Edmonton's Biggest Challenge

From Cozumel to Edmonton - Copyrights eschipul and bulliver

As I write this, it's our last night in Cozumel. Soft sands, gorgeous skies. The friendliest fish this side of the Caribbean - a diver's paradise. As I sit here, the cool evening breeze is taking just enough edge off of the heat of the day to make it blissfully comfortable. Tomorrow we travel home. In the space of twelve hours, the temperature we experience will drop by over sixty degrees celsius. Eeep. But that's okay. Why?

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.

The Captain Morgan Spiced Rum campaign, and why it's never gonna work...

Give the gang at Diageo credit, the concept behind the 'Captain and Cola' campaign is subtle and clever. It shows an ambitious strategy and the potential to greatly increase their market distribution.

Too bad it will never work...

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.

A 'Brand' New Edmonton

Artist's rendition of the Expo that could have been.

Ever have your mom tell you that you could go to a movie, then change her mind and say you can't? How about a boss that approves an expenditure for upgrading your office, who retracts the offer before you can cash in on it? Ever have a federal government encourage and support you in bidding to hold a world exposition in your city, only to change their mind at the last minute with tenuous reasoning?

It's a lousy feeling. It's grossly unfair. It's a tremendous amount of money wasted pursuing a special event that's not going to happen.

But is the money actually wasted?

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...