Save the Children from this musical atrocity!

[Dale]

http://www.chiffandfipple.com/musicalabuse.htm

[Walden]

sad

[emmline]

Dale, I agree. It's horrific. Appalling.
You must be the arbiter of the correctness of my notion, and I'll remove the following info if you think it's inappropriate. But it's online anyway.

I propose a Chiff & Fipple Outrage Campaign.

Here is some contact info I googled:

The Publisher

Grandreams Books Ltd./4 North Parade/ Bath, BA1 1LF UK. It is also available from Grandreams Books, Inc. 360 Hurst Street Linden, NJ 07036

A Person (that is to say, I don't know if this is the guilty party, but perhaps she could direct our contacts)

Cristina Galimberti
123 MEDIA LTD - MEDIA AND PUBLISHING CONSULTANCY
23 Haverstock Road
Bristol BS4 2DA
UK
Tel / Fax +44/117/977 9871
e-mail cristina@grandreams.co.uk
Publisher of children's activity sets, board books, puzzle books and story tapes.

We can be nice. Just suggest a redo.

[Norma]

At least it's some consolation that it's on the discount table! Maybe they are not producing this package anymore?

[FJohnSharp]

The marketing people have all the clout.

"We have to make it smaller."

"Why?"

"Because it wont fit in this nice package we designed and showed to focus groups who said they'd buy it by the millions."

"But, we can't make the whistle smaller."

"Why not?"

"Because it will sound bad."

"And?"

"And it will drive lemmings from cliffs and soccer moms to murder."

"That can't be blamed on us, can it? Let's ask legal."

"Plus no one will want to play it."

"We don't care if they play it. We only want them to buy it."

[Wombat]

I don't know which, if any, false advertising laws might be applicable, but if it's described anywhere in the package as a D whistle or a C whistle or any other recognisable kind of whistle then presumably that would be misleading, or to put it less euphemistically, plain false. Marketing it as a musical instrument is pretty misleading to start with.

[TelegramSam]

Hahah, I saw a bunch of those things on the bargain table at barnes & noble yesterday. 75% off. Might still not be worth it.

[Bretton]

"The horror..."

[peeplj]

It would be better had the publisher simply listed places you could buy a Meg or a Sweetone.

When parents hear their kids play this here are some of the things they might think:

--it's a toy so of course it sounds bad. And the next time they see a real whistle in a store, they won't buy it for their kids, because they think they already know how bad it sounds. This is the Plastic Recorder Phenomena.

--my child has no musical talent, so I'll never spend the money to get him or her a real instrument; if it's gonna sound that bad, there's no point

--"Mommy, where's my whistle?" "Here, go play with this nice football instead! Mommy has a headache."

Anyhow, that's about as good a rant as I can come up with right now. Lemme get some coffee in me and I can do better.

--James

[Jeferson]

It happens all over the place. Sad, really. Has anyone driven a Kia?

Jef

[Jens_Hoppe]

My god! That would be hilarious, if it wasn't so sad... That being said, I feel a bout of WhOA coming on.

Jens

[antstastegood]

It's a conspiracy.

[TonyHiggins]

I'm sure the good people of Miltown-Malbay can put out right decent music with these things. It's a matter of being born to the music. I keep one on the mantle piece for when my banjo-accordian band members drop by.
Tony

[Paul]

One thing's certain- somebody somewhere got paid. Hopefully this thing will only be a one-time deal. If T-Sam saw them in B&N on the bargain rack in Athens, GA. I'm sure they have infiltrated every corner of the American universe. Shame really.

BTW, Sam, my little sister is studying orchestra there (UGA). I told her about the comment you posted a while back about throwing rocks at trashcans for fun in Athens and she almost died laughing. She could relate completely.

-Paul

[Nanohedron]

We are in the hands of philistines.