Monopoly’s meant to teach money and math, not plastic

This morning I saw a Monopoly game commercial which by itself isn’t so different. Although I suspect Monopoly hasn’t bought traditional advertising in a very long time. When is the last time you saw a commercial for Monopoly?

Then I listened a little closer and saw that this edition was actual the ‘electronic banking’ version of the game where players use a credit card style machine to track and count the money for them.

Why is this an upgrade to this game? Are we teaching our children early to use credit cards? Part of the reason my husband and I play monopoly with our children is for the experience of winning and losing money but most importantly -- counting money. Although I’m sure Monopoly’s newest version was well-intended (and just in time for the holidays), I don’t intend on buying it for my family!

Jean Chatzky, financial editor at NBC’s Today show, just wrote about this as well:

“We pay our bills online — often from work. Kids have no idea where our money comes from or how it moves. These new games just exaggerate those differences. When kids count Monopoly money, they not only get a lesson in math, they get the pit in their stomach when they are out of big bills and down to only $5’s and $10’s.”

Also spend a minute to click over to the site and see the tips she has for credit cards and kids.

-- Janet Tyler

News from the flight deck

We’ve had a pretty busy summer here at Airfoil. Our California office is well into its second year, we’re rapidly expanding our staff and we have several new clients on board.

Recently, we were very proud to announce the promotions of Tracey Parry and Eric Kushner to senior vice presidents. They are also now partners in the agency. I’ve worked with Tracey at a previous agency before we created Airfoil and I’m proud that she’s continued to be such an integral part of our success. Eric joined us shortly after we launched Airfoil and quickly made himself invaluable to our efforts.

We’ve also made several new hires, including Gayle Joseph as vice president in our B2B practice. We’ve known Gayle for several years and we’re glad she’s now on our team. Previously, Gayle was at Mullen Public Relations in Detroit.

Our California office, which I lead, has grown so quickly that we’ll be moving our offices soon to an expanded space. We have a full office and need more room for the hiring we have planned. (Want to join us ?)

We’re also excited to have several new clients with us, including Meraki, Plante & Moran, ProfileBuilder and BOSSdev.

-- Janet Tyler

Five communication tips I learned from my cat

While it’s generally impossible to understand why a cat decides in mid nap that it suddenly needs to dart to the laundry room, I have learned a few lessons that actually make some sense out of my kitten’s puzzling shenanigans:

1. Generally, you can’t get inside the mirror to figure out what the other cat in there is thinking.  The best you can do is reflect your own views and try to shape others’ observations with your commitment.

2. Jumping from the couch to the coffee table may require a smaller leap than you think—if you don’t want to slide right onto your face.  Be careful with big leaps and measure your objectives first so you know the true effort required.

3. Biting your nails only makes it harder to get a grip.  Taking action is the best way to overcome stress in your communications.

4. A purring audience can turn on you in a flash with biting reactions if you rub them the wrong way.  Understand your audience’s background, current hot buttons and level of understanding of your subject.

5. Any scrap of paper can become an intense focal point and ultimately be spread all over the place.  Be certain confidential information is secured, be careful of replying to all in e-mail—and of inadvertent replies to nested e-mail messages, and remember that anything you say to a reporter or that a reporter finds can be fodder for news coverage.

Now why is the neighbor’s dog hanging on the fence?

--Steve Friedman