G20: “The World is Watching” yet Toronto is divided

I debated about writing a post on what I experienced this weekend in Toronto at the G20 summit. Usually I try to stay away from politics and controversy online, but I have too much I need to get off my chest. So here are my thoughts–I’m sure a lot of you will disagree but I’m always up for engaging in intelligent discussion.

Saturday Recap

I was visiting my friend’s condo in Yorkville when we turned on the TV and saw reports of “protesters” jumping on a cop car and smashing a Starbucks window. Immediately I was appalled…I thought, way to get respect and credibility for your cause. After watching CP24 I learned that it wasn’t just G20 protesters causing damage, rather, it was the “Black bloc” who was responsible. My friends and I decided to walk the few blocks to where all the action was. After passing through Yonge and Dundas we were utterly shocked. News reports just said ONE Starbucks location had been damaged, yet the chaos and havoc wreaked on Dundas square was jaw-dropping. Nearly every store front in the vicinity had been trashed, with shattered glass strewn across pavements, furniture pulled out of stores, mannequins ripped in half and smeared with feces. It was completely disgusting and made me furious that any “human” would be capable of such blatant disregard for property. After seeing College Park Winners, Tim Hortons, American Apparel, Athlete’s World, Bell, and Rogers all destroyed we moved towards Queen’s Park. It was here that I realized “the world may be watching” but Toronto as a city was completely divided.

American Apparel store at Yonge and Dundas destroyed

(photo courtesy of www.blogto.com)

Found this great video on my friend Ginger’s blog.

Of course the most shocking and disturbing part of Saturday for me was the destruction caused by the Black bloc. However, I was disheartened by civilians’ treatment of the Toronto police force. People were lining up, taking photos and gawking at police in riot gear. I heard hundreds of unoriginal complaints like “is this where my tax money is going?” “why don’t they just Skype next time?” etc. Whatever, fine. The police stayed strong and silent, didn’t respond to heckling or photos or generally annoying people. When they actually arrested a couple hooligans, I thought “finally!” I was surprised they had showed so much restraint amidst the chaos. Frankly, after seeing the damage caused to the city, if I were on the force I would be ready to clear the streets immediately. But no–dozens of people around us started chanting “let him go! let him go! This isn’t democracy! The world is watching!” My friends and I looked at each other, shell shocked. Were people actually defending these protesters?!

Striking photo by Ryan Dury

Before I write a 10 page summary of my experience, here are a few key points:

1) Police are DOING THEIR JOB. It is not their choice to wear riot gear and they did not choose to have the summit in Toronto. They are here for OUR protection, and they are putting their lives on the line as well.

2) After the massive destruction and anarchy on Saturday afternoon, police have every right to ensure the safety for the general public is being maintained. That includes clearing streets, pushing people out of the way (burning police cars anyone?), and arresting those responsible for the riots. After the Black Bloc shedded their black gear, they blended in with regular protesters, making it difficult for police to find the real perpetrators. Yet people were condemming police for “violating” their right to freedom of speech. I’m sorry, but after an attack on the city, police have every right to shut even peaceful protests down if it means securing the area. Shouldn’t Torontonians be united in the police effort to find the real bad guys and get them off the streets?

3) Protesters–why on earth were there so many different issues being protested?! I saw signs for improved immigration, anti-abortion, North Korea, G20 $, Harper, seal hunting and so forth. Is it just me, or does having 4,000 protesters all arguing for different issues weaken all their arguments? Why not have one main cause to fight for, or at least break into groups. It seemed so ridiculous to me, like the G20 gave everyone who ever had an issue with something the justification to come out.

4) Sunday’s “event” really bothered me. Although I was safe at home in Mississauga, I saw on the news and via Twitter that a bunch of peaceful protesters and bystanders had been detained at Queen and Spadina. The most upsetting thing about this for me was how a large amount of people were blaming police, arguing that human rights laws were being violated, and complaining that innocent bystanders were unfairly detained. I’m sorry, but what IS an innocent bystander? Although I was on scene for some of the events on Saturday, when police told us to move, you better believe we moved out of their way. Despite all that happened on Saturday, people still flocked to the city and gawked at police, took photos, and didn’t leave. All of a sudden, they claim they were mistakenly caught up in it, and had no idea, and it’s so unfair, etc. No, it’s not unfair. These people made the decision to get involved just by being present in that area. Again, police had every right to clear the streets for everyone’s protection. I’m sorry if they felt their human rights were being violated, but I think safety and caution trumps protesting rights. Had there not been any riots the day before, than sure, it might have been a bit much for police to detain peaceful protesters. But based on the events that took place, police can’t afford to let that happen again. I saw so many tweets condemming police and their “brutality” and lack of explanation for detaining these people. Sorry, but what did those bystanders expect?

Police detain protesters at Queen and Spadina

(photo courtesy of www.blogto.com)

Although it’s a bit of an exaggeration, I compare the Black Bloc riots on Saturday to a small scale terrorist attack. The city was helpless as these savages destroyed our city and no one could stop them. To me, the obvious plan of attack from Toronto is to unite together as a city, with our police force leading the way to keep us all safe. The fact that protesters gave them a hard time and people started criticizing every single police action is depressing. Why couldn’t we all come together to fight off these criminals and ensure they stayed the hell away from our city? Instead, we have a divided Toronto–some think police did a great job, others are horrified at their actions or lack thereof, and others are ambivalent. Of course, perspective is everything, but I’m disheartened that we are blaming the police force–our protectors–instead of the government and the actual Black Bloc members.

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Virgin America and Klout pick Toronto “influencers” for free flight

Klout has been taking over my Twitter feed for the past week. Everywhere I look, people are either announcing their Klout status, how they won a free flight to L.A. or San Francisco because of their influence, or pouting that Klout must have mistakenly forgotten about them/had technical difficulties when assessing their Klout or lack thereof.

For those of you unfamiliar with this promotion, Virgin America partnered with Klout to offer free return flights from Toronto to L.A. or San Francisco to influencers in the Toronto community between June 23 and August 23. Klout is an analytics service that tracks users retweets, @ replies, shared links, and overall reach and influence on Twitter.

Hello there, Green-Eyed Monster

I must admit, at first I felt a case of sour grapes coming on. After seeing dozens of people I follow, communicate with, and network with at Toronto events get invite after invite, I felt a bit left out that I didn’t receive an invitation. It was like not being asked to join the cool kids club. I was even more annoyed to see my Klout score is a measly 22, I’m influenced by no one, and influence no one, according to them. Now, I suppose I’m relatively new to being an “influencer.” I’m a student, a soon to be intern, and have a handful of great people I regularly engage with on Twitter. No, I don’t think I particularly deserve to win a free flight based on my “influence” or Twitter “reach”, but I started looking at profiles of people who had won flights and was baffled that certain people who had less than 500 followers, or who had a high number of followers but only followed a hundred or so people back were chosen as influencers. It made me wonder how exactly Klout is measuring true influence and reach. I know there’s a description on their website of how they measure, but it’s all kind of mumbo jumbo to me. As my friend and classmate Ginger Bertrand pointed out, the whole Virgin America-Klout free flight giveaway has a Mean Girls feel to it. Some third party application has reviewed your profile and decided you weren’t influential enough to qualify. I realize this thinking is a bit childish, but it reminds me of how parents and teachers used to say, “if you don’t have enough candy to share with the whole class, you shouldn’t be handing it out.”

Don’t get me wrong–I’m happy that certain people in the Toronto community got the recognition they deserved. People like @erin_bury, @clickflickca, @unmarketing, @jgombita to name a few definitely deserve to be identified as thought leaders, producers of great content and avid engagers with a number of people, and all of them certainly influence me on Twitter.

Brilliant Marketing?

Once I got past my initial sour grapes reaction, I decided that the promotion is actually quite brilliant. Virgin America is certainly an innovative airline with a heavy focus on using social media to promote their services. What better way to get more brand recognition than to hand out free flights to the most influential people in Toronto? I found it interesting that Virgin America does not require winners of this promotion to discuss it on Twitter. Some would argue it’s akin to sending bloggers free items in the hopes they will blog about them, but winners have no actual requirement to discuss the promotion. Of course, most winners ARE talking about it, because it’s a neat idea, it’s an ego-booster, and it’s a pretty cool strategy on Virgin America’s behalf.

Moving Forward

Everyone likes the idea of rewards. Consumers want to feel special, even it’s as little as a $1 off coupon for a Frappucino at Starbucks. We like to be rewarded for loyalty, and being rewarded for having a strong online presence is quite awesome. My only hope is that more companies follow Virgin America’s suit, and that they don’t forget about the little guys too. Plenty of my fellow classmates at Humber PR have just joined Twitter in January and have already amounted an impressive amount of followers, have created interesting conversations, and are keen on networking. I think that deserves to be recognized too!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Virgin America-Klout free flight promotion. Do you think it’s brilliant marketing, or merely a popularity contest? Were you one of the lucky winners, or do you feel like you should have been chosen?

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Adidas vs. Nike in “Epic” World Cup Ads

The Fifa World Cup is the most exciting sporting event for me. I could care less about hockey, golf and baseball, but every four years I become giddy and rush to find my England car flag so I can drive around town honking at other England supporters. I love the sport, the camaraderie brought on by strangers who share a passion for their teams, and  I LOVE seeing the commercials/advertisements from the sponsors featuring my favourite soccer players.

The ads are typically exciting, inspirational and create hype for the World Cup. I couldn’t wait to see what the sponsors would come up this year, especially from Nike and Adidas. However, I was completely let down by the Adidas ad. In fact, I think it’s one of the worst commercials I’ve ever seen. Both sponsors tried to create “epic” ads featuring famous athletes but only one succeeded. I think the Adidas ad bombed and the Nike ad was spectacular because of two main reasons: creativity and audience.

Nike’s “Write the Future” ad

vs.

Adidas Star Wars Cantina 2010

1) Originality/Creativity

Nike’s “Write the Future” hit the nail on the head. From the first few seconds, I was drawn into the exciting, fast-paced, visually appealing commercial. The concept itself was innovative and intriguing–it showed world class soccer players making great plays only to reveal scenarios of what could happen culturally, personally and professionally if they messed up a kick or goal.  For example, when Wayne Rooney made a bad pass he had a vision of being ridiculed in the U.K. media and having to live in a trailer. He then decided to get the ball back and had visions of being knighted by the Queen. Thus, writing your own future. It played like a movie–you wanted to find out what would happen next in the sequence of “what ifs…?”

On the flip side, the Adidas ad completely lacked in originality and creativity. I know Adidas has a Star Wars product line, but using Star Wars characters is not the least bit appealing, new or fresh to me. It lacked excitement, intrigue, as well as an overlying theme. There were random “celebrities” and athletes scattered haphazardly throughout the commercial–ranging from David Beckham to Jay Baruchel to Snoop Dogg to Noel Gallagher?! For a commercial that is intended for the World Cup, I don’t understand how any of these people (with the exception of David Beckham) would be involved in this ad. Also, there were maybe two references to the World Cup and soccer. Plus, I found all the “celebrities” were wearing boring, everyday items from the Adidas line. I find it ironic that the closing slogan is “celebrate originality.”

2) Who’s your audience?

In every single one of my PR classes at Humber we are taught to think about who our audience is first and foremost. You can’t expect to sell a product or service, start a marketing campaign or write goals and objectives without determining who your audience is. This is something Nike did fantastically, and something that Adidas failed to take into consideration.

Nike made a commercial for Nike Football–for the World Cup. Consequently, its ad featured a multitude of international soccer players, soccer fans, and regular everyday Joes who were excited to be wrapped up in this international event, even from their homes and workplaces. The ad showed communities rallying together in support of their team, and the ad was clearly for the World Cup.

Adidas, on the other hand, neglected to think about who their audience was. I realize there are a lot of Star Wars geeks out there and that Star Wars is a hugely popular movie franchise. However, I loathe Star Wars and know many friends who have never seen a film. My point is–not everyone is a fan of Star Wars. I’m not sure why Adidas chose such a specific theme to touch on in their World Cup commercial, especially since it should be appealing to an international audience. Despite the fact that I am David Beckham’s #1 fan (he has and always will be my favourite soccer player), I was embarrassed for his performance and association in the ad. I know Adidas sponsors him and he must remain loyal, but even as his huge fan I was completely turned off  by the lack of originality and humour in the ad. In fact, it was cringe-worthy to me.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh, but after comparing the two commercials I’m stunned that anyone at Adidas would have okay-ed the ad as their big World Cup promotion. For two competing, massive sports companies, how is it that Nike continues to produce inspirational, entertaining, must-see ads, while Adidas comes up with lackluster performances and continues to be the lead sponsor in the World Cup? I would love to hear people’s thoughts on the two commercials–maybe there are some Star Wars fans who want to defend the Adidas ad?

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