Sunday night: the little boys went to bed around 7:30 pm. The bigger two, six and eight, stayed up until halftime of the AFC Championship game. When you’re that age 8:30 is a treat because it’s late. (I’d gladly take it, but for other reasons.) As we were heading upstairs I pointed over to the kitchen table.
“Do you guys see what you get to do tomorrow after your schoolwork?”
Both responded with exuberant, yet quiet, demonstrations. (They knew to not wake up their younger siblings.) On the dining room table I had laid out their requested coloring sheets from Derek DeYoung’s contest. One chose the trout, the other chose the tarpon. Knowing them, they had already planned out how they were going to approach the activity. Colored pencils, markers, or watercolors; realistic from a reference photo or out of their imagination.
They enjoy these kinds of things. And they learn about fish, the environment, and conservation from these kinds of things. And to be honest? They learn about brands, initiatives, and products from these kinds of things. As their father, I’m okay with that. Because I’m raising them to keep it all in perspective.
Here’s what I mean:
A few weeks ago my boys participated in another coloring contest. This time, West Mountain Drifters of Boise, Idaho, had put out a call for kids to color a picture of a sea run cutthroat trout. They partnered with the Searun Cutthroat Coalition, which is a conservation organization. They also partnered with Redington and Simms, which are companies who create, market, and sell fly fishing gear. Redington, Simms, and West Mountain Drifters themselves offered up prizes.
I never once felt duped, bamboozled, or bait-and-switched as my kids furiously scribbled with their crayons.
We talked about searun cutthroats. We talked a lot about our local searun brook trout. We even got online to look at the prizes that the boys could win. We never felt, at least I never felt, like we were being used in some nefarious marketing scheme.
Why was that? Probably because we weren’t.
Redington, Simms, West Mountain Drifters, and the Searun Cutthroat Coalition probably appreciated the clicks and likes that this promotion produced from my and other families. The fact of the matter is, my boys colored trout and walked away with some more knowledge than they did before they brought Crayola to paper. I don’t think I’m being naïve when I say that every one of those companies would be satisfied with that.
Do they want to sell stuff? Of course. Could you make the argument that they’re “getting them while they’re young and impressionable?” Sure. But a kids’ coloring contest is a pretty benign way to do it. Or, these fly fishing companies aren’t exactly Joe Camel.
Across the fly fishing industry and community, there are a lot of things that blur the line between public service announcement and commercial advertising. Reason being, the labels that sell rods, reels, and bobbins are the same people with the money to take these initiatives. Of course, there are some examples of blatant pandering and sentimentality-groping sales tactics. But by and large, there is an honest spirit of camaraderie and congeniality sprinkled with an explicit “click here!” mantra.
And in my opinion, if you can’t distinguish between the two: it is on you.
As for me? We’re going to keep coloring fish. We’ll get excited about prizes. We’ll even daydream about new waders and stickers. But we’ll also learn about the life cycle of a fish that doesn’t swim anywhere near us. We’ll use that as a springboard to learn about the fish in our backyard. And while we wait to see who won the aforementioned prizes, we’ll eagerly await the next contest, the next opportunity, and the next chance for something fun.
Interested in the contests and brands/companies I mentioned?