Donna Barker Communications

Oh happy day! A vaccine article in the New York Times I can challenge!

All you readers who say you want to scream when people like me challenge the vaccine status quo – I await your comments with great anticipation. Don’t hold back. I’m itchin’ fer a fight.

So the headline of the article in question is:

A Dose of Potent Advice: Don’t Mess With Tetanus

Very cute play on the extremely effective Don’t Mess With Texas public education campaign. Continue Reading »

Apparently, Canadians are more skeptical as a culture than Americans. I wonder what that’s about, what the difference can be traced back to.

Could it be that although we are a capitalist society, our socialist values lead us to question authority more than our southern neighbours?

Maybe it’s the influence that the French culture from Quebec has on all Canadians who live in a country that allows one province to have its own Constitution and legal system. Maybe that makes us all more inclined to see and accept many angles of any story.

Could the way we accept new Canadians into our country, as bringing new ideas as opposed to creating a melting pot, be influencing our collective skeptical nature? Continue Reading »

If the conservative faction of Americans who get all excited about babies rights want to do something really worthwhile with their energy and money, I propose they change their focus from preventing abortion to getting stricter pollution laws passed.

According to a new report by the Environmental Working Group, Body Burden: The Pollution in Newborns : Continue Reading »

New York Times today. Headline: Food Industry Defends Marketing to Children.

ABOUT 350 food company executives, government officials, consumer advocates and academics packed a meeting room at the Federal Trade Commission’s offices yesterday to discuss a wide range of issues on marketing food to children.

Amazingly, neither the government nor industry reps were in favour of government regulations. The industry, with the blessing of the Federal Trade Commissioner, has its own 5 person self-regulation organization called the Children’s Advertising Review Board, or CARU. According to the CARU website: Continue Reading »

Don’t expect this will be making mainstream news. From a marketing e-newsletter I subscribe to:

NEW YORK — GOT MILK? the catchy trademark of the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB), will soon appear on men’s boxers and baby clothes sold in Wal-Mart and other major retailers.

GOT MILK? will be cross-licensed with character properties such as Cookie Monster, Garfield and the Pillsbury Doughboy. GOT MILK? designs will be sold through Wal-Mart. Plans call for expansion into women’s apparel via Target Corp. within the next six months.

Cutie Pie Baby, New York, will feature GOT MILK? on baby and toddler apparel, including bodysuits, burp cloths, bibs and blankets and on select hardgoods such as baby bottles and sippy cups. The line will retail at Babies “R” Us, Buy Buy Baby, Baby Depot and Macys.com beginning in September. Continue Reading »

I’ve always been naturally inclined to question authority – especially when that authority (be it my own parents, a doctor, politician, or teacher) tells me I need to do something that doesn’t feel right to me.

So, when Adisen’s kindergarten teacher, at our very first parent-teacher meeting informed us that Adisen was a challenging child to have in her class, that daily he interrupted her lectures with commentary that made other kids laugh, and that unless we “changed his personality” he would have trouble through his school years, I started to look into what the characteristics of a “good” personality for a 5-year old are. I mean, there would be no point in changing his personality to another “wrong” or “bad” personality, right? Continue Reading »

There are some really smart and well-educated folks out there blogging about the avian flu! If this is a subject that intrigues you, you can see several arguments to my post from yesterday and the day before both in the comments at my blog and at the following links (all of the comments are different, although there are some folks who are responding at more than one site). I promise you, you’ll learn at least one new thing. Continue Reading »