BabyCenter.com closed its online store yesterday in order to concentrate solely on digital media (and open the door to collecting more cash from retail marketers). As one of the site’s 1 million daily visitors, I can say this was a smart move. I’ve never gone to BabyCenter.com’s store, but I’ve tapped in to hundreds of pages of their content.

Ever since my little boy was a six-week-old embryo, BabyCenter.com has been sending me weekly emails filling me in on his latest developments (He’s the size of a lima bean! He has fingernails! He can hear your voice!).
Now that Isaiah is almost six months old, I still get weekly updates, and by the looks of things, the folks at BabyCenter don’t plan to stop until well into his middle school years.

And I don’t mind, not at all.

You see, the content is so relevant, it’s almost spooky. The week we decided Isaiah was ready for sleep training, BabyCenter delivered videos on how to carry out two different methods. The week we realized he needed solid foods, BabyCenter offered tips on getting the sweet potatoes in his mouth and not all over the mom. This week, it occurred to me that I should start baby sign language with him and whammmo: our “Month 5, Week 3” email features an article called “When and how to teach your baby to communicate with signs.”

I realize there is a commerce factor, and the tradeoff for the free sleep training video was a short ad from Johnson & Johnson (the folks behind the brilliance). But I didn’t even click “Skip” since the ad was actually showing me how to give a baby massage (using J&J’s lavender scented baby lotion, of course).

Years from now, when Isaiah reaches the end of BabyCenter’s timeline, I imagine the emails will be more along the lines of “How to explain hair in weird places” and “What to do if your kid gets the crap kicked out of him.”

But if the content remains as relevant as it is today, I’ll stick with them, even when they launch TeenCenter.com.

— Britta

It’s alarming to see how many brands my four-year-old son already recognizes, even out of their normal context.

The first one I can recall him parroting back regularly was, of course, McDonalds. No surprise there; Chicken McNuggets are the only meat product he consumes. (And, he only ate his first one because I tricked him by telling him it was a cookie.)

He’s never been formally tested, but my son must have outstanding vision because he can spot the Golden Arches from miles away. We can be motoring along and I’ll hear from the backseat, “Daddy, there’s McDonalds.” Sure enough, in a few minutes, one will appear on the horizon.

But he also knows the signs for WalMart and Publix, two stores we shop at each weekend. He knows Starbucks, Home Depot and Lowes. Amazingly, during the Eagles-Vikings game last weekend, he noticed that the halftime show was sponsored by Lowes,  seeing the tiny logo in the corner of the screen, something that had flown right past me.

The cynic in me also notes that he recognizes every Sesame Street character, especially Elmo, Grover and Big Bird, as well as Sponge Bob Squarepants, and anyone who doesn’t think that those critters are also brands is seriously deluding themselves.

What does all this marketing mayhem mean to a toddler? It’s really hard to say. On one level, he’s still at the age where he won’t remember anything and tomorrow is impossibly far away. On another, I can’t help but fear that now that the marketers have their meathooks in him, they are never letting go.

— Jonathan