You know things are bad when Dollarama has to jack up prices.
Yes people it’s true. Everything is no longer for a dollar. I learned this first at the Dollarama at Cedarbrae mall in Scarborough where I usually visit for last minute items such as baby oil, mailing envelopes and candy for the over-zealous people that raid the candy dish on my desk at work. But alas, the security of the dollar is no more.
According to smartcanucks.ca, the change is due of course to the economic times :
After 16 years of selling items at no more than $1 each, Dollarama’s executives say the chain is just trying to keep up with the times, and rising prices worldwide. Dollarama stores will be raising their prices come February 2009. The prices are going to be $1.25, $1.50 and $2.00
Is nothing safe from this dreadful recession? What is the world coming to when I can’t even depend on Dollarama to live up to its name and sell me something for $1.13 (PST and GST added for accuracy)?
I am beginning to wonder however, if some organizations are not simply using the bad economic climate as an excuse to inflate their prices anyway. This may or may not be the case with Dollarama, but for those places where that is happening, all I have to say is shame on you (yes I am looking at you Toront0 City Councillors who just gave yourself a raise - I know that’s coming out of my pocket somehow.)
In the mean time, the rest of us need to wake up and tighten our belts. The recession is here people, and no one is getting left out.
“I am depressed … I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners…I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.”
Those were the words left in the suicide note of Kevin Carter, the photojournalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for this tragic image.
And as I read his story, I wondered the same thing I wondered, when I read Carter’s: How do you come face to face with such deep levels of human suffering and not do anything about it?
I do not know if MacKinnon was able to offer any assistance to any of the sufering he met. He does not say in his report. In Carter’s story however, it is said that he shooed the vulture away but did not offer assistance to the girl. It is suggested that his inability to help in this and other similar situations was what led to his subsequent depression and suicide.
This leads to questions like, where does one draw the line between professionalism and humanity? And how hard is it to walk away from suffering knowing that you couldn’t help even if you wanted to? I imagine that these images stay in the mind long after the story is written and the newspaper or magazine has gone into the archives. They are probably experiences that the journalist must carry around forever.
Knowing this has given me a greater respect for the people who bring us these stories of suffering that take place around the world. Undoubtedly, it takes a lot of strength to do the job that they do. Journalism of this type is not for the faint of heart.
“There are rules to constructing a cabinet: You wouldn’t appoint an education minister with kids in private schools. You wouldn’t give a man with a record of wife-beating responsibility for women’s issues. And you don’t give a roly-poly smoker the prestigious health ministry.”
As a communications intern in a community hospital, there are some people who it is essential that I know. George Smitherman, former Ontario Minister of Health, was one such person. If George said it I heard it, if he wrote it, I read it, and if he was involved in it, I probably knew.
This week the man that I have been media stalking for the past 3 months was promoted from Health to the super Ministry of Energy and Public Infrastructure. Replacing him will be David Caplan. He would be the roly-poly smoker Blizzard was referring to.
If you thought that by the time you became an adult (or did enough positive work) people would stop judging you by your looks, you were wrong.
Only a few weeks after the Timbitgate scandal, Tim Hortons has again faced another PR crisis, thanks to its franchisees.
This time, the Toronto Star reported (Page 2 above the fold I might add) that a Tim Hortons customer was scolded by an employee for buying food for a pregnant homeless woman and allowing her to eat it inside the store. The nerve of the homeless woman, eating Tim Hortons food inside the Tim Hortons store. Who does she think she is? A customer?
As fate would have it, the chastised customer happened to be a Toronto investment manager, who registered her displeasure with Tim Hortons and later with the Toronto Star. Of course, Tim Hortons’ corporate body apologized (again), but were quick to try and deflect some of the blame by pointing out that the store in question was owned by a franchisee and that they, the corporate body could not mandate every single aspect of how a franchisee ran their store.
Herein lies the catch 22 for all entrepreneurs who choose to franchise their businesses.
Even with all the training, and brand use guides, that go to a franchisee, how much control can you really have over how individual owners choose to run their business?
Perry Maisoneuve, the principal at Northern Light Franchise Consultants in Mississauga says that Tim Hortons franchisees go through extensive training on customer service. In fact, he calls them a “Canadian icon of best practices from a franchising perspective”. But he also admits, that the company cannot create guidelines for every possible situation and many times, issues of customer service come down to the discretion of individual employees.
So then is it really fair to blame Tim Hortons the company for the actions of a small franchisee?
From a logical perspective the answer would be no, it isn’t fair. But from a PR perspective, I think the answer would be, it doesn’t matter. The fact is, whether or not the error is at a corporate level or a franchise level, the name in the newspaper will still be Tim Hortons, and therefore the company must do everything in their power to ensure that their franchisees reflect the overall values of the company.
Besides, when something good happens, Tim Hortons (not the individual Franchisee) is the the one to get the praise as well. In business as in life, you sometimes have to take the good with the bad.
And in the case of franchisers like Timmy, sometimes you just gotta take one for the team.
This week has been a rather interesting week in the news for large companies, particularly Unilever, who has been accused of retouching the photos of the models used in the Dove ‘real beauty’ campaign. This story to me seems more interesting because of the potential public relations crisis it could be for Unilever and the Dove brand.
The sad thing about the whole issue is that it was probably unavoidable. In my limited experience, it is very rare that a photo goes from camera to magazine/billboard/commercial/newspaper without being retouched a little – whether to enhance the brightness, or finish, or for some other perfectly reasonable cause. The question to be asked however is what kind of retouching was done. The photographer Pascal Dangin was quoted as saying:
“Do you know how much retouching was on that? But it was great to do, a challenge to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.” – The New Yorker c/o The Toronto Star
Charming fellow isn’t he?
Only days later he issued a statement through Unilever saying that the photos were not altered. But the damage was already done.
It will be interesting to see if and how this affects the Campaign for Real Beauty and how Dove will deal with it. One thing’s for sure though, in any campaign it is important that all the key parties (and even some you might not think of as key) understand the goals and purpose of your campaign. Maybe if dear old Dangin understood why it was important for the campaign to show real women (or at the least why the public should think they were real women) then he might have kept a tighter reign on his tongue.
Then again maybe not. And I’m sure there’s another lesson in that too.
If you watch any television at all, chances are you have seen this commercial. And if you are a female over the age of 12, chances are you know what it’s about:
For those of you still in the dark, Yasmin is the one of the latest birth control pills to hit the market. I am not against contraceptives. What I am against however, are ads for contraceptives aimed at teenagers, simply because it subconsciously tells them that it is okay to start having sex at that age, as long as they are being safe.
When I first saw the Yasmin commercial, I thought that it might be targeting high school girls, because of how young the actresses appeared to be. Closer inspection however showed that the women portrayed were likely college aged.
My over-sensitivity is probably due to another birth control commercial for Ortho Tri-Cyclen-Lo which ran a couple months back and featured girls who were definitely of high school age. Those who remember these commercials knew that the concept was that girls should try something new, eg. Try playing, try laughing, try getting up early etc, with the unspoken message being try Ortho Tri-Cyclen-Lo. As far as I was concerned, the real message was ‘Try having sex before you’re ready for it and coming out unscathed.’
In recent years activist groups of different kinds have been working hard to ban advertising that was seen as harmful to the public, especially minors. Everything from tobacco and alcohol, to fast foods got hit. However, it seems like for every dangerous advertising strategy that gets blocked, two more appear.
My question is, where are the ethics? I know that every public relations/ marketing/advertising/business program comes with an ethics course attached. So why has this aspect of social responsibility been so discarded? And why does someone have to put a ban on your ad for you to know that maybe you shouldn’t be advertising birth control to girls below the age of consent, or liquor to youth under 21?
If you are unfamiliar with how powerful a medium, TV dramas are for the music industry let me just give you an example.
Most people who live in the western world are familiar with ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. However, before 2006, very few knew of the band “The Fray”. They have actually been around since 2002. In 2005 they released their album ‘How to Save a life’ to modest reviews. Their song ‘How to Save a life’ was not a single, and rarely received radio airplay until March 2006 when it was featured on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, and then used in the new season promo for the show.
Since it’s TV drama debut The Fray has developed international fame. The song, ‘How to Save a Life’ became a major international hit, topping singles charts in Canada, and Ireland, and making top 5 on several US charts. Less than a year later, that virtually unknown band, sold 1.2 million digital tracks for that one song that was played during Grey’s Anatomy.
Yes, Primetime TV is the new radio as far as most artists are concerned. Instead of trying to pay some DJ to play your track, artists are pimping out their songs to Music coordinators. No doubt, Alexandra Patsavas (music supervisor for Grey’s Anatomy) is one of the most whispered names among artist managers, and Lindsay Wolfington (music coordinator for One Tree Hill ) has admitted to receiving too many packages to sort through.
What does it all mean for me, an aspiring PR practitioner? It means that the most unlikely places can often be the best places to communicate your product/client/event to your audience, especially if you can get there at the right time with the right message like The Fray managed to do. It also means that I can be assured that some good music will be another benefit of my TV addiction.
Since about 1998 when R&B died, I have been finding it hard to find good music. Most people my age who remember the 90s, seem to agree that the Omarions, 3LWs and Danity Kanes of the present day are simply not cutting it.
In 2005 however I began to discover meaningful music in the most unlikely of places, and in the most unlikely of artists. That unlikely place was Television, and the unlikely group were whiny caucasian crooners from the US to Australia to Britain. In fact, anyone who has been following television trends in the past couple of years, will notice that TV dramas have been the go-to location for fresh new music.
It started on teenie-bopper network The Wb (now the CW). Instead of the usual lyric-less scores, artists like Dave Matthews Band and Canada’s own Sarah McLachlan had their songs being used as the back-drop for those oh so emotional scenes in shows like Dawson’s Creek, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In fact, I bought my first Sarah McLachlan album after hearing one of her songs, on The WB’s Roswell. Pretty soon, all the WB’s hour-long prime time dramas were using contemporary music to boost their show.
However, as viewers eat up the trend, and other networks come on board, the tables have turned. ABC, the major network most on board with this music trend has been featuring many new artists and their music on their prime time dramas. They also (like the CW) have pages on their website dedicated solely to the music used on their shows. It seems that it is now the show that is being used to boost new music.
As you may have figured out by now I am a complete TV addict. So when I came across the ‘I hate Sarah Marshall’ campaign I knew I had to blog about it.
I actually stumbled upon the campaign one morning on the train. I was standing wedged between a tall bulky guy in a gigantic winter coat, and a tiny old lady struggling to keep her balance, when my eyes fell upon a poster. It was white with the words “You do look fat in those jeans Sarah Marshall” written in black, and that was it. No pictures, no graphics, nothing to explain what it was about except a URL at the bottom: www.ihatesarahmarshall.com.
So I’m thinking this is one of those anti-bullying ads that have been all over the place recently. It turns out www.ihatesarahmarshall.com is actually a blog by some guy named Peter about getting over his girlfriend, Sarah Marshall, who dumped him. However, as soon as I scrolled down the page and saw a picture of TV’s Kristen Bell, I realized it was all promotion for a new movie, which I now know to be Forgetting Sarah Marshall, coming out this spring.
The blog itself has several youtube clips that serve as further promotion. Funny enough, the first clip answers most people’s initial question: How did Peter get the money to pay for all these billboards? It turns out that along with my TTC poster, billboards of a similar kind have been put up across North America to promote the movie. In fact, persons unfamiliar with the actors might think the blog (which I guess is really a flog), Peter and his relationship crises, is actually real.
I am pretty impressed with the promoters for this movie. I love the way they combined mainstream advertising with social media to create awareness for their product. Blog stats show that over 50, 000 persons have viewed the site since Peter started posting in February of this year. And I am sure I am not the only person who first learned about the movie through the blog.
I know a lot of people are skeptical about the future of social media as a legitimate tool of communication within the business world, but this mini case just goes to show that this tool is growing in use and recognition and it’s clearly here to stay.
Anyone else seen the ‘i hate sarah marshall’ campaign, or heard of similar projects?
That’s right, dumped, shown the door, given the boot, kicked to the curb. Pick your expression.
I suppose I should have seen it coming. All the classic signs were there, long periods without communication, not replying to emails, indecision about what they wanted to do, and frequently changing their mind. Still it came as a surprise. And after all the time and effort I put in, it truly felt like a betrayal.
What hurt the most was the way it happened. Just a simple email saying, ‘we have decided to cancel our event’. Not even a phone call. With a simple electronic message, all the time and research I put into the media plan became void. Don’t you just hate that?
It’s okay though. I will live to compose a media list again. In fact I have already found a new client who wants me to help them do promotion for another event. There are organizations out there who want to use my skills. Fortunately it was only a volunteer position, but what would happen if it wasn’t? I wonder how PR agencies and consultants handle clients who cancel on them halfway through a project or last minute? Isn’t the time and effort worth something even if the work is not utilized?
You know things are bad when Dollarama has to jack up prices.
