• by Les Luchter , December 9, 2024

To help stem kid’s mental health problems before they start – and before online life starts to impact kids -- digital agency Nail Communications has gone analog by publishing a book designed for five- to six-year-olds.

“We talked to a child psychiatrist and asked what’s the youngest age we could introduce the idea of cognitive biases to kids, to help them learn how to think. We felt like we had to get to them before the phones did,” Nail Partner Alec Beckett tells Marketing Daily.

The result, created, written and illustrated entirely by Nail staffers, is “Mindy and Mind,” subtitled “A Girl and Her Thoughts.” It’s the first book creation in the Providence, RI-based shop’s 25-year history.

Nail put the book together after consulting with several psychiatrists and psychologists, Beckett says, because while “we are experts in behavioral psychology and spend a lot of time as strategic marketers thinking about how people think…we are not experts in this field.”

That field is cognitive biases.

“People in general don’t realize that their minds make mistakes,” Beckett explains. “That’s literally what a cognitive bias is – leaping to a conclusion that’s not true.”

“We are all getting manipulated by bad actors, whether they’re politicians or platforms or products,” he continues. “Our goal is to help people, starting with kids, learn to defend themselves against some of the manipulation that our industry sadly uses.”

Mindy herself puts that into layman’s terms in a video teaser: “My mind has a mind of its own. It gets mad about things it shouldn't. It gets scared of things it shouldn't….My mind can get me all worked up, but I've got a few tricks up my sleeve, so join the fun and see how my mind and I get through the twists and turns of our day.”

In the book’s first confrontation between Mindy and her Mind, the latter gets angry because the school bus driver is not playing the radio, declaring “She is a meanie!!!.” But, thinks Mindy, “I wonder if Mind was right to be so upset? I counted to ten and felt a little better.” Then, as she’s getting off the bus, the driver tells her, “I’m sorry I didn’t play the radio honey, it was broken.” The result: “Now Mind and I don’t decide that someone is bad or good just because of one thing they do.”

Nail is thinking of expanding “Mindy and Mind” into a book series, Beckett says, with each edition “featuring one particular cognitive bias. There could be dozens of them.”

While animated spinoffs are also a possibility (“we could make each of the little crises that Mindy has into an animated piece that might be sharable”, he notes), ” right now we’re thinking very analog – put a book in a kid’s hands and start there.”

If “Mindy and Mind” raises thoughts of the animated movie “Inside Out” and its sequel, both of which turn kids’ emotions into characters, that’s alright with Beckett. “’Inside Out’ is attempting to do a similar thing, to make kids think about their emotions and perhaps not be so much at the mercy of them. That’s very similar from a psychological standpoint to what we’re doing.”

“To get a kid to think that they can’t always trust their minds, they have to examine the decisions their mind is pushing toward them, and decide for themselves whether this is the right feeling or not,” he says.

Reaching older people with the message has already begun with the book’s appendix, which “basically explains the science behind the story, and also explains what cognitive biases are, and the ones we reference in the book. The idea is actually to help the parents, because they can be just as susceptible to this kind of manipulation as kids can be.”

Nail is promoting “Mindy and Mind” with a two-pronged digital campaign. Not only are parents of young children being targeted via Facebook and Instagram, Beckett says, but also the “marketing trade” via LinkedIn, “because we think marketers might find it interesting that we’re doing this sort of unusual tactic.”

“We don’t expect this to be a big hit, like a zillion books, but we do feel like it’s a great conversation starter and may be able to make people aware of some things that will help them and their families moving forward,” Beckett says.

The 52-page “Mindy and Mike” is available on Amazon for $9.99 in both print and digital versions. You can also flip through the entire book free at MindyandMind.com. But Beckett emphasizes that reading the book in print is part of the solution to the problem.

“Anybody who’s watched kids sort of be powerless under the spell of the phones, it’s nice to think that we might be able to give them some defense mechanisms to not be at the mercy of those digital platforms down the road.”