advise but not essentially matter to why the kids should buy them, and visuals that engage even the most inattentive of children. An article by Melissa Dittman from the American Psychological Association, titled Protecting Children from Advertising, discusses the effects of children introduced to ads. While interviewing Dale Kunkel, professor of communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Dittman and him discussed what effects ads have on children.

"That lack of adult interpretation is a concern because young children tend to accept ads as fair, accurate, balanced and truthful, Kunkel says. "They don't see the exaggeration or the bias that underlies the claims," he says. "To young children, advertising is just as credible as Dan Rather reading the evening news is to an adult.""

If there's anything to take away from Moon Shoes, it's that ad's, as clear as day to be fake to us, may be another part of reality to children. When the child sang, "Man these shoes defy gravity," it sounds like she really means it. Kids eat this stuff up, just as marketing has eaten up everything in the folds of the parent's wallets.