Editing 1470: Kix

This comic shows a possible brainstorming session over a marketing slogan for {{w|Kix (cereal)|Kix cereal}}, a breakfast cereal marketed to children. The cereal's actual slogan is "Kid Tested, Mother Approved", implying that kids enjoy the cereal and mothers, who are naturally concerned about the health of their children, approve of its ingredients. In this scenario, however, the word "Approved" has apparently not been considered. Instead, a number of alternative ending words and phrases have been presented and rejected.  Each word changes the meaning of the slogan in an increasingly comedic way as compared to the real slogan:

# '''Selected''': This word shares a definition with "Approved", and may additionally imply that mothers specifically choose this cereal over others. This word may have been chosen as a {{w|slant rhyme}} of "Tested". (Advertising slogans that contain simple rhymes tend to be more easily remembered than those that don't.) This phrase could also suggest that one mother ''herself'' had been chosen for some unstated purpose.

# '''Perfected''': It's likely that "Selected" inspired someone in the brainstorming session to find a similarly positive word.  It also mostly rhymes with "Tested", but it implies that one or more mothers were directly involved in developing and refining the cereal's composition to a high degree. (Similarly to "Selected", this could also suggest that the mother was somehow improved to perfection during the test.)

# '''Not Notified''': Relates to the world of experimental research and clinical trials. This phrase suggests that the children who tested the cereal did so without the written consent of their parents.

# '''Watching Helplessly''': This phrase suggests that mothers were forced to watch their children test the cereal remotely (eg. in a separate room or by video camera) and had no ability to interact with their children during the test, nor any say in the test's outcome.  They may have considered it unhealthy or dangerous, but their opinions were ignored.

# '''Infected''': Another rhyming word, but this one implies that the cereal (or some other element of the test) contained an infectious agent (eg. a virus) that was passed from the child to his or her mother. This could also be interpreted as the mother having introduced the infectious agent into the cereal or testing environment, or that the mother was {{w|brainwashing|brainwashed}} in some way during the test.

# '''Consumed''': One possible interpretation is that, whether or not the children in the study actually liked the cereal, their mothers ate it without necessarily stating any opinions on its quality.  Another interpretation is that the mothers were themselves consumed, perhaps by their children, the cereal itself, or something unrelated to the test (eg. a monster).

# '''Fucker''': This expletive is often paired with "Mother" to form the compound word "Motherfucker". In this case, the slogan changes to {{w|vocative case}}: "[This cereal has been] Kid Tested, Motherfucker!". This last option appears to be an "elephant" - a ponderous ending of a joke that contrasts with the comparatively refined and mild humor of the previous options. The phrase itself basically only states that a child tested the cereal and implies that nothing else is important.  

The title text conflates the phrase "Kid tested" with college entrance exams such as the {{w|Standardized Aptitude Test}} (SAT) or the {{w|ACT (test)|ACT}}. Instead of stating that a child tasted the cereal and gave his or her opinion on its quality, the cereal itself is an academic subject on which the child was tested (again, without stating the outcome). Randall, referring to how some parents enroll their children in special {{w|test prep|classes or schools}} to prepare them to score well in this type of test, states that his parents enrolled him in schooling to prepare him to do well at a "Kix test". In this case, Randall is poking fun at the somewhat ambiguous wording of "Kid Tested" - the authors of the original slogan could have used a hyphen between the words ("Kid-Tested") to avoid this ambiguity, but this was not done.

:[Ponytail, Megan, and Cueball are standing around a whiteboard. The whiteboard on easel reads:]

:'''Kix'''

:<u>Slogan ideas</u>

:<font color="red"><strike>Selected</strike>

:<strike>Perfected</strike>

:<strike>Not notified</strike>

:<strike>Watching helplessly</strike>

:<strike>Infected</strike>

:<strike>Consumed</strike>

:<strike>Fucker</strike></font>

[[Category:Comics with color]]