By Frank Moher Sometimes, to my amazement, and certainly against my better judgement, I find myself sympathizing with our current federal government. These moments — some might call them lapses — occur very occasionally. The last one, for example, was in June of last year, when the Cons reversed themselves on the idea of charging a […]
NationBuilder comes to Canada
By Alison@Creekside Ten years ago the Cons bought CIMS, their Constituent Information Management System, and began stuffing it with our phone numbers and adding smiley/frowny faces beside our names and whatever other info they could glean about us. The other parties had their own lesser versions. Most of us first took notice of CIMS when we […]
The Video: The Conservatives’ fave digital agency
From Is this the Conservatives’ new youth strategy? “Go Newclear‘s principals include Brendan Jones, who according to their website was ‘the creative force behind the television and digital campaigns during the 2006, 2008, and 2011 elections,’ and Hamish Marshall, who was the ‘Manager of Strategic Planning in the Office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, where […]
PostMedia, post newspaper
By Alison@Creekside Hey kids, remember PostMedia’s pitch for their tarsands promotion partnership with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers?: Postmedia is proud to present its 2013 media partnership with CAPP. We are a media company national in scope but community-focused. Canadians know our brands, trust our content, and welcome us as a vital member of their […]
Beer Store madness
A BoB short: Ontario liquor retailer The Beer Store recently released what could be the apogee of their cringe-inducing struggle to maintain their provincial lock on alcohol sales. While the chain is privately owned, almost entirely by foreign companies, an Angus Reid Poll last year showed that only 13 per cent of Ontarians were aware […]
Harper needs to ask himself: What would Frank Glenfield say?
By Frank Moher A lot of Canadian teachers are rightfully angry at the Conservatives these days — none more so than drama teachers. Barely hours after Justin Trudeau was elected leader of the Liberal Party, the Cons unleashed an attack ad deriding his work experience: as a camp counsellor, white water rafting instructor, and most […]
The Province’s big, gooey Enbridge mess
By Frank Moher Now that we know just how much financial trouble Postmedia is in (see here, and here, and here), the question becomes: How well are they going to balance journalistic and money problems as they attempt, pell-mell, to transition to a digital-first strategy? On the basis of the Vancouver Province/Enbridge-parody furor, the answer […]
Cartoonist: Enbridge parody pulled on orders from Postmedia
By Frank Moher The cartoonist whose animated parody of an Enbridge ad was removed from the website of Vancouver’s The Province on Friday says the newspaper was told to take it down by a Postmedia executive, after Enbridge threatened to pull $1 million in ads from the company. “It was up for awhile,” Dan Murphy, […]
Vancouver’s Province pulls animation satirizing Enbridge
Update: Cartoonist: Enbridge parody pulled on orders from Postmedia executive The Vancouver Province has pulled from its website an animation created by its editorial cartoonist, Dan Murphy, that satirizes Enbridge’s massive ad campaign in support of its Northern Gateway pipeline. In the original ad, Enbridge claims that the pipeline is “a path to our future,” […]
CRTC reaches for volume control
A BoB short: The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has announced that all broadcasters, cable and satellite providers, and video-on-demand services must silence erratically loud ads by Sept. 1, 2012. The federal regulator had previously told the TV industry that it had one year to turn down the volume. Rogers Communication, Quebecor, and Shaw Communications […]