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Rugrat Marketing at Macworld

Kahney kids at Macworld

Yeah, those “exploited children” over at Gizmodo are my progeny. My wife took them down to Macworld to promote my Cult of iPod book.

She dressed our three boys in cardboard iPod costumes, and our daughter as a silhouette iPod dancer.

I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea, but it achieved its objective. They got their pictures in the paper, which absolutely thrilled them (Exploited kid one; exploited kid two), and she handed a flyer to the scores of people who snapped their picture.

Plus, the kids had a blast. Look at all the free crap they got. This is just a portion of it. My daughter separated hers out and stashed it away.

Macworld freebies

They got eight pairs of gloves, a ton of flashing Belkin necklaces, half-a-ton of stickers and pins, Postit pads, spring-loaded jumping frogs, badge holders, a gazillion pens, rubber wristbands, iPod covers, some cellphone cleaner thingies, etc., etc.

What was the best stuff they got?

Lyle (the youngest): “Candy.”

Olin: “Candy.”

Milo: “The wristbands, and candy.”

Nadine (the oldest): “The Yoyo, a mini Sharpie, a fish screensaver, a helicopter spinner and a squeezy stress ball. And candy.”

Here’s more of the little angels.

Exploited iPod kids -- getting ready to clean some chimneys!

Go to your spot!

Milo and Olin

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5 comments

    Haha… That’s kinda funny!

    So that’s who those kids were! I saw them as we exited the Metreon after the keynote… I happened to notice one of the boys wasn’t quite on board, but his sister talked him back into it. Looks like she’s a born leader.

    Oh Leander, Leander, Leander…I can’t believe you would do that to your own darling children. On second thought, I take that back.

    “Daddy, what does ‘pimping’ mean?”

    [...] forcing them to dress as iPods at Macworld* the little chickens aren’t in love with beautiful Apple [...]

    [...] hate to admit this, but my kids hate Macs. Despite forcing them to dress as iPods at Macworld* the little chickens aren’t in love with beautiful Apple hardware. Even though [...]

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