Horrifically Good Movies

If Hollywood is the Dream Factory, 2010 was the year of dreaming dangerously, a year when horror films had no monopoly on nightmares – Horrifically Good Movies (Macleans Magazine)

With the 83^rd annual Academy Awards coming up this Sunday, I thought it would be fun to write an Oscar related post this week, since that seems to be what everyone is talking about. However, since this week’s class actually involves doing a Vlog (video blog) – Cue gasp - I will do my best to make a video talking about an article I chose to discuss. 

There are lots of articles and posts about the Oscars out there, but besides just listing the nominees, like the ones listed on the office Oscar website, I thought I would talk about something a little different. As you might know from this post, I like to read Macleans Magazine, and a while back I remember reading an article called Horrifically Good Movies that really stuck with me. It was about all the best movies of 2010, most of which have now been nominated for multiple awards, including Oscars. 

RSS Feeds, a Top-Ten List

According to a great article I read online called 7-tips-for-writing-a-killer-blogpost-that-actually-gets-read creating lists and bullets points is a great way to get readers attention and interest. Makes sense to me, but what sort of information can I put into a Top-10 List?

When thinking about what I like to do online, (besides checking Facebook) reading articles through my RSS reader came to mind. I love to browse articles and in my attempt to learn as much as I can around me, I’m currently subscribing to 97 separate feeds (but that includes 30 for my social media class) through my Google Reader.

My subscriptions cover a wide variety of topics, and so far, I’ve classified them into 16 different folders. This means I can minimize or maximize the folders, depending on which feeds I feel like reading. Since I have thousands of unread articles to check out, I tend to just click on “All items” so Google can decide what I should read first. In my limited amount of time, and since I tend to have a short attention span for online tasks, it’s perfect! 

Click on the screen shot below to see what my Google Reader looks like.

My Google Reader

Never used an RSS reader? Well if you’re new to the technology, adding content is easy, its deciding what to add thats the difficult part. 

I think the best way to start adding content is by adding feeds your interested in and deciding you want to gain from your reading. For me, it started with wanting to be up-to-date on news and fashion and now it has shifted towards marketing, an industry I’m trying to get in to. Adding subscriptions in your industry (or even subscribing to your own organization or its competitors) feeds is a good way to stay up-to-date on what’s going on at your work, (ie. Avoid looking like an idiot) in case your like me, and didn’t exactly get insider information from your boss. (eg. “What, we’re moving into a new market? When did we decide that??”) And of course, sometimes you just want to look at stuff that will make you laugh after a long day. Nothing wrong with that!

Personally, I have 16 folders, but these could really be narrowed down into 8 or 9 categories.

These are the categories I think everyone should have:

Digging glee. Not the marketing

A story that I recently posted on Digg was an article I found in Macleans called “Not much Glee over these slushies”. It caught my eye because it is about the hit show glee (which I watch) and their recent “slushie” marketing campaign.

If you don’t know anything about glee, it surrounds a bunch of American high school students who are part of “glee club”, a sort of show choir. It would be a pretty typical PG sitcom, except for all the singing (and dancing) the characters (and family, and staff, and guest stars) do. Which they make sure to include whenever possible. Even if it doesn’t really fit with the plot of the episode.

I started watching Glee sometime during the first season, at my friend’s recommendation. Sure it’s pretty cheesy sometimes, and yea, the plot lines aren’t very consistent, but its fun. It’s usually a good laugh and you know each episode will have some pretty catchy songs, remixes or mash-ups (my favourite).

The reason I wanted to share this article is because it is talking about the strange (if you watch the show) way glee is being promoted and the author brought up some interesting points. Glee is just coming back now after the recent winter break and last Sunday there was a special episode that aired right after the Superbowl. Of course they were promoting it like crazy.

The Macleans article used a photo from the recent campaign, which shows all the main characters throwing slushies at the camera. See below.

Cast of glee, slushie-ing

Side note, did any other glee fans notice that this shot is so airbrushed that they somehow managed to make Corey Monteith’s character (center) look like he could actually be in highschool? He's really 28.

The campaign includes magazine ads, cover shots, billboards, you name it.

Sure, it looks fun, with all the characters laughing and making funny faces while throwing the colourful drinks around, but this is much different than what actually happens in the show. During the show (and what Macleans describes in their article) being slushied is not fun. Obviously. It is done to the kids in glee as a form of bulling (because only “losers” are part of glee, although some of them – like the cheerleaders and football players would be popular otherwise) by the highschool jocks, usually football players. It is humiliating, and god knows if those stains will ever wash out.

In the show, being “slushied” looks more like this. Eek.

But so what, right? Advertising is rarely accurate interpretations of reality, as Dove showed in their great “Evolution” commercial. So why does the advertising of a TV show need to match what actually happens in said show? 

Well what the Macleans article talks about is that while the show has been praised for its stand against gay-bashing and “the daily high school realities of bullying, discrimination and ignorance”, this show might be actually been promoting "slushie-ing". They reference an instance where bullies in a Toronto highschool actually used this technique, and they might have even gotten the idea from the show. Ouch.

The article argues the age old issue of whether people imitate what they see on television. I say sure they do. As far as the show goes, the bullies are very rarely punished for what they do (one of the gay characters, Kurt, was even bullied so badly he decided to leave the school) and since it always gets laughs on the show, I could see other teenagers in the real world doing it as well. (Hopefully with more consequences.)

So then why would the ads show that slushing is cool, if its not cool in the show, or in real life? I think this is a case where the marketing team is very disconnected from their product. The promotions are trying to make glee seem fun and carefree and with colourful images of young people joking around and having a good time, who wouldn't want to watch the show? 

Yay slushies, right?


Well maybe this makes sense, until you actually watch the show. Sure, on the surface it’s about young people singing, and dancing, (and having fun while doing so) but on another level they are all dealing with problems that many teenagers have, being popular and fitting in, and what happens when you don’t. I wouldn’t say the show necessarily “takes a stand” against any big issues but it does try to bring to light the serious issues of homophobia and sexism (among others), and tell young people “it’s ok to be different”.That's certainly no where to be seen in this marketing campaign. Do they think that won't attract viewers?

So are these silly promotions actually working? Should they be? I haven't seen the ratings for the Superbowl episode yet, but I'm sure if they did gain audience its because of left over fans of the football game or just the die hard fans who have been following the show all along, and were excited to see their first episode back. Or hey, maybe people did tune in just to see what the whole slushie-ing thing is all about. Did you?

Cast of glee standing in slushies. Ridiculous :P

See the original Macleans article here.

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*Update - According to preliminary data released by BBM Canada, the special Superbowl glee episode that aired on Global was the 9th most watched show of the week (Jan.31st-Feb.6th) with an Average Minute Audience of 2,161,000 people 2+. It had an impressive Share % of 23.6. 

This glee episode rated way above Flashpoint, which aired on CTV at the same time, and had an AMA of  1,317,000 (ranking it #25 of the week). You can check out the other ratings of the week here.

The Superbowl had an AMA of 6,537,000 in case you were interested. :)

1,000 social media days later...

"This has affected us the same way it has affected the world. We are sad about this. We are all shocked about this. We are all horrified." - Joey Houssian 

Joey Houssian, the 34-year-old owner of Outdoor Adventures Whistler, has finally come forward to speak with the media today, but is it too little too late?

This news comes 10 days after the news of the WorkSafe BC claim became public, which I wrote about in my last post. An eternity in social media time, news of the sled dog slaughter continues to spread across social media sites and OAW Whistler has been the target of much negative publicity, including boycotts, protests and even death threats issued towards the employee responsible for the slaughter.

In my post I thought a company spokesperson should have come forward sooner, but I am glad to know that they are finally attempting to talk to the public about this issue. Although not quite an apology, Houssian did extend his sympathy to his colleagues and their families, the community and the public, and says he shares in their grief. He also added,

“To everyone who is taking the time to pause, examine the available facts, and recognize the complexity of this matter before rushing to judgment, I extend my deepest appreciation."

I’m sure some things have been taken out of context by the media, and more facts will probably come to light, but nothing changes the fact that horrible things happened to those animals, and even the person responsible is suffering.

Houssian admits that the boycott being heard around the world through social media is probably hurting his business, but he plans to keep the company going.

Are you convinced? I don’t know if I am, but to the 34 year old, running a company that is in the middle of a major PR crisis, I’m sure there are only difficult roads ahead.

Photo by Claudia Kwan, Vancouver Sun

You can read the full letter to the editor, which will be published in today's Vancouver Sun, here.

Thanks to Ashley for updating me on this story.

Social Media – Helping or hurting businesses?

Social media is being used more and more today, from individuals uploading a record of 750 million photos over New Year’s weekend, to businesses Tweeting about their products, to advertisers leaking Super Bowl commercials which make it onto YouTube, days before they were supposed to air. Although originally used as a research tool, Nielsen Wire has found that Americans now spend most of their time online using Social Networks or reading/writing Blogs. 

 
Is anyone surprised? Should you be working and not reading this blog online right now?

So what does this really mean for businesses? Sure, using social media means companies can advertise and generate buzz around their products (so far that YouTube video above has generated over 5 million hits), interact with consumers and engage them in their brand like never before – but what should they do when the unthinkable happens? A story breaks about their company/brand that they don’t actually want people to know about, let alone share with their friends and network…

It’s a common public relations nightmare that many companies face today, from spokespeople making inappropriate comments on social media sites (a la the Kenneth Cole debacle where he used #Cairo to promote his new spring collection on Twitter) to governments worried about social media being used to facilitate a social uprising, (like the recent events in Tunisia and Egypt has shown). Closer to home, the recent news that an Outdoor Adventure employee slaughtered 100 sled dogs in Whistler after business slumped after the 2010 Olympic Games, has spread like wildfire through social media sites and made international news. Well it made it into the Huffington Post and the NYTimes, so it’s pretty much international news. 

I won’t go into the grizzly details of the sled dog tragedy here, because it breaks my heart (and to be honest, I’ve tried to avoid reading all the articles about it, because they go into some horrific details of what happened), but needless to say, the only reason it made it into the public sphere is that the employee was so traumatized by the events that he applied for and was granted WorkSafe BC compensation on January 28^th after developing post traumatic stress disorder. These documents were obtained by local news organizations, and the rest is history. 

So what should a company do if this happens to them? I’m no PR expert, but I was always told the best thing to do after a PR nightmare (ie. a “mess up”) was to “fess up” and “dress up” the situation in order to make amends. And in today’s fast paced society, the quicker the better. 

Shortly after realizing his mistake (it took about an hour later), Kenneth Cole removed the offensive Tweet from Twitter and posted this: 

And less than a day later, this: 

Which is a link to his (slightly) more genuine apology on his Facebook page: 

“I apologize to everyone who was offended by my insensitive tweet about the situation in Egypt. I’ve dedicated my life to raising awareness about serious social issues, and in hindsight my attempt at humor regarding a nation liberating themselves against oppression was poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate.”

He (or his employees) continued to link to this apology in response to angry fans comments on his fan page, and on Twitter but this didn’t stop #boycottKennethCole and #KennethCole from trending, and from a fake  @KennethColePR twitter account from starting, similar to the @BPGlobalPR account that went viral last May. The criticism keeps coming, but at least he responded to the situation pretty quickly, and made an apology. Time will tell if this will actually translate to a decrease in Kenneth Cole's sales in the future.

Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh, Reuters

At the other end of the spectrum is what happened in Egypt, where the authoritarian government completely blocked the internet (and cell phone text messaging including Twitter) on January 25^th, only hours before large planned protests were to take place. Although this is one way to stop people from communicating and spreading negative messages on social media sites, resourceful people turned to dial-up systems, and a couple days later Google stepped up to provide a Voice-to-Twitter service. The protests continued, and 5 days after it was shut down, internet service was returned. One has to wonder how successful this was in solving President Hosni Mubarak’s ultimate PR problem.

As for Outdoor Adventures Whistler (OAW), they released a statement on January 31st, (3 days after the compensation report was released) denying they had any knowledge that the dogs were going to be killed in such a manner and refuting media reports that OAW “[instructed] the General Manager to carry out the cull in the manner described in the report”. There was no apology, and little in the terms of “fessing up” to such a horrific transgression.

As a result of the WorkSafe BC report coming to light, the BC SPCA begun a “cruelty investigation”, the RCMP opened a police file and assigned an investigator and Premier Gordon Campbell (who is still working, even though he has formally resigned) has assembled task force which will be headed by Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake, who is also a veterinarian. In a Vancouver Sun article, Campbell said he doesn’t believe the dogsledding industry is properly regulated at present and this is something where “people would like to see more oversight.” I think that is an understatement.

Since the January 26th, Google has had a huge increase in searches for “sled dogs” and the most common terms searched are “sled dogs whistler” and “sled dogs killed”, mostly in BC and Ontario. See the graph by Google Insights for Search below.

If you are an active user of Facebook, you would also notice the Facebook groups: Boycott-Outdoor-Adventures-Whistler-for-their-slaughter-of-100-dogs and support-justice-for-the-100-slaughtered-sled-dogs-of-whistler as well as the status update:

“Because I respect the rights of animals and demand that humans treat them humanely, I am changing my facebook picture to a photo of my pet, to raise awareness of the 100 dogs that were executed in Whister, BC and in support of the SPCA who is investigating this disgusting incident - I encourage you to do the same”.

On Twitter, the @Justice4sleddog account was started, which links to their Facebook petition at the support-justice page as well the categories #sleddogs, #whistler and #animalrights being tweeted quite frequently. As you can see below in the Trends in Twitter, Tweets for #sleddog peaked on February 3^rd.



So what did OAW do next? I’m sure they wish they could shut down social media sites, to stop the spread such negative publicity, but they are not so lucky.  On February 1st they released a statement saying they had voluntarily suspended operations of Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc. as they conducted own investigation “to determine the facts”. As of today, if you try to go to OAW Dogsled page, you will get this message:

The link goes to their Media page, which just has a copy of all their new releases, also found on the Canadian News Wire site (posted above) and includes their latest release from February 2^nd, called a Joint Statement from Robert Fawcett and Outdoor Adventures at Whistler Ltd. It states that Outdoor Adventures at Whistler Ltd. and former General Manager, Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc. agree to the following: 

1. The number of dogs euthanized (estimating 50 dogs)
2. The condition of the dogs euthanized ("too old" or "sick" and "not adoptable")
3. The efforts made to arrange for dogs to be adopted (adoption were not as successful as hoped)
4. The instructions given concerning the manner of euthanizing the dogs (no instructions)

Not exactly a friendly message, especially if you haven’t heard about the tragedy, and genuinely wanted to research dog sledding!! I couldn’t find any statements that OAW had released besides these, and it doesn’t look like they want to talk to the media any time soon!

Because of this, social media is definitely hurting OAW's business, and will continue to do so, until the level of public outrage decreases, because either or OAW makes a better attempt to deal with this situation, or because they are torn apart by the investigations. In my opinion, OAW is handling this situation terribly, and should at minimum, make a public apology (“fess up”) and try to resolve this situation in a more accountable, and transparent way. I doubt the General Manager who is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress is up to such a task, so it should fall on the head of OAW, whomever that might be. They are not mentioned in any of the news releases. 

OAW should take a page out of Maple Leaf Foods book, as when they were at the centre of the listeriosis crisis that claimed the lives of 22 people in 2008, the firm's CEO, Michael McCain, held press conferences and posted an apology on their web site. A company spokesperson did interviews in a wide range of media and the company ran advertisements on TV  and in newspapers. Their stock prices recovered (if not completely to the same level as pre October 2008) and they have mostly recovered their image.

It seems like all the companies associated with OAW (even those who don’t want to be!) have released personal messages to the public, including Craig Daniell, Chief Executive Officer for the BC SPCA; Tom Benson, Chief Experience Officer of WildPlay Ltd. (another adventure group in Whistler); Barrett Fisher, President & CEO, Tourism Whistler and Craig Beattie, General Manager, Canadian Snowmobile and Canadian Dogsled Adventures Ltd and I’m sure the list will grow with time. So why hasn’t OAW??

Overall, I think social media is great for communicating a message, but like Facebook and Twitter didn't cause the uprising in Egypt, it can only shape the narrative (which can decrease a businesses sales or share value) and put pressure on the government and other organizations to make a change in the legislation or laws. In the end, I think social media can only help or hurt a business (or a presidency!) so much, from there it is up to the people to do something, in the real world.

Let's hope when all the reports about the dog slaughter in Whistler are released by the BCSPCA, RCMP and provincial task force, it brings about some positive changes to the dog sledding industry, where many animals meet a similar fate.

Photograph by: Claudia Kwan, Special to the Vancouver Sun

The BC SPCA conducts nearly 6,000 cruelty investigations a year and is reliant on donations from the public to continue its work. Your gift can help support investigations and bring abusers to justice. Please donate today. I do!!

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*Update - On Saturday, February 5th a group of around 70 people rallied in Whistler for a "funeral procession" to remember the slaughtered sled dogs. Some in the demonstration held signs with slogans such as "Stop Animal Cruelty, saying they want Canada to enact tougher animal cruelty laws. They brought their pet dogs along as they met near a kiosk belonging to OAW, which has since removed its sign, and added security guards.