Posted by Joscelyn on June 30th, 2008 
8 Comments
First of all, I’m not even technically Canadian. I’ve lived here since I was three and am a Permanent Resident/Legal Alien/Landed Immigrant. The shopping might be far superior south of the border and they have Trader Joe’s and 99% of my family but Canada is my home and, in my opinon, a far superior place to live. But the biggest way in which the U.S. has Canada beat is in the celebration of July 4th. Independence Day is serious stuff in the States. Everyone has traditions and plans and they do it up right. BBQ, red, blue and white, singing the national anthem, fireworks, family and picnics. It FEELS like a different day, like a special day. And it is.
In Canada, we have Canada Day (try saying it 5 times fast. Now try after a few drinks) on July 1st. We have fireworks. And there are parades and concerts and lots of people do fun stuff. But everyone doesn’t. To most people, it’s a day off work and those darn kids set off firecrakers at night. I grew up in Ottawa which is a great place to be on the 1st and I recommend it to anyone who has yet to experience it. Most of downtown is closed to traffic (something Toronto might consider) and the whole city seems come together. When I was a kid, we used to bike around all day, visiting the various parks with activities such as rope climbing, face painting, craft making and much more. They have educational booths set up and cultural experiences and it’s hot and it’s sticky and crowded and fantastic. At night, we’d grab blankets and drive out to the river, park a million miles away (perhaps we should have just walked from the start? Gas was cheaper back then), trudge in and watch the fireworks.
When I was a teenager, Canada Day meant gathering with my friends at Major’s Hill Park, drinking (sorry, Mom) and generally having a good time. The bars were packed, the buses were free after 10 p.m. (another something Toronto might consider) and it was awesome.
Why am I regailing you of tales from my youth? Because Canada Day falls on a Tuesday this year and some people think it would be a great idea to make it a floating holiday, like Victoria Day (which is always the third Monday of May, so at least it’s consistent). This would mean that we would celebrate Canada Day on the Monday or Friday (depending on which was closer to the day) instead of on the 1st. To this I say “WHAT!?” How is that patriotic? On Breakfast Television this morning I was shocked to hear that Kevin Frankish was in favour of this, trying to sell it. I’ve always liked Kevin but was less than impressed with him and all the moronic viewers who wrote or called in to support him. Just imagine: every year we’d have to CHECK when Canada Day was.
Yes, it is annoying to have to work one day then have one day off but it’s CANADA DAY for chrissakes. It’s July 1st. We are supposed to be celebrating the day that marks the start of this country as we enjoy it today. It’s about the DAY not the long weekend. The reason I brought up the States in this post is that they would NEVER consider making the 4th a “floating holiday.” Why is that? Why the difference? Is it because the U.S. has been around longer? Because they have more people? Regardless of the reason, it’s a fact: July 4th is a bigger deal than the 1st and that is sad.
To be fair, since I’ve lived in Toronto I haven’t taken part in “official” Canada Day festivities (except fireworks at Ashbrides Bay a few times) but we go to my boyfriend’s cousin’s for a BBQ and it’s become tradition. When I have kids, I hope to instill in them some pride in the day and start traditions they will remember, as my parents did.
So get out there tomorrow and celebrate Canada and how lucky you are to live here. Celebrate for all the people in the world who don’t enjoy a free and independent country, who don’t even know what that feels like.
Happy Canada Day!
Posted by Kyra on June 24th, 2008 8 Comments
I thought it would only be fitting to share a little of my PAB (Podcasters Across Borders) 2008 experience with you via an audio comment. I’m not going to call it a ‘podcast’ because it is only one snippet of audio - it’s not a ’show’ … yet. You never know - already the other PR Girlz have been eyeing up the Blue Snowball USB mic that I won at the event. I think it might work if we kept it short and simple.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. The audio isn’t edited to perfection by any means but I could spend far too much time on this. I had to call it quits. Please bear in mind that I haven’t willingly recorded myself since I was about 8 years old when I liked to sing along to my favourite songs by Prince and Michael Jackson. I sound sort of ridiculous to myself (not to mention that I can hear some atrocious up-speak at the end of the recording) but I suppose a lot of people feel weird about hearing recordings of themselves. Ah well. I was inspired.
Listen to Podcasters Across Borders 2008
As suggested on the audio, I wanted to share some of the details and my favourite bits with you here in the post. I was impressed with the quality of so many of the presentations. My personal highlights from the weekend were Tim Coyne’s discussion on an actor’s approach to podcasting (the relationship between emotion and action), John Meadows and Scarborough Dude talking about the limits of the medium (or lack thereof), and the session with Nora Young and Dan Misener (I am a major fan of the CBC Radio One show Spark). Other links can be found below in the program outline.
Podcasters Across Borders is organized by Mark Blevis and Bob Goyetche. This year the event was sponsored by Third Storey Productions, ROGIC, Thornley Fallis and 76 Design, I.A. Consultants and Freshbooks.
PAB 2008 featured:
Friday, June 20, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
- 9:00am Time, Space, Media, Messages and Your Podcast (Jay Moonah)
- 10:00am What Public Broadcasters Can Learn from Podcasters, and Vice-Versa (Dan Misener and Nora Young)
- 11:00am Good Hosting: We’re not talking about your Internet Provider (Jack Ward and Shannon Hilchie)
- 11:40am You Shall Know Us By Our Velocity: Making sense of it all (Neil Gorman)
See you next year!
Posted by mmj on June 16th, 2008 2 Comments
Last week, Deanne left a comment on PRGirlz asking some advice about landing PR gigs. I started to comment and then said to myself, “Self - this would make an excellent blog post next Monday”. Here I am.
And, let me stress, what is written below is just my opinion. There is a wonderful team of folks here at TFC that have different ideas about this process. It’s all good.
I wandered into PR in an unconventional fashion. In the early 90s, while at university in Montreal, I started my career in PR unwittingly as the mouthpiece external coordinator for the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students Society (SACOMSS). At the time, sexual assault was a really hot issue on campus and in downtown Montreal; I was one of the few English spokespeople on the subject in the city at the time. This meant that I had to deliver the SACOMMS message to a variety of stakeholder groups from students to McGill University’s administration to the local police. I managed to piss off people in all areas on the one hand. On the other hand, we raised our profile in a hurry, gaining the respect of survivors, the community and media.
My experience was unique, without doubt. That said, once I decided to become a PR practitioner, I had to find a way to package my skills and experience in a way that would be palatable to prospective employers. It’s harder that you would think.
I sit on the opposite side of the table nowadays and review CVs and conduct interviews for our group at TFC. I have some ideas about breaking in that I hope can come in handy.
- Consume the media. Yep. Buy into it hook, line and sinker. You need to know how media works and what reporters/ editors/ producers want. You should understand who owns what outlet and how that makes an impact on coverage. Read everything you can. Develop intelligent opinions about the reporters/ outlets. Understand the news process.
- Research your target audience. There are many PR agencies in Toronto, and to the uneducated, they may seem similar. The thing is, they aren’t. And, as an applicant, you should educate yourself about the firm as much as possible. If you want a job at TFC, for example, you should know a bit about what we do, who we are, and what it is that we do that is different. If the principals have blogs or podcasts, review them.
- Create an interesting portfolio. Honestly, I am impressed by people who travel, do volunteer work and can make a case for what it taught them, and why they are a better person for doing that work. In PR, you do everything from the mundane to the glamorous at all levels. Don’t be afraid to translate your experience in an interesting way to the PR world.
- Proofread your CV and cover letter. I am blown away by the number of resumes that we receive that have typos. I’d say that you should have a text version of your CV along with an RTF version on hand at all times, properly formatted.
- If you get a call for an interview, dress the part, act the part and be the part. Come with a list of questions beyond payscale and benefits. Make me understand why I should hire you.
All that said, we are looking for a coordinator to work with Michael O’Connor Clarke, me and our consumer/ tech/ entertainment team. If you think you’ve got the skills, then please email me at mmj at thornleyfallis dot com.
Posted by mmj on May 26th, 2008 2 Comments
My morning started with a bang. Literally. A squirrel decided to eat some electrical wires coming out of the transformer across the street from my house. Needless to say, at 6:20 a.m., I was not impressed.
Today, I am going to do a roundup of stuff — stuff that I find interesting and that is somewhat germaine to what it is the PR Girlz do.
- In today’s Toronto Star, Bruce Campion-Smith reports how the Harper government controls its communication policies. It is the first report in the Secret Capital series from the newspaper. Harper’s communications policies are anything but open and stand in stark contrast to the federal rules for open access to information.
- Festival de Cannes ends today. Norm Wilner from NOW has been blogging the event from the French sea-side town. Check out the reviews now — you might be able to save yourself from wasting time at TIFF. [For the life of me, I don't know what Lindsay Lohan was doing there, though. Beyond Mean Girls (brilliant writing) and Altman's swan song (she was cast well), has she done anything deserving of Cannes recognition?]
- I want to play a bit with a Google lab release called Google Friend Connect. The server keeps crashing on me.
- Grant Robertson at the Globe and Mail reports on Wikipedia’s business plan and its desire to remain not-for-profit.
- Tim O’Reilly had a funny post on the weekend about Microsoft’s obsession with search.
Posted by mmj on May 23rd, 2008 Leave a Comment
Like a lot of folks concerned with social media, I got my mini-geek on at the Mesh Conference held at Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District. I’m not going to go into a play-by-play account of Mesh — if you wanted that, you’d have followed the meshing on Twitter. Mesh (re) tweaked my interest some important issues that I believe need to be constantly challenged in the PR world. Those are privacy, anonymity and reputaton.
Many folks have an online self which can often have a different personality than their offline self. This is one of the privileges of the Net and social media. We have infinite potential to be who we want, when we want to our chosen audience. I’m sure that many poignant 10-minute unions of the heart and hand have been made this way. I am also confident that there are an equal number of folks who have been cyber-bullied because of this set of circumstances.
As some background … I started blogging in 2001 when I found out that I was pregnant with my daughter. My partner’s family lives in B.C. so we thought that a blog would be an excellent way to communicate the changes of our lives and the pregnancy progress to our family and friends as well as to document the experience of becoming a mother.
Being a “gung-ho” type of chyk, I really dove into the online world. I joined Mamatron.org, a BB for, “mamas of color, bi/lesbian/poly mamas, very young mamas, mamas on public assistance, sex worker mamas, single mamas, artist mamas, socialist mamas, green mamas, anarchist mamas, and pro-choice mamas.” There was a discussion group for women who were due at the same time. I loved that group of women. They supported me through sleep deprivation, money concerns, hormonal flux, and I know that I was able to share with them as well.
That was until a cyber-bully named “Big Fat Breeder” decided that because I had used the dreaded “b” word (hint - rhymes with itch) in a conversation of support with another woman. Essentially, in spite of a mea culpa, I was drummed out of a supportive community because of the actions of a person who lived behind her online identity.
I’m over it, don’t worry. The experience has flavoured my approach to social media, however.
Everyone needs privacy - no doubt. However, if someone wants to participate in a conversation, isn’t it just good manners to say who you are? Otherwise, it is akin to walking into a person’s home, not telling her who you are, provoking an incendiary political discussion and leaving.
Students are being expelled for cyber-bullying: curiously, this practice remains de rigueur, for many adults. It’s too bad. I have to wonder how many conversations are limited due to the power of an anonymous comment.
Posted by sammy on May 16th, 2008 15 Comments
Welcome to the first instalment of Thursday’s From the Front Desk.
Please note! Due to the unpredictable nature of the PR world From the Front desk may occasionally be posted on a Friday, after-hours, from my father’s computer. Like today, for instance.
From the Front Desk is Samantha Lovelace’s spin on the PR world from a entry-level perspective.
As an entry-level PR-erson and, indeed, office worker, Samantha sits at the front desk of TFC.
During an average day she doesn’t just answer phones and fix printers; Samantha’s front desk experiences are just short of a full degree’s worth of education in PR, computers and people. This, along with general office antics keep her, and she hopes will keep you, entertained all workday long (and sometimes longer).
Now that being said, and with out further ado, Here’s Sammy!
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - Welcome to the first ever post From the Front Desk!
I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself:
My name is Samantha Lovelace and I work at the front desk at Thornley Fallis Communications.
I was lucky to have been introduced to the job, Alex Milroy, Sandra Cruickshanks and Michael O’Connor Clarke by my most fabulous friend, Ms. Lauren Saliba.
Lauren was “the front desk” at TFC in Ottawa and knew they were looking for “Lauren” in Toronto. After great consideration, she declined the offer to transfer herself and passed on the opportunity to me; a quickly tiring, server/bartender/manager of 8 odd years.
Lauren and I have been faithful friends for close to 14 years. We met, one fine evening, in the yard behind Muchmore public school in Ottawa’s “the Glebe”. I believe it was a Friday.
With a fresh squeezed BBA and a desire for something new I was eager to take on the new challenge and marched in to the Ottawa office for my first “career” interview.
I got the job!
With in the month I left the famed Royal Oak in the Glebe of Ottawa, trained a couple of days in Ottawa and packed up my things, my loving partner-in-crime and our cat. Off to Toronto we went.
It was three days before I experienced my first printer malfunction, learned how to do a mail merge, met my first client and worked past five in a 9-5 job. Lets just say I didn’t find my admin skills they were violently thrust upon me with the fury of one incredibly angry volcano.
I like to think, though I’ve hit many a nasty pot hole along the way, I’ve fared relatively well. Not only have I learned how to take care of normally adminy duties, but I took on some new roles too. Media monitoring, event support, ideation, podcast production and some fundamental accounting tasks are just a few of my weekly activities.
And now I can ad one more notch to my PR agency belt:
Almost a year later, well versed in computer malfunction, telephone manner, morning scans, excel spreadsheets, and with a couple of events under my belt, I am writing my first official post on PR Girlz. I can say, as I sit faithfully at the front desk of Thornley Fallis Communications, I finally feel like I am an official PR Grrril.
Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to sharing some front desk antics with you next week.
Until then, take care.
Samantha Lovelace
Posted by Kyra on May 13th, 2008 5 Comments
Last week, I saw an article in AdAge that suggested that one of the world’s most famous ‘touch up’ artists, Pascal Dangin, had a hand in making the women in the Real Beauty campaign look gorgeous. Even though Unilever and Dangin have made statements denying the reports, AdAge maintains that it will still “go down as a footnote in advertising history or rate among its biggest scandals, alongside Campbell’s marbles in the soup.”
Really.
Since the success of their Evolution campaign, Dove has been the viral video darling of the marketing world. Everyone wants their online efforts to come out smelling like 1/4 moisturizing lotion. But that sort of success can’t be plucked out of the cosmetics aisle and let’s face it - everybody’s a bit jealous. And my feeling is that, last week when this rumour emerged, a lot of people would have gladly seen Dove go on trial for their alleged mistake.
Even if they did do skin tone touch ups or got rid of minor blemishes on the Real Beauty models … would that really make their campaign somehow bogus? For me the idea is the most beautiful thing about the Dove brand and their recent marketing efforts. Some readers of AdAge’s coverage of the ’scandal’ agreed:
Several readers commenting on Ad Age’s Thursday story saw the controversy as a tempest in a teapot. “The issue is being massively blown out of proportion,” said one. “Retouching to adjust skin tones, remove shadows, or combine two or more photos from the same session for the sake of shot composition is commonplace and completely ethical.”
“I think we are losing sight of what this campaign is really about — loving your own body,” said another reader. “Even if the photo was retouched a bit, it still conveys the fact that all women are beautiful, no matter what size or shape.”
Another great follow up story that looks at how Dove/Oglivy/Unilever could have dealt with the situation can be found here.
Posted by Sandra on April 30th, 2008 1 Comment
We are on cloud nine around the office all because “our” Terry Fallis has been named the winner of the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Terry, a guy with a biomechanical engineering degree and a love of words, decided to write about what he knows best — politics, engineering and people – in his first novel “Best Laid Plans”.
The thrill of seeing someone you know and work with honoured with this medal is, well, more than we all would have expected. Considering we spend much of our workday dealing with the media on a full range of stories, finding Terry on cbc.ca today after popping up in the likes of the Toronto Star on the weekend is amazing. And we didn’t have to send a pitch or pick up a phone.
This was no mean feat for Terry to achieve. When he couldn’t find a publisher for his idea he podcast the book, chapter by chapter, and then figured out how he could publish it himself. Once he managed to get it into some bookstores and on to Amazon.ca and Indigo.ca he was amazed that people actually bought it. He even seemed surprised to have so many people tell him they found the story charming and interesting.
Congratulations from the Girlz and everyone else at Thornley Fallis. Now, can we get you to sign our copies? Oh, and what about that sequel?
Posted by mmj on April 29th, 2008 4 Comments
Miley Cyrus dominates the entertainment news, again. This time, the teenage star of “Hannah Montana” created uproar because of a portrait by Annie Liebovitz that appeared in Vanity Fair. Even if we have seen more of High School Musical’s Vanessa Hudgens, even if Anne Hathaway can play a dirty rich girl in Brokeback Mountain, and even though novelists and artists have been documenting the sexuality of teenagers for millennia, this is deemed “newsworthy”.
Again, we are confronted by the elastic boundaries governing the ethics of publicity and public relations.
According to Wikipedia, “Ethics is not limited to specific acts and defined moral codes, but encompasses the whole of moral ideals and behaviors, a person’s philosophy of life.” So let’s apply this — let’s pretend that Miley is your client. How would you go about promoting her? To what end would you go to promote her?
We know that Miley is a well known brand. She’s completed a huge tour. Hannah Montana is a well-known Disney brand. She has a new movie coming out in 2009.
Anything current? Nope. So whaddya do? You find the story or make the story.
You see, the media are hungry. Feed ‘em or they go hunting. So, that sort of brings me back to the second consideration: To what end would you go?
- Would you create a controversy? We know that controversy sells, especially in the US and the national bias towards the reactionary. She would gain top-of-mind name recognition with an expanded audience, and maybe lose a few more conservative constituents. However, a well-timed, well-worded apology would take care of that.
Would you extend the brand footprint of Miley Cyrus to include new audiences, namely boys/ men/ whoever might support her into her adult years as well? It worked for Hayden Pannettiere, didn’t it? And truly, something’s gotta launch her out of the Disney realm into adulthood.
You see, the thing that is not sitting well for me in this controversy is that I think that it was good PR for Miley Cyrus regardless of age. My husband, who would not have known her name before Sunday, emailed this to me from a photography web site. And by using his case example of one, this tactic worked. Now he knows who she is.
I also believe that it was executed ethically. Values are fickle in North America. As a society, as quickly as we condemn the girl for demonstrating her burgeoning sexuality, we will forgive her. We find the reason (“it was the photographers fault”) accept it and move on. She is Hannah Montana after all. We the society that Brooke Shields asked “What comes between me and Calvin Kleins?” and then went onto Princeton and now is a spokesperson for all things mother-positive. And didn’t Drew Barrymore weather her drug scandal well?
To say that this was anything other than a ethical publicity ploy would be hypocritical and you needn’t look further than the catwalks and editorial photography in fashion magazines. They are filled with teens. These are the teens that peer down from billboards, act in TV shows and commercials have the ability, rightly or wrongly, to inspire girls as much as a Miley Cyrus does.
Fundamentally, I have a hard time believing that she did this against her will. I don’t believe she was misled in anyway. (Neither does Jamie Lee Curtis, apparently.) The result is an artistic image. The interpretation by its audience is the less wholesome thing.
The Miley Cyrus brand footprint was extended with a controversial and beautiful photo by a modern photography icon. She was vindicated by a seemingly heart-felt apology. She still works for Disney. Tell me, where is the downside?
Posted by Joscelyn on March 31st, 2008 8 Comments
I’ve been known to be a contrarian. For some reason I like to go against the grain, just for the sake of being contrary. So when I was thinking about Earth Hour and what I really thought of it and considered writing it down, I made myself take a step back and let the thoughts percolate for a couple of days before I committed a long cynical rant to the internet. But after letting it fester a couple of days, my opinions haven’t changed. And after hearing what other’s thought on the radio, or reading what they thought online, I realized I’m not alone on this. I think Earth Hour is a crock.
It made a whole lot of people feel good to participate and allowed a whole lot more to be snide towards people who chose not to take part. It put a lot of pressure on businesses to “do the right thing” by turning off office tower lights and the ones who didn’t were shunned and booed. But did it have any kind of lasting effect? I’m fairly sure office towers were alight last night and will be bright tonight and tomorrow and so on. Lights were blazing again in homes last night, will be tonight and tomorrow (you get the picture). Offices should be turning off their lights on their own. They shouldn’t do it simply to succumb to PR pressure from the World Wildlife Fund. People should be careful about their electricity consumption all the time, not just for one measly hour because the media and your neighbours tell you to.
I do my best to only have the light on in the room I’m currently in. It’s not always easy and I do forget, but I do my best and I’m usually pretty good about it. We recycle A LOT. We have a blue bin for paper, a blue bin for everything else and a green bin for organics. There are a lot of people out there who do far more for the environment than I. There are far more people out there who do far less. Will those people step up and starting monitoring their electricity consumption now? A couple might, maybe for a little while. But not because they have chosen to; because they feel pressured to. And while some might argue that it doesn’t matter how they get there, so long as they do, I would argue that people who do things out of pressure and not willful desire, will not do so for long.
I have a friend who was very eager to take part in Earth Hour. She was going to go down to the concert in Nathan Philips Square and be all involved and take a stand and all that good stuff. And she did do that all that. She also left her computer on while she was downtown and drove a Jeep down there instead of taking public transit. I would venture a guess that she wasn’t alone. To me, those people missed the whole point. They heard “turn out the lights” but didn’t factor in the effect leaving home electronics on and driving has on the environment. We still have a long way to go.
Yes, Earth Hour bought some awareness to the cause, which is always a good thing. But at the end of day when the lights were back on and the city was buzzing with neon signs, did anything really come of it?
