IABC rubs elbows with Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky

The latest Toronto IABC event e-mail was sent out today and I browsed over it thinking that the holiday event was an awesome idea. Who wouldn't love celebrating the holiday season at an authentic Russian bar stocked with over 70 different types of vodka?

I kept reading the brochure that was sent out and finally came to the bottom where something seemed a little odd. The tag line for the event read "Join the Communist (cator) party" with the 'st' crossed out and 'cator' written in.

I've got two issues with this:

1. Communism isn't really something to joke about - especially not where Russia is concerned. They've got a long and somewhat ugly history with communism.

2. There's a Communist Party of Canada. Why cause confusion by seeming to endorse the party?

I'm assuming that someone on the design team was trying to be cute and play with Pravda's tag line (Join the communist Pravda vodka bar party - with communist crossed out)but, in my opinion, it failed miserably. I'm left wondering at the appropriateness of using that as a tag line and whether or not the IABC is sending out exactly the message that they want to be sending. Perhaps IABC should think their tag lines out a little more carefully for next time.

As they say in Russia, chtob vse byli zdorovy!

Mustangs stampede the Vanier Cup

The Vanier Cup is the crown jewel of Canadian University football. This was the first year that I attended, mostly because it's been a while since Western has made it.

I was really impressed with the level of management that I saw at the game. Ontario University Athletics (one of the organizing bodies) had its own event management staff present and so did the Ivor Wynne Stadium, Western, and Laval. The city of Hamilton even had a presence with their boys in blue.

It was a good thing that the police were at the game; over 16,000 people attended and a few of the fans did get a little out of hand. I witnessed a Laval fan waltzing over into the Western side of the seating and harass some of the Western fans so much that a beer bottle was chucked at his head (yes, it did connect).

All in all, the crowd was controlled really well by all of the event management staff around the stadium. The game went smoothly with only a few small hiccups that weren't even noticeable enough to make the news. It just goes to show that after 43 years, they've got it down to a science.

Dance Piper, dance!

Many people are familiar with the Brothers Grimm story, the Pied Piper of Hamelin. What a lot of people don't know is that it's based off a true story from Hamelin, Germany, dating back to 1284.

Interestingly enough, history seems to be repeating itself. Hamelin is experiencing a boom in the rat population unfortunately, the Pied Piper has yet to show up. An abandoned garbage dump has fostered a burgeoning population of rats, which are now flooding into the city and causing problems.

Ironically enough, the 725th anniversary of the Pied Piper is coming up soon and with the city finally admitting that they have a rat problem, maybe they're hoping that the Piper will show up again to help out?

I can't really criticize Hamelin about their image; the city is famous for having a rat problem. I guess I can only hope that the city pays the Piper this time.

Cities against Toronto? Jealous, jealous, jealous!

Toronto is the city that everyone loves to hate, right? Wrong! Since November 2007, the Toronto Star has been running a column called Acts of Kindness that highlights random acts of kindness that are "committed" around the GTA. Articles are submitted by readers who want to share any acts that have happened to themselves or someone that they know.

After reading last month's stories, I started wondering why David Miller doesn't try to capitalize on this column and use it to improve the image of Toronto? Toronto as a brand is recognizable world-wide and positively received, so why is it that the opinion of Toronto within North America is so negative?

I guess it doesn't really matter right now. What does matter is that nothing is being done to make the brand image a more positive one or to find out why Toronto has become the butt of so many jokes.

Coke sells its soul for a polar bear

Coke is starting a campaign in honour of its mascot - the polar bear! Coca Cola has pledged to donate $100,000 dollars to World Wildlife Fund this holiday season to help protect polar bears and their arctic habitat. Sounds awesome, right? I thought so too until I noticed an asterix after the $100,000 on the site, so I scrolled down and found this:

"If 1,400,000 are entered at iCoke.ca between 12:00:00am EDT November 1 – 11:59:59pm EST December 31, 2008, Coca-Cola Ltd. will make a $100,000 contribution to polar bear conservation efforts. PIN under cap = 500 iCoke Coins. PIN expires November 1, 2009."

Pardon me? An ultimatum? How ridiculous is that? If you crunch the numbers, then Coke is only donating $0.06 per 591mL bottle or 12 pack of Coke sold!

Coca Cola is a large corporation and can definitely afford to be donating $100,000 to World Wildlife Fund without consumer support, never mind having to put a condition on the donation so that they can afford the donation. Coke is trying to generate good press for themselves by what appears to be a charitable gift, when in reality they are still making a profit off this deal and saving face. I think if people become aware of the conditions placed on this donation, there will be negative backlash against the Coke brand which will ultimately hurt the brand and potentially even the World Wildlife Fund brand also.

For shame, Coke, for shame.

[UPDATE: Analysis of post-campaign now posted here!]

Hello iceberg! Government of Canada makes warfare a game

I was watching tv last night and I saw a commercial that I thought was for a new war game. Imagine my surprise when the poppy coin logo came up and the announcer advised me to "keep the memory alive" by keeping a poppy circulation coin.

I sat there stunned for a minute before I could really process that this was a serious ad to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. I have to wonder who was asleep at the PR wheel for this one. I also have to wonder what the government was thinking when they approved the release of this ad. I'm guessing that they're trying to reach younger audiences and thought that video games were the way to go?

A completely CGI commercial gives the whole experience a surreal feeling and, in my opinion, makes a mockery of this historic event. Who knew the Government of Canada held our veterans in such low regard?

The Body Shop

I was recently sent an invite to join a group on facebook, encouraging me to boycott the Body Shop for ethical reasons. I have to admit that I was a little confused at this point. The Body Shop is the most ethically-based company that I can think of. So I did a little research and came up with some disturbing results. It turns out that The Body Shop was bought out by l'Oreal in 2006.

If Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop, were still alive today I would love to ask her why she sold her company to one whose values so clearly clash with her own. First and foremost, The Body Shop is against animal testing. Period. The company was founded with the belief that animals shouldn't be subjected to testing for the development of beauty products. Roddick also believed that the beauty industry put too much emphasis on being perfect and that the industry should instead focus on enhancing the natural beauty of women.

Where are those values now? The Body Shop's site still preaches that animal testing isn't condoned by The Body Shop, but its parent company still uses it so how can this be? The severe clashing of brand values brought Anita Roddick under fire after the selling of her company but it didn't seem to make a difference. The sale still went on and despite initial protests, the sales for The Body Shop are close to their pre-sale values.

I guess you could say that selling her company was a smart move money wise on Roddick's part, but was it worth it when you take into account the damage that it caused to the brand, was it really?