Hogtown the Hip? Or Ironic?

There was an article in yesterday's G&M about Toronto's latest campaign - something about TO comparing itself to NY. The description of the campaign was:

" ...Mr. Thompson was particularly galled by an ad that shows a man preventing a pregnant woman from getting into a taxi because another man had been waiting longer. The first man tells the woman, who appears to be his partner, "To be fair, honey, he was here first," and the caption below the photo reads, "Toronto. Nothing like New York. Except for the Theatre."

"Any male in Toronto would have stood aside and offered the taxi, even if they were there first," said Mr. Thompson, who missed the irony of the ad: that Torontonians are ridiculously polite in contrast to New Yorkers, yet their city still offers top-notch theatre."

(Source - Globeandmail.com, Jan 27) More here.

Now, I think the people who are getting all hyper about this are not the target market. The target market for this campaign is (in my opinion of course), urban Americans, within driving distance from the border who are affluent and value things like culture, the arts and are slightly left leaning. This also includes a gay demographic fitting the above mentioned traits. These people have money to spend on weekend trips and the theatre and are interested in seeing what we have up here in Hogtown. The ads mock our polite nature with a tongue in cheek reference to it, which isn't a bad thing. When people come to TO they find good food, some theatre and other attractions with a supposedly nicer feel (don't mention that to Jane Creba's family though).

Ultimately, while we navel gaze and get all red in the face defending / deploring this campaign, I guess the truth will be in the tourist rates. Because at the end of the day, advertising is about changing behavior and the behavior that should come from this campaign is more tourists and more tickets / hotel rooms sold.

So, while we wait to see if this makes a difference in tourism rates, lets remember that Rome wasn't built in a day and tourism won't bounce back overnight.

I got Tagged!

So this is what happens when you post your Blog on Hitched.ca. I got tagged by Tabitha (aka Ms. Teacher) in what can be described as blog-chain-tagging. I can't promise that I'll pass it along but I will play along and post the '5 interesting things you had no idea about me'. Party pooper? sometimes ;-)

1. I know how to belly dance. And would love to learn how to tap dance.

2. My first Machiavellian moment was when I convinced my younger siblings to cover for me when we got busted egging a house. I bribed them with the promise of a chocolate bar each (big money when you're 7), and they held tight. And had to clean egg off of brick. Hee. I did finally pay up about 6 years ago.

3. Yeah - I went to band camp too. And loved it.

4. While I've done my share of stupid stuff, the only thing I really regret is not going to Canterbury High School when I was 13. I didn't want to lose my friends, and I lost them anyway. I think I would have been much better off at the arts school, where I would have fit in a bit better.

5. I have dual citizenship - Canadian and British. YAY for the EU.

If I tag anyone, it'll be BellyDancingBabe, but I need to find her blog first. ;-)

Cannes 2006 Advertising Ads

So, a couple of weeks ago I went to see the 2006 Cannes Advertising awards at the Bytown Theatre here in frigid Ottawa. I went with the MB gang, a bunch of writers, designers and general advertising geeks. Normally K would join me - we're advertising geeks, regularly sending each other links to the strange / good / bad / ugly ads on the web, and his presence was missed. I didn't have him to make comments to, so M had to bear with me.

There were good ads and meh ads, but the commonality between those ads that I deemed good, was that I felt something. Humour mostly, but sometimes heartache. The one that is still with me is for a kids help line, where an elderly woman is visited by her daughter in a home. The mother is obviously suffering from Alzheimer's, and the daughter approaches the mother and her nurse. The daughter greets her mother, and the mother replies "We have to hide under the bed". The daughter asks why, and the mother replies, with her eyes far away that "Father will be home soon." The tagline pulls up: "An abused child never forgets." Devastating. It slays me and gives me chills. I looked on YouTube, with no luck, but if someone finds the link, please let me know. An ad like this made me feel, and think and got its message across in a thousand and one ways.

So - does good advertising mean that the marketing goals are accomplished? In an ideal world, yes, but I don't know if that happened with the Cannes 2006 winners. Maybe. Maybe someone new reached for a Guinness after watching the Grand Prix winner, but then again, maybe an ad agency was able to show off a new award, bump up the portfolio and make some money.

Multi-posts

Grak! I've been a bad blogger and haven't felt like writing even though I have HEAPS of ideas. So - bear with the multiple postings today and maybe tomorrow. I promise there may be something interesting in here. ;-)

Ups and Downs in job hunting

Hm. I think the glee of not working has officially worn off. Today I'm feeling a bit messy. Kinda restless and tired all in one uncoordinated package. It sucks.

Accomplishments include working out pretty much every day this week. Disappointments include falling into "the schedule" - you know the one - where you stay up late and sleep in and never really feel rested or tired. It's an awful way to feel. On top of that, I'm not having trouble finding jobs to apply for (between Halifax / St. John's, Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver, there are marketing positions worthwhile applying for), but it's the actual crafting of the letter and tweaking of the resume that I keep stalling on. I'm incredibly disappointed in myself.

And writing a blog entry, while therapeutic, is not exactly helping me find a job... *sigh*.

Fancy-shmancy new 'do!

Hee. I got a new haircut, and who knew that bangs could make such a difference.

Before: (somewhere early Jan 07)









After:

I think the last time I had bangs was in 1992 when you were supposed to tease & spray them within an inch of your life.

Another stream of poem

I look at your picture
and the future
and the past
are all right there.
This is so right.
I'm home.

A case of the Mondays?

Can you have a case of the mondays if you don't have a job?

Today I feel blah. Blah blah ablha. I'm a bit down - no job, no motivation, no obvious changes in weight since I started working out / taking better care of myself. Nothing. I know things will be ok, but today it's under my skin.

The good things - it's snowing - which isn't normally considered good, but seeing as its our first snowfall of the winter, it's good. My relationship is phenominal. We have the best pets in the world. I never exagerate ;-). I'm going to go shovel some snow - maybe that'll help my mood.

A love poem

As I bury my face in the towel
I smell your shaving cream
and love you all the more

psychobabble

Oooh. I should write more. The lament of a universe of bloggers I'm sure.

I don't think I've fully mentioned it on here, but I'm unemployed. Yup - lost my job two weeks before Christmas. Shitty timing, no? So, I'm fighting back in my own way, and hopefully there will be some justice. Or, if not, hopefully it stresses the ex-employer out like he stressed me out.

Job hunting while unemployed is interesting - it's easier for sure - there's less 'work' in the way, but I find time is slippery when you're unemployed. Yesterday for example - the time slipped away and I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to. I did however get a tae-bo tape in and showered, so I'm not in full recluse mode yet. I just find it off that all of a sudden I've lost 6 hours and have made no headway in my search for employment. I also create 'rules' for myself. Like I need to get so and so done before I can do something fun like crafting or watching TV or playing Xbox. And then I procrastinate, not meeting my goal and not getting my reward. It's like this self-reward-punishment thing going on.

I've also been thinking more about the essence of self-esteem. While self awareness is important, I think self esteem falls on either divide of self awareness. I'm betting that makes no sense. Let me explain. With zero self-awareness, it's easy to believe one is great or not great - you don't know about yourself and therefore what you think is reality (by extension, that's true in general for our whole existence, but hold on). With self awareness, we understand how we affect and are affected by the environment around us. We understand ourselves better and with that our good and bad traits. I think it's this knowledge that provides us with true self esteem - because through understanding comes affection and (without sounding too self-love-hippy like) it's easier to be confident in oneself when you generally like and understand who you are. Does that psychobabble make sense? Maybe - I'm no psychologist. At the end of the day, I think treating yourself well comes out of being self aware and valuing yourself. Something I know I need to work on.

Random Saturday Post - Cocoa thoughts

Delish is a mug.

1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp splenda
milk - to mix the above into a paste
boiling water - to fill the mug
marshmallows - 'cause they're yummy.
add in that order and you have something that solves the chocolate / sweet craving and isn't too bad for you.

Other than that, there's not much to post. Yesterday's meeting went well, although it's left me feeling drained today. Saw my girls for breakfast today which was lovely, and snuck a walk in then. Also managed to work out / watch a movie in the basement tonight which I'm kinda proud of actually. Day by day, right?

Sweet Relief

Phew. Tylenol + acclimatizing (or something) means a bit of relief.

The feeling after pain is something that fascinates me. I remember the seconds of relief after the end of a cramp when I was younger - it was like drinking sweet cool water throughout my entire body, and now that my headache is subsiding, I feel the same way.

Pain makes me appreciate how I feel when I'm not in pain. It leaves me in awe, and thankful and a bit humble. And somewhat philosophical.

Headboomer

Holy crap - my skull is aching to split. If none of this makes sense, it's cause I feel like there's a hammer in the right side of my skull. Happy times.

My theory when it comes to headaches is that I am a human barometer. There's a shift in the weather coming and literally, it's all in my head first. It seems like the really dramatic shifts in weather affect me the worst - this headache started yesterday morning and today is at a dull roar. Tomorrow Ottawa is supposed to get rain.

The skeptic in me is convinced this is a chicken and egg syndrome. I have headache and predict the weather or the weather shifts, I learn about it and psychosomatically give myself a migraine. Who knows. Just make the pain stop so I can get some work done.

New Years - Take 2

Ok, so I started a New Year's post, but didn't finish it because I guess it didn't feel genuine. Meh, oh well. What I wanted to say earlier was that 2006 was a big year - a difficult year that forced me to grow up, but when I look back at it, even though most people would say it sucked, I feel gratitude for having lived through it. The changes that I've experience have made me a calmer, happier person. Not to say I'm perfect, but I'm starting to feel more comfortable in my skin again. finally. phew.

So, with anti-resolutions in place, here's what I want to accomplish this year:

Since I'm turning 30, I'd like to drop some of the weight I've carried in my 20's both figuratively and literally. How am I going to accomplish this? day by day. I think committing to something day by day will help me make the changes I need to do. I'm going to try to use blogging as one of those tools (just like millions of others ;-)).

I'm going to work on my self esteem. I think it's taken a bit of a beating in the last 18 months and I've reflected how I feel about myself in the way I've treated my body and health. Gaining weight, making excuses not to exercise, eating more than my body needs, all of it a way to make the outside ugly, like I feel on the inside. Well - enough of that I say.

Day by day I hope to make small changes in how and what I eat, the WHY I eat and reform my behavior to reflect the person I am inside. Day by day I want to become more active, whether it's doing the silly Tae-bo tapes I found in the garbage or learning to enjoy running with the puppy or getting K to do yoga with me in the basement. (ok, that may be a bit of a challenge)

As for other 'resolutions' - meh. I hope to learn more, be a better person / friend / spouse / pet-parent (in no particular order) and to expand my horizons (not my pants ;-)).

Oh - and I hope to find a fulfilling job - since the fates have opened up other opportunities for me.

Happy New Year everyone.