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.