Half Dozen Dad

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Tech

Michelin Wants to Change the World by Letting the Air Out of Our Tires

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Michelin wants to change the world with the Uptis (Unique Puncture-proof Tire System) prototype. A tire that is so unique with its airless design that they may just do it.

The Uptis promises to forever eliminate the need to ever change a flat tire. It is completely impervious to flats and blowouts. This obviously makes for a safer tire but it goes much farther than that.

The airless Uptis means that air pressure does not need to be constantly monitored to create even wear. This means it should last longer with less maintenance. 

Michelin estimates 200 million tires are scrapped every year due to punctures, damage and uneven wear. That means 2 million tons of material is discarded on an annual basis. When the Uptis does eventually wear out, it can be retreaded so only a small portion of the tire is scraped. The replaced portion may even someday be 3D-printed in your local tire shop.

The Vision

The Michelin Uptis represents a major step toward achieving their innovative VISION concept of having airless, connected, 3D-printed and 100% sustainable tires.

“Uptis demonstrates that Michelin’s vision for a future of sustainable mobility is clearly an achievable dream,” said Florent Menegaux, chief executive officer for Michelin Group. “Through work with strategic partners like GM, who share our ambitions for transforming mobility, we can seize the future today.”

History

Over 15 years ago, Michelin introduced the Tweel, an airless tire for commercial applications. The Uptis creates the first version designed for highway speeds.

Michelin & GM Partnership

This summer, Michelin and GM will begin testing the Uptis on the Chevy Bolt. The factory version of the tire should be an option as early as 2024.

The choice of the Bolt as the first vehicle to use the Uptis intrigues me. Both are working towards solutions for the future but I know how much tires can affect the efficiency and range an EV’s.

When I asked, Cyrille Roget, Technical & Scientific Communication Director for Michelin states that “This tire is expected to have the same rolling resistance as a run-flat tire.”

Weight

An air-filled tire and wheel typically weigh around 46 lbs and a run-flat tire weighs about 51 lbs. The Uptis design weighs 49.6 lbs. Michelin expects overall vehicle weight with the Uptis to remain similar to traditional air tires given that the spare tire, jack and tire pressure monitoring systems TPMS) can also be eliminated.

This tire seems to have lots of promise to reinvent the tire for the generations to come. I am excited to see how it drives.

Disclosure: Michelin invited me to the Movin’ On Summit in Montreal, Canada where the Uptis was unveiled. Travel and accommodations were provided but all opinions are my own.

 

Is the Future of Driving Autonomous?

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Lately, there has been a lot of talk about how the future of driving is autonomous and that cars will soon be able to drive themselves. This week I have spent a lot of time with worldwide experts and prototypes at the Movin’ On conference in Montreal, Canada. I have also spent a lot of time with cars designed to drive themselves including Nissan/Infiniti’s Propilot Assist, Tesla’s Autopilot, Byton’s EV prototype (with front seats that rotate backward), self-driving transports (like the one below)and even taken a ride in Lyft’s autonomous rideshare service at CES. The technology is advancing rapidly but is the future of driving going to fully be autonomous?

Valeo Nauya self-driving taxi for Asian markets demonstrated at CES 2018

If you are like me, you like driving.  I enjoy the rush of accelerating in a sports car as much as any guy. I like the freedom that comes with being able to go anywhere at any time. I like being in control of what happens when I am behind the wheel. I love to drive!

Infiniti QX50 with ProPILOT Assist

I also love tech. I have always been an early adopter. I frequently preorder the latest gadget. I am usually the first person to beta test software and realize its strengths and weaknesses. I bought one of the first electric cars over 7 years ago and I use my adaptive cruise control almost daily in my current EV.

Does that make me the perfect candidate for a self-driving car?

I honestly don’t know. There are still so many questions about self-driving that still need to be answered such as what will be the standards of safety for the technology, a point that Hadi Zablit, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Alliance Renault Nissan Mitsubishi reinforced does not currently exist in his speech at Movin’ On.

Nissan LEAF with ProPILOT Assist

There is no denying that technology and cars are combining in a way they never have before. They have become computers on wheels. This gives them more capabilities than they have ever had before. They will continue to be able to take more and more control

The question really boils down to how much will we trust the car and the tech? I think that is precisely why all of the cars that I have driven have taken somewhat different approaches to their implementation of self-driving tech.

Different Approaches

I think that is precisely why every car company is taking its own approach towards autonomy. Some are taking a more cautious while others claim the future is almost here.

Tesla

When most people think of self-driving cars, they think of Tesla’s Autopilot system and videos of people doing nothing behind the wheel. Their tech is not yet supposed to be used this way yet but people expect it to be this way. Tesla buyers seem to be overly trusting of the tech.


Tesla wants to be the face of autonomous driving and states all over the news that they are pushing for full Level 5 self-driving (which means that the car can do anything that a human can do). They claim that a system when the car can take full control will be available in the not so distant future.

Tesla claims they can achieve this with their current camera and radar hardware they are shipping on their cars. They also claim that their vehicles will be fully driving themselves in the very near future, something that many skeptics believe is simply not possible.

Nissan/Infiniti

Andy Christensen, Sr. Manager at Nissan/Infiniti told me that Nissan is taking a bit of a different approach. Nissan wants to assist drivers and make their driving experiences better.

It feels like they are wanting to build that trust in the tech over time. They are in no hurry to take full control from drivers.

Infiniti QX50 with Autopilot

Andy told me that things like driving in snow will require driver intervention for quite a while.

Nissan current ProPILOT Assist is a Level 2 system that uses cameras and radar to keep you in your lane (through minor steering adjustments) and keep your distance from other vehicles. Honestly, it has done a great job of doing this Infiniti QX50 and the Nissan LEAF vehicle. It while being so mild that you barely know it is there.

ProPILOT Assist uses radar and cameras but Andy feels that a lot more hardware will be required for full Level 5 autonomy

Byton

Byton is a Chinese company that came out of nowhere to show off their electric vehicle prototype at CES in Jan 2018. The vehicle is still years away from production but they claim that it will come with seats that are designed to rotate rearward when autonomous driving is engaged enabling the driver to interact with passengers creating the road trip of the future.

Byton did not say much about how they were going to achieve autonomy, only that their cars would ship prepared for it.

Lyft

Finally, Lyft was driving passengers between the Las Vegas Convention Center and several of the casinos on the strip without driver interaction. You simply called for a ride through Lyft’s app and then the car showed up and took you to your destination. Under current self-driving laws, a driver still had to be sitting in the driver’s seat but didn’t have to drive the vehicle.

It was a very impressive demonstration that showed how easy it will someday be to simply request a car and get to your destination even without a driver.

Valeo and Navya are planning to implement self-driving taxis in Asian markets.

As the tech gets better, cars will be able to do more of the driving. The question becomes would you trust your life to the tech? Will you let it drive you by it drive you completely by itself?

For now, I’m just going to have to wait and see.

2019 Honda Odyssey: A Smart Home on Wheels

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Every parent knows that traveling with kids is a challenge. It doesn’t seem to matter if it is just down the street to school or a cross country road trip, having kids in the vehicle increases the stress level to the point that it is amazing that any family ever makes it to their destination safely. Honda is working hard to make sure that every family has a better and safer experience in their vehicles.

The 2019 Honda Odyssey Elite is no exception.


With having 6 kids, I thought I had seen everything. I was honestly shocked that Honda could solve issues I didn’t know I had. Let me explain…

I’m sure every parent on the planet has at some point sat their kid in front of the tv and tried to distract them for a while. I found out quite a while ago that somehow playing a DVD in the car silences kids from yelling “She touched me!!!”. What I didn’t know was that if you stream an entire season of Daniel Tiger on PBS kids using the Odyssey’s AT&T hotspot, that somehow they will start hugging each other and singing “Won’t you be my neighbor, won’t you be my friend?”

Now I know you might be saying “That’s great but my teenagers hate that show. What about them?” That’s where Cabin Control and Social Playlist come in. Honda has created an app that works with the built-in hotspot in the vehicle that goes a long way to letting those harder to please occupants think they are getting their way while still keeping your sanity.

Cabin Control has neat tricks like allowing them to control the second and third-row climate control system from the app and letting them send where they want to go to the vehicle’s navigation system (where the driver can approve or reject) from their phones. But Social Playlist is the really what my teens loved. It lets up to 7 different devices send songs to the vehicle which creates the ultimate random playlist with everyone getting something they like. I had no idea Social Playlist would cause my teenage son to take out his headphones and ask questions about my song selections.

Which brings me to CabinTalk. At home, when you call your kids, most families either yell for them or send a sibling to get them. If you have a smart home, you might use some sort of intercom system with Amazon’s DropIn to make your life easier. In most large vehicles, you end up yelling to the back row. Cabin Talk is an intercom system for the Odyssey. Simply hit a button and your voice comes through every speaker in the vehicle even if they are using the wireless headphones to stream Netflix so my son didn’t have to yell “Who is Vanilla Ice?” to inquire about my song choice.

CabinWatch is like an Arlo smart home camera for the car. Most parents will deem this as unnecessary until they realize that it lets you see when that sneaky little toddler maneuvers her way out of her car seat straps or drops her drink on the floor and doesn’t want to tell you. They can’t even hide their messes at night. I was surprised at how often we turned it on and much preferred it over the rear occupant mirror.

Most minivan’s today seat 7 or 8 passengers. With our full household, needing 8 seats is the norm. I will admit that with all 8 seats in the Odyssey, access to the third row is a bit cramped but it works. We also successfully put 3 narrow car seats in the third row allowing my 3 older boys to sit in the much larger second row. The boys weren’t cramped although the girls did complain that they struggled to see the tv over my basketball player sons.

Where the Odyssey’s seating configuration really shines is with 7 passengers. When not needed, the second-row middle seat easily lifts out to make room for the Magic Slide seats. With just grabbing a handle, the 2 second row bucket seats slide from side-to-side. In seconds you can separate your kids from picking on each other by creating two outboard seats or if you prefer, you can create a wide aisle down accessible from either power sliding door or narrow ones for little kids to get in the third row from both doors.

Now for the trunk…Provided you don’t have that removable 8th seat stored in the trunk, there is tons of space for even double strollers and I can’t say enough good things about the idea of Honda putting a ShopVac in the trunk so you don’t have to wait to take the van to the carwash to clean up those dropped french fries. My only minor complaint is that I wish it was designed so my kids could clean up their messes before I got involved but I guess Honda is all about safety (I could write another whole post about the safety features) and there probably isn’t a good way to make my wishes come true.

If you have read this far, you are probably getting the impression by now, that I love how Honda has made my life easier as a parent. Even if you are not typically a minivan parent, the Odyssey is worth checking out.

2019 Infiniti QX50: What a Crossover Should Be

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It seems like every few days, there is a new crossover on the market. With my attending probably a dozen crossover announcements over the last few months and with there already being a lot of them on the market, it is really hard to stand out in this crowded space.

When Infiniti invited me to Los Angeles to drive the all-new 2019 QX50 luxury crossover along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu, I was expecting to get some great pictures and to enjoy an ocean breeze. I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with the vehicle.

The way my schedule worked out, I arrived quite early so I figured I would get a sneak peak of the vehicle before everyone arrived. I was told I would find the vehicle on the roof of the La Peer Hotel and in typical Infiniti-fashion, they had used a crane to get it there.

My first impression was that it had a consistent look with other Infiniti vehicles, right down to the signature kink on the rear D-Pillar (the chrome zig-zag). Somehow, this vehicle seemed to wear it better than the rest of the family (shown below next to it’s bigger 3-row brother the QX60). It also felt sportier and a bit edgier.

It sounds a bit cliche but to me, it is the inside that counts. When you have a family, the best looking vehicle in the world won’t make it past my wife and into the garage if it doesn’t have the room to carry the family.

The QX50 blows away the competition with an interior that has more than enough room for a this 6’3″, 275lb guy. I honestly had to move the driver’s seat forward so I could touch the pedals.

The back seat did not dissappoint either. Car seats can make used of the sliding back seat that makes them easy to install.

A full-size bike even fits comfortably in the cargo area without removing the wheels. There is so much functional space that I wrote a lot more about it here.

Infiniti put the world first variable compression turbo engine in the QX50 (VC-Turbo). This new engine increases torque by 13 (280 pound-feet) and improves gas mileage by 35% (27 mpg highway) over the 2018 QX50.

It is really pretty impressive that it can constantly be changing the compression without the driver knowing that something very unique is happening under the hood. It is a very smooth driving experience.

Peak output is 268 horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 280 lb-ft of torque from 1,600 to 4,800 rpm. The VC-Turbo replaces the 3.7-liter V-6, which had 325 hp at 7,000 rpm and 267 lb-ft of torque at 5,200 rpm. What this means is the even though the old engine had more horsepower, the new VC-Turbo engine delivers it where it counts, at much lower revs. This makes it a lot of fun to drive around town.

I’m so impressed with this little CUV that it honestly would consider it for my own garage. It is worth checking out for yourself.

 

Tow like a Pro with GMC’s Sierra

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No one wants to see the first time I pulled a trailer. It was an absolute mess. I drove over curbs and couldn’t figure out why the trailer would always go in the opposite direction when I backed up. It is a miracle that I didn’t do any serious damage.

It turns out that I was not alone in my lack of towing skills. Even though 75% of light truck buyers tow, most have never had any training to learn the trailering skills. They pick it up by doing (as I have now done over the years) but still may not know all of the details that will help them tow safely. This is why I want to share the important skills that I picked up at the GMC’s Tow Like a Pro event in Saint George, Utah.

Know What You Can Tow

To many towing is about toys. I have to admit that I am no exception to that. With summer upon us, I’m already shopping for what “towable toys” will help my family spend time together.

GMC was thinking the exact same thing when they hitched up 25″ trailers loaded with two 4-seat Polaris RZR side-by-sides to the GMC Sierra 1500 Denali. After a brief introduction of how important it is to know the towing capacity of the vehicle and that the right hitch allows the trailer to sit level.

Our loads were already evenly balanced and well within the towing capacity of our Sierra 1500 Denali (9500lbs). GMC had even weighed the trailers with cargo on truck scales beforehand. While this is always recommended, it is not always convenient in the real world so Chris Carino, GMC Pickup’s Lead Development Engineer showed us how you can measure the space from the ground to the edge of the front wheel well while the truck is parked on a level surface. If this space doesn’t increase by more than a half inch when the trailer is attached, then the tongue weight is acceptable regardless of vehicle or load carrying capacity.

My tow vehicle had the 6.2L V8 engine along with every imaginable assist feature including a Trailer Brake Controller, Sway Control, Hill Start Assist, Autograde Braking, Tapshift, Trans Temp Gauge, and a Rear Vision Camera. Most of these features seemed like overkill for towing our 6,000lb load but I can definitely see how they could be useful in many situations.

The most challenging part of our 100-mile drive out to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes was not clipping anything in resort’s parking lot with our extra long trailers.

The truck handled the load with ease over city roads, at freeway speeds, while climbing inclines and even over a two-lane highway that was under construction. Only once did we feel the trailer “pushing” the truck as it came to a stop which was only because we neglected to put it into “tow mode” and let it know we had a load.

The mirrors on the truck surprised me a bit for a vehicle that is designed for towing. They did not extend as many do. GMC instead went with a compound mirror that does a decent job of letting you see the end of the trailer once they are adjusted properly.

The dunes were as amazing as you would expect. I’m definitely going to have to get a couple of RZR’s to carry my family of 8 and a tow vehicle that can safely tow them.

 

Mophie Juicepack Air for iPhone 7 Plus

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I purchased this product and all opinions are my own. I was not paid for this review.

I have always loved the latest tech and I use my phone A LOT! That is why I knew I had to have the latest Juicepack Air iPhone 7 Plus battery case from Mophie. Not only does it add battery life of my already long iPhone battery but it adds wireless charging to the iPhone so I will no longer get teased by my Android-loving friends.

Mophie Case

Case Selection

I have used Mophie’s battery cases in the past and was immediately disappointed that Mophie did not have a case for the iPhone 7 plus when it launched. They kept sending me emails that it was coming and that it was going to be amazing, so I decided to wait. Besides, I could not find any other cases that would incorporate wireless charging.

Battery

Unlike how Mophie has offered different size cases with varying battery capacities in the past, the only option now is a 2420mAh battery which doesn’t quite double the 2900mAh battery built into the iPhone.

Color & Finish

The only real option is color but the price I paid for being an early adopter was that Best Buy had not yet received all of the 5 different colors (black, rose gold, gold, navy and red) when I wanted to order. So I settled on black and also decided I should order one for my wife in the rose gold.

I was quite surprised when they arrived that the black is a matte rubbery finish yet the rose gold is a painted, almost glossy, finish. This drastically changes the look of the two cases. So much so that if I hadn’t known better I would have thought they were from two different brands. It also let to my wife disliking her case. The glossy finish always made her feel like it was going to slip out of her hands.

Size

The iPhone 7 plus is not a small phone. When you add this battery case to it, it more than doubles in thickness and weight. I recognize that any battery case will do that and it is not a big issue for me as I have big hands and huge pockets but for my wife it was just “too big”.

Mophie iPhone 7 Plus Size

Wireless Charging and Operation

Charging

I mentioned earlier how wireless charging was a key feature that I wanted to add to my iPhone. This case delivers that feature and does it well. Mophie uses that standard Qi protocol used by wireless charging Android phones so the same chargers should work. I bought Mophie’s Charge Force desk mount charger which uses magnets to hold the phone vertically while it charges. The magnets are very powerful and I have never had a fear of it falling off. The mount also has a sticky bottom if you want to keep it in place on you desk. It has enough weight that it won’t fall over even if you don’t stick it down though.

It definitely has a certain “coolness” feature to it knowing that my phone is charging and I didn’t plug it in. It feels like the future.

My biggest “charging” complaint is that Mophie still uses microUSB instead of lightning cables for iPhones. This means that if you need to charge somewhere where you don’t have wireless charging (like a hotel), you had better remember to bring a microUSB cable. This also prevents any use of wired headphones as you can’t use Apple’s lightning to headphone adapter.

Mophie Wireless iPhone 7 plus caseOperation

If you have ever used a Mophie battery case before, you are used to the lights on the back of the case showing how charged it is and the little switch that you enable to start charging your phone. This case still has the battery capacity light but the switch is gone!

This totally changes the way the case operates. The battery case is always on keeping your phone battery at 100% until the case dies. The concept works fine but on more than one occasion I have offered my wife my dead case to charge her phone without even thinking to check the battery lights on the back of the case.

As far as I can tell, the case operates this same way when it is being charged on the wireless dock too. You are only charging the case with the power from the dock, then the case charges the phone.

The Verdict

If you need extra battery capacity, the Mophie Juicepack Air Case for iPhone 7 Plus, is probably one of the best options on the market and it gives the added benefit of wireless charging. Unless you are in love with a certain color, I recommend staying with the matte black finish as it is much grippier and easier to hold.

Amazon STEM Club

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With 6 kids, I am always looking for new and exciting ways for them to learn. Amazon recently launched a subscription service that is designed to make my job easy. Amazon’s STEM Club sends an educational age-appropriate STEM toy every month for only $19.99. The service promises to pick only the best science, tech, engineering and math toys. They state they will be from “top trusted brands” and “from robotics to natural sciences there is always a new discovery on the way”.

Given that I have kids in all of Amazon’s age groups, I may have to try them all.

Can you Make Money Driving for Uber?

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Have you been wondering if you can make a good side income driving for Uber? As a father of six, I’m always looking for a good side hustle so I set out to see if Uber was a valid way to make some extra money.
electric car, ev, bmw, i3
People claim that they can’t make enough money to make a career out of driving for  Uber. I wanted to test it out for myself so I signed up as a driver. I love the idea of something flexible that parents can use to earn extra funds and still allow them to work around hectic family schedules.

Getting Started with Uber

The process to get setup with Uber was pretty simple. I signed up online then attended an in-person event to finish the process. They ran a background check, requested some documentation and a vehicle inspection. The entire process went fairly smoothly, despite the fact that I chose to use my electric car, a BMW i3 (more on that later).

Driving for the First Time

With the kids off to school, I put the Uber placard in my window, placed pepper spray in the driver’s door (just in case) and logged into the Uber Partners app on my smartphone to tell them I was ready to drive. Within minutes, I got a notification that someone wanted a ride. I accepted and used the GPS within the app to drive to the pickup location.
My first passenger was an older couple who wanted a ride to the train station, a short 14 minute ride of 7.63 miles and a fare of $14.06.
I can do this, I thought.

Safety

One of the biggest concerns people have about driving for Uber is safety. Will they be safe while driving? Since there have been a few high-profile news stories about Uber passengers getting violent, this seemed like a valid concern.
I didn’t find safety to be an issue. I met lots of very nice people and drove in areas I was familiar with.
I did take a few precautions. I kept mace in my door just in case and used a mount for my smartphone so I could stay handsfree.
I learned almost immediately that you MUST have some sort of mount to hold your smartphone in place. I honestly think Uber should make this part of the vehicle inspection. It is simply not safe to be looking at a phone for directions or where to pick someone up without a mount.
Proclip makes vehicle-specific mounts for just about any car and sent us one that was perfect for the i3 coupled with my iPhone. The mount even charges the phone and will accommodate a wide range of cases.
I always stopped driving by about 10pm so that I was taking people out for the night rather than bringing them home. So far I’ve avoided picking up an overly drunk passenger. I think this is a major part of the reason why I have never felt unsafe, but you do make more money if you are willing to drive later at night.

Flexibility

I loved the flexibility Uber offered. I was able to login to drive anytime I wanted and sign out anytime I was done.  I found that demand is always highest in the evenings on the weekends here in San Diego. I did try and schedule my driving around those times as much as possible because I knew that I would make more money driving during those times, but I was free to set my own hour and adjust them to fit my schedule.

Demand

Demand, while the kids are at school, was a lot more sporadic. I might give several rides back to back and then have nothing for hours. I also found that even though Uber is completely flexible with when I can log in and work, the end time is much more difficult to schedule as you never know where the next ride is going to take you. It might be right next to your kids’ school (which I had happened perfectly once) or your last ride might want you to drive them to the airport which could take hours so you want to make sure you aren’t on a tight time schedule while driving.
Overall, the experience was good and driving for Uber is something I think I’ll continue to do as my schedule allows time for it. I met some great people and it was a really interesting experience. I actually found that it was great for networking and as a work-at-home dad it was a great way to get out of the house.
Interested in driving for Uber? Sign up here. 

Super Bowl Ads with Kids

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UPDATE: USA Today’s Ad Meter ranked Hyundai’s Dad Ad as the #1 Super Bowl Ad of 2015

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_483zeVF8[/embedyt]

Every year I watch the Super Bowl with my kids. We enjoy lots of great food, cheer for our favorite team and laugh at the Super Bowl ads. This year, like last, I loved that most of the ads were very kid-friendly. There were no sleazy GoDaddy ads and not even the Pepsi ad of years past. This year it was KungFu Panda, weiner dogs running towards ketchup, a family sitting down for PizzaHut together and a dad watching out for his teenage girl on a date. It seems that the advertising companies are now trying to attract the attention of families.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouTeio9AzGQ[/embedyt]

As a parent, I laughed at the Doritos Ultrasound ad of a baby wanting to eat Doritos and was honestly intrigued by how many people it offended. I have snuck my kids all kinds of things before they were supposed to have it so the idea of an unborn baby wanting Doritos does not offend me.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugn_qmQ0NFo[/embedyt]

My 10 yr old son loved the T-Mobile “Drop the Balls” ad! He didn’t know anything about Steve Harvey’s Miss Universe mess-up. He just loved seeing all the balls overwhelm and make fun of Verizon as he has seen their ads.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI8YZdejPKg[/embedyt]

Let’s hope that media continues to be “kid-friendly”.