Please Don't Punish The Artists

Angry. Seething. Incensed with a side of outraged, and a generous sprinkling of righteous indignation on top.

Fringe Theatre Adventures' decision to reject Daniel Hughes as a volunteer, with a form letter, and an icky token offer of, well, a token, was appalling, unforgivable and revealed a fundamental gap in their understanding and valuing of volunteers humans.

It upsets me that I cannot volunteer at the Fringe this year as I have many years ago as a friendraiser greeting people....
Posted by Daniel Hughes on Saturday, July 4, 2015

It showed a disturbing able-ist mindset within the organization, one which might not be shared by everybody connected, but by enough people that it influences policy.

And since the Fringe Festival gets thousands of unpaid hours every year from their volunteers, the philosophy of "treat them better than gold" should not be rocket science.

Apparently for some it is. Whoever was at the helm of their social media doubled down with the contradictory statement, "The Fringe is an inclusive organization that provides many opportunities for people with disabilities to volunteer," ironically after conclusively proving that they are not.

The Fringe is an inclusive organization that provides many opportunities for people with disabilities to volunteer where...
Posted by Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival on Sunday, July 5, 2015

This was followed by one of the worst, most diminishing statements I have ever seen by Executive Director Jill Roszell (and as a communications professional, I actually study this stuff).

I am on holidays right now and this will be my only response to this until I get back. Please realize that like many...
Posted by Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival on Sunday, July 5, 2015

Seething anger. Seething.

The community came unglued. (I am still looking for some crazy glue to reassemble myself.) And rightfully so. This was a horrible situation that was terribly handled.

An apology was demanded. And finally, it came:

Dear Edmonton Fringe Family,Today the Fringe was not at its best. There are things that we need to take responsibility...
Posted by Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival on Sunday, July 5, 2015

For the record, it is a great example of what they should have said in the first place. The Fringe took full responsibility for their mistakes, weren't defensive in the least, and promised to not only fix the problem but keep the public informed as to how exactly they are going to fix it.

Whether they accomplish that goal remains to be seen. And we, as the public, need to keep their feet to the fire to make sure they do so. We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to the entire community they completely diminished with their actions.

They have a real opportunity to make a change for the better here. Let's give them a little breathing room to do it, but not let up on the scrutiny, or our expectations that they make this right.

And they may fail. In fact, even if they recover, they will still likely bear the brunt of this mistake at this year's festival, and perhaps they should.

But please, please don't punish the artists.

Having performed at the Fringe many times over the last 20 years, there is one thing that has always bothered me about the setup of the festival. There is nothing to be done about it, and it is patently unfair, but that's just the way it is: The artists have no leverage over the festival.

Even if you breathe fire.

There has been a lot of talk about boycotting the Fringe this year. And though I understand the urge to do that (see: "Seething anger. Seething." above) it's important to understand that the effect of that action is going to be relatively insignificant on the people who made the mistake, and devastating to an entire community of artists who had nothing to do with it.

Artists are dependent upon the Fringe, not the other way around. For each ticket you refuse to buy, you're withholding a couple dollars from the Fringe - a large organization with corporate sponsors - and over $10 from artists who earn close to the poverty line, and are counting on this festival for a much needed chunk of change as part of their annual income. In this instance, punishing the artists does nothing but punish the artists.

It's kind of like kicking your dog to punish your son for pulling his sister's hair.

So what can we do? How do we make our voices heard? How do we constructively vent our outrage?

1. Make sure the Fringe knows what the core of the problem is. Letters, phone calls, social media, etc. Don't just rage at them, but offer genuine feedback. Show them what they did wrong and how to fix it. Although it is absolutely no excuse, I fear that the people who made these decisions really didn't know better. That's seriously problematic, but this is an opportunity for the Fringe to really up their game.
2. Give them some time to come up with a very visible response that actually speaks to the core of the problems. They promised it, let's give them the opportunity to deliver.

So, what if they don't fix it? I am hopeful that the Fringe can make good on this. There are excellent people within the organization and on the board. They likely feel as angered by this as the rest of us do. But, what if this situation isn't resolved, and you are still outraged? Here's how you can make your feelings known with the least damage to the artists:

• Don't buy programs. It's all online anyway, so you're not necessarily missing out.
• Don't go to the beer tents. The Fringe makes a noteworthy chunk of change there. The local businesses would probably be thrilled to sell some more pints.
• Don't buy merchandise. If they continue to make mistakes like this, do you really want a keepsake reminder of the year the Fringe went bad?
• Let their sponsors know, as visibly as possible, what you think. Make sure it's clear to them that you see their businesses in a poor light for supporting a festival with this policy. The Fringe losing a sponsor over this would be a massive shakeup.

But first, again, I strongly suggest giving them time to fix it. Not letting it go, but saying, "Alright, you say you want to do better. Show us." And holding them to it.

The Fringe has an opportunity to learn from this. To fly or fail. This could be a chance for the Fringe to learn what inclusiveness actually means. And if they fix it, go, enjoy the beer tents, buy merchandise, drop donations at the gate. Send a letter to the senior executives of a sponsor to say how impressed you are. Reward the Fringe for making it right.

But whatever happens, please don't punish the artists. See some shows, drop some bills in a street performer's hat. It wasn't their fault, they don't have any power in the situation. The last thing we want to do is punish the wrong people.

Isn't that exactly what we're angry at the Fringe for doing?

____________________

UPDATE:  Daniel and his family have also asked people to not boycott the Fringe. If we are upset on his behalf, we owe it to him to respect his wishes, don't we?

Art vs Advertising: What Fluid Hair Salon didn't know...

The uproar has been deafening. People's social media feeds have been flooded by the debacle. Fluid Salon in Edmonton produced the above ad, and it has caught the eyes and ires of people across the country.

I don't need to discuss whether the ad was good or bad, appropriate or not. The people have already spoken on that one. You can see the creators' defenses here and here and Ryan Jespersen's incredibly well written response here. There have been a number of PR professionals who have used this as an opportunity to share conflict management strategies. (Namely, accept that people got offended, apologize and make good. Simple. Reminds me of another mess with an Edmonton actor at last year's Fringe festival.) There has also been a lot of anger.

The ad has been defended as art. That there is perhaps more going on than the obvious interpretation. But there's a problem with that. There's a logo. There's a tagline. It's not art, it's advertising. Although I believe that there is artistry in creating ads, advertising and art are not interchangeable words.

Fringe Festival Handbilling as Marketing 101

Copyright Pixelens Photography

It's amazing really. I watch people handbilling on the grounds of the Edmonton Fringe Festival and I see a microcosm of all things marketing. Sure, it makes sense. People doing shows have a product and they are trying to find a consumer to pay for that product. But the number of basic advertising tenets that manifest themselves in these many transactions, both good an bad, continues to amaze me.

I know a bunch of people who hate handbilling. Mostly because they hate interrupting someone to thrust an unwelcome, uninvited advertising message upon them. Which is a good reaction to have. Because people hate to have unwelcome, uninvited advertising messages thrust upon them.

Read on to see just a few of the marketing lessons that can be gleaned from watching an earnest actor simply trying to plug their show.

What Starbucks Did Wrong With Their New Logo

Starbucks officially launched their new logo last week. Stores were running out of stock with the old logos and had to 'hold on' until 'new logo day' to replenish their stores. It looks like the official launch day was relatively uneventful. But of course, that's because the ruckus had already occurred a few months ago when Starbucks announced their new logo. People were shocked, outraged, even though the logo wasn't drastically changed from its previous incarnation:

Some even went so far as to ask where the idea for "the mermaid" came from, even though you can see the siren has been a part of the logo since the beginning. So why all the fuss? Why the complaints? Sure, it wasn't the backlash that Gap experienced, but it was definitely there. Why were people so put out about a change to the logo?

Because, Starbucks forgot their own brand promise.

Dangerous Emails: Are people reading it the way you wrote it?

©glowinthedarkpictures.com

Every time we come up with a new way of communicating with each other, we also develop new and interesting ways to really offend each other. A quote that is sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde goes something like: "I'm sorry I wrote such a long letter, I didn't have time to write a shorter one." It is very difficult to maintain any sense of tone when we condense our words. The shorter the communication, the more tone we tend to leave out, for the sake of information. With fewer tonal clues put in by the writer, the more the reader tends to put in. Thus the easier it is to misinterpret the intent behind the message.

With email, texting, Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging, our means of communicating is getting shorter and shorter.

And a lot of people are getting really pissed off.

Your Choice: Digital Privacy or Ads that Don't Suck

What would you rather have, a plethora of door-to-door salesmen that continually push their way into your house, trying to sell you things you don't need? Or a close, trusted friend overhearing you muttering about needing a specific widget and giving you a tip on where they got theirs? This is basically the continuum of advertising. An onslaught of messages about everything you need and everything you don't at all times, vs. a valuable pointer to a specific product that fits your needs, when - and only when - you need it. I'd vote for the latter. I think most people would. Most advertisers would prefer to offer the latter approach. Everybody wins, right?

Sure, but you'll have to kiss your digital privacy goodbye.

How your brand affected your chances of meeting Stephen Mandel

I had a fantastic opportunity to share. I'm allowed to invite a select group of individuals to a coffee event with the incumbent mayor, Stephen Mandel. In order to make sure it's a conversation instead of a rally, we need to keep the numbers low. So I needed to be very selective in my invites. A diverse group was necessary, not too many people who would discuss the same issues. Only so many arts types, just a few film-people, only a couple small-business people. One digital media producer. No media-types. I would have invited many more but I had to keep the numbers down while being representational. It's a Facebook event and I had to pour through my entire list. How did I select who's getting invited and who isn't?

Very lazily...

Dinosaurs Thrashing in the Tar Pits

So here I am in a hair salon the other day, waiting to get a haircut for my show, Jailbait at Northern Light Theatre (opens on the 17th, runs to the 26th, plug, plug, plug...) and I'm killing time so I start flipping through an issue of GQ. I rarely page through a magazine, I usually browse the web on my iPhone or check the status updates of my friends on Facebook with the app. But my battery's dying and so is my tolerance for waiting. So I pick up the magazine and start flipping through. What I found, when looked at with a critical eye, was fascinating...

Leaping Into The Fray

Okay – I have to weigh in. I’ve been meaning to start a blog for some time, but this has been running through my head for so long I decided that this was the way to get rolling.

There are a tremendous number of issues that have been raised by the whole ‘HaslamGate’ controversy over this past week. Here’s your research, if you’re not sure what I’m talking about.

The blog post and comment.

The blogger's boyfriend's response.

The first local press coverage.

The response of the person in question.

I believe some of the issues have been discussed to death, while some have remained curiously under-discussed. Here are my two cents on the topics. I encourage you to read them, discuss them, get excited or upset about them, challenge them, and above all else, whether you agree with me or not, discuss them. And please remember, wherever possible I’m discussing the issues, not specific individuals.

Wherever possible, that is…