I often forget to point out the goodness, so let me draw your attention to the second sentence of Edward Keenan's excellent Rob Ford profile in eye this week.
At the end of last month, maverick City Councillor Rob Ford was attacking the $1.5 million in grants the City of Toronto gives to AIDS awareness programs, since "if you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you won't get AIDS probably -- that's the bottom line." That was just the hum-along hook to an epic operetta dissecting Toronto's $50 million in grant programs.
Putting "hum-along hook" right next to "operetta" is a tidy bit of genius. Nice work. Class dismissed.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
The Death of the Double Entendre
The Death of the Double Entendre
July 16, 2006 | Toronto Star | Ryan Bigge
It's spring of 1949, and a husband absentmindedly flips through The Saturday Evening Post. He stops at the headline, "We Love to Catch Them on a Springmaid Sheet." It's an ad for a fabric company, which is not something men in this particular era (or our own) care much about. But the woman being rescued is showing a bit of garter as she leaps to safety, her skirt flapping as she lands on a blanket stretched taut by four handsome firefighters.
This is The Tease in action, and believe it or not, there is more here than meets the eye. Elliott White Springs, the president of Spring Mills, was the slightly dirty mind behind a series of incredibly popular ads featuring sly puns and double-entendres that ran from 1947 until his death in 1959. Springs even wrote his own ad copy, and along the way created the rules of advertising innuendo that remain relevant today.
As Charles Goodrum and Helen Dalrymple explain in their book Advertising in America, Springs relied on four principles. First, the reader was considered an intelligent peer, not an easy-to-titillate sucker. Second, a product benefit had to be offered once the reader's attention was gained through pulchritudinous means. Next, racy images should combine humour and respect — Springs' ads objectified men and women, although both retained their dignity. The final principle was the most important: The Tease was the most effective method of leveraging sex in an ad. An inch of stocking top worked far better than a topless woman.
Springs had to fight with illustrators to show less, not more. "What I wanted was a subtle picture of a girl with her skirt agitated by the wind," writes Springs in a 1948 letter reprinted in Advertising in America. "You send me a picture of a girl with her skirts blown over her head like she was standing over an air jet at Coney Island! It's about as subtle as the Can Can."
***
It's spring of 2005, and you are staring at the back cover of Vice magazine, where Melissa, the winner of an unofficial American Apparel wet T-shirt contest, is apprising us of her skill set. Here is the Spring Mills of the 21st century, a high-profile cotton company that relies on sex to sell its products. But founder Dov Charney, who helps write his own ads, has no use for the wink. Proud to call himself a pervert, chuffed when porn stars wear his clothes, Charney prefers to build his brand around the single entendre, sleaze without Tease.
Jaime Wolf, writing in the New York Times Magazine this April, noted that, "Charney is pushing boundaries, and knowingly so, and he maintains that your response to his boundary-pushing determines whether you count as a young person or an old person in today's society."
Were he still alive, Elliott Springs would be incensed at Charney's Can Can act. And although I side with Springs, I'm not about to unleash my inner young fogy and yearn for a return of the Burma-Shave billboards. What disappoints me as I slip the bounds of the coveted 18 to 34-year old demographic is that advertising is not treating the newest batch of consumers as intelligent peers. Advertising has forgotten how to be subtle. Worst of all, it requires no cultural competencies to decode.
What are cultural competencies? In the spirit of the horn-dog culture that has allowed the single entendre to triumph (what author Ariel Levy calls raunch culture), allow me to make my point through some hot lesbian action. Hot lesbian cultural studies action, that is.
In an anthology called A Queer Romance, Caroline Evans and Lorraine Gamman talk about cultural competencies, that is, how lesbian viewers are able to see and appreciate homosexual allusions in certain films that straight folks cannot.
That might seem obvious. But let's turn this theoretical tryst into a three-way, and introduce another lesbian theorist, Reina Lewis. In her essay "Looking Good," she argues that, "Evans and Gamman emphasize that the pleasure apparently produced by the code under discussion does not reside in the representation, but in the activity of decoding it."
Got that? Cultural competencies (which are not specific to lesbians but vary from subculture to subculture) reward the solving of little visual mysteries, the ability to spot clues that others cannot see.
Conversely, there is very little pleasure of interpretation to be found in an American Apparel ad. In one, a woman named Kelley re-enacts her favourite vintage porn-mag poses. In another, a man drops trou. To quote Gertrude Stein, "There is no there there." The ad requires all the cultural competence of a horny ninth grader.
Which brings me to Collegehumor.com, a website that often features photos of young women kissing each other, none of whom appear to be tenured professors. A repository of beer and sex jokes, the site is both anthropological curiosity and financial juggernaut. In a profile of the collegehumor.com founders in The New Yorker in January of last year, Rebecca Mead writes, "A key to college humor, the four have realized, is that students like to think they belong to a small in-crowd that understands the joke, while the public at large remains clueless." Here is another example of the pleasure of cultural (or subcultural) competencies.
Mead refers to two of the website's biggest money makers: a T-shirt with the phrase "More Cowbell" and another chemise featuring a hand gesture known as The Shocker. I neither recognized nor understood these cultural touchstones. This made me very happy. Being culturally incompetent is a fine thing. It means you're busy doing other things, like standing in line in IKEA, talking real estate at dinner parties, reading The New Yorker instead of Maxim, and other painful but necessary rites of adulthood.
Through an act of journalistic subterfuge (Google), I have since learned that More Cowbell is a slow-burning Saturday Night Live catchphrase from April 2000. As for The Shocker? It's a boudoir technique of which I can say little more, since this is still a family newspaper. Suffice to say, according to Josh Abramson, one of the founders of collegehumour.com interviewed by Mead, "No one over the age of 25 knows what it means, but I guarantee you that ninety per cent of college students know what it is." Call it sex ed for the new generation.
***
In a memo on some rough drafts for his first advertising campaign, Elliott Springs wrote, "I want it to appear as if we were just imitating our competitors, and really trying to sell sheets with cheesecake. A lot of dumb bunnies will then write in and bawl us out for being vulgar and stupid. Then some people will take a second look and catch the burlesque, and be very proud that they're so smart." Springs had identified a version of cultural competencies, and the pleasure of being in the know, almost 70 years ago.
Although there is no burlesque in American Apparel, I take solace in knowing I'm not the only one upset about the lack of hidden pleasures in today's advertising. In June 1999, Vice magazine (whose degenerate content is a spiritual forbearer to the smut of American Apparel) printed a letter to the editor from Noel Islavksy, of Moncton, Ont. "What's the matter with your advertisers? Has none of them ever heard of subtlety?" wrote Islavksy. "I, like many men, would appreciate a good tease a lot more. I'm not a prude or anything, but most ads just come off cheesy, not stylish."
I hear you, Noel. In a new short story in the May Harper's, Steven Millhauser writes of the Age of Concealment: "It was as if, after half a century of reckless exposure, a weariness had overcome women, a yearning for withdrawal, a disenchantment with the obligation to invite a bold male gaze." Amen.
July 16, 2006 | Toronto Star | Ryan Bigge
It's spring of 1949, and a husband absentmindedly flips through The Saturday Evening Post. He stops at the headline, "We Love to Catch Them on a Springmaid Sheet." It's an ad for a fabric company, which is not something men in this particular era (or our own) care much about. But the woman being rescued is showing a bit of garter as she leaps to safety, her skirt flapping as she lands on a blanket stretched taut by four handsome firefighters.
This is The Tease in action, and believe it or not, there is more here than meets the eye. Elliott White Springs, the president of Spring Mills, was the slightly dirty mind behind a series of incredibly popular ads featuring sly puns and double-entendres that ran from 1947 until his death in 1959. Springs even wrote his own ad copy, and along the way created the rules of advertising innuendo that remain relevant today.
As Charles Goodrum and Helen Dalrymple explain in their book Advertising in America, Springs relied on four principles. First, the reader was considered an intelligent peer, not an easy-to-titillate sucker. Second, a product benefit had to be offered once the reader's attention was gained through pulchritudinous means. Next, racy images should combine humour and respect — Springs' ads objectified men and women, although both retained their dignity. The final principle was the most important: The Tease was the most effective method of leveraging sex in an ad. An inch of stocking top worked far better than a topless woman.
Springs had to fight with illustrators to show less, not more. "What I wanted was a subtle picture of a girl with her skirt agitated by the wind," writes Springs in a 1948 letter reprinted in Advertising in America. "You send me a picture of a girl with her skirts blown over her head like she was standing over an air jet at Coney Island! It's about as subtle as the Can Can."
***
It's spring of 2005, and you are staring at the back cover of Vice magazine, where Melissa, the winner of an unofficial American Apparel wet T-shirt contest, is apprising us of her skill set. Here is the Spring Mills of the 21st century, a high-profile cotton company that relies on sex to sell its products. But founder Dov Charney, who helps write his own ads, has no use for the wink. Proud to call himself a pervert, chuffed when porn stars wear his clothes, Charney prefers to build his brand around the single entendre, sleaze without Tease.
Jaime Wolf, writing in the New York Times Magazine this April, noted that, "Charney is pushing boundaries, and knowingly so, and he maintains that your response to his boundary-pushing determines whether you count as a young person or an old person in today's society."
Were he still alive, Elliott Springs would be incensed at Charney's Can Can act. And although I side with Springs, I'm not about to unleash my inner young fogy and yearn for a return of the Burma-Shave billboards. What disappoints me as I slip the bounds of the coveted 18 to 34-year old demographic is that advertising is not treating the newest batch of consumers as intelligent peers. Advertising has forgotten how to be subtle. Worst of all, it requires no cultural competencies to decode.
What are cultural competencies? In the spirit of the horn-dog culture that has allowed the single entendre to triumph (what author Ariel Levy calls raunch culture), allow me to make my point through some hot lesbian action. Hot lesbian cultural studies action, that is.
In an anthology called A Queer Romance, Caroline Evans and Lorraine Gamman talk about cultural competencies, that is, how lesbian viewers are able to see and appreciate homosexual allusions in certain films that straight folks cannot.
That might seem obvious. But let's turn this theoretical tryst into a three-way, and introduce another lesbian theorist, Reina Lewis. In her essay "Looking Good," she argues that, "Evans and Gamman emphasize that the pleasure apparently produced by the code under discussion does not reside in the representation, but in the activity of decoding it."
Got that? Cultural competencies (which are not specific to lesbians but vary from subculture to subculture) reward the solving of little visual mysteries, the ability to spot clues that others cannot see.
Conversely, there is very little pleasure of interpretation to be found in an American Apparel ad. In one, a woman named Kelley re-enacts her favourite vintage porn-mag poses. In another, a man drops trou. To quote Gertrude Stein, "There is no there there." The ad requires all the cultural competence of a horny ninth grader.
Which brings me to Collegehumor.com, a website that often features photos of young women kissing each other, none of whom appear to be tenured professors. A repository of beer and sex jokes, the site is both anthropological curiosity and financial juggernaut. In a profile of the collegehumor.com founders in The New Yorker in January of last year, Rebecca Mead writes, "A key to college humor, the four have realized, is that students like to think they belong to a small in-crowd that understands the joke, while the public at large remains clueless." Here is another example of the pleasure of cultural (or subcultural) competencies.
Mead refers to two of the website's biggest money makers: a T-shirt with the phrase "More Cowbell" and another chemise featuring a hand gesture known as The Shocker. I neither recognized nor understood these cultural touchstones. This made me very happy. Being culturally incompetent is a fine thing. It means you're busy doing other things, like standing in line in IKEA, talking real estate at dinner parties, reading The New Yorker instead of Maxim, and other painful but necessary rites of adulthood.
Through an act of journalistic subterfuge (Google), I have since learned that More Cowbell is a slow-burning Saturday Night Live catchphrase from April 2000. As for The Shocker? It's a boudoir technique of which I can say little more, since this is still a family newspaper. Suffice to say, according to Josh Abramson, one of the founders of collegehumour.com interviewed by Mead, "No one over the age of 25 knows what it means, but I guarantee you that ninety per cent of college students know what it is." Call it sex ed for the new generation.
***
In a memo on some rough drafts for his first advertising campaign, Elliott Springs wrote, "I want it to appear as if we were just imitating our competitors, and really trying to sell sheets with cheesecake. A lot of dumb bunnies will then write in and bawl us out for being vulgar and stupid. Then some people will take a second look and catch the burlesque, and be very proud that they're so smart." Springs had identified a version of cultural competencies, and the pleasure of being in the know, almost 70 years ago.
Although there is no burlesque in American Apparel, I take solace in knowing I'm not the only one upset about the lack of hidden pleasures in today's advertising. In June 1999, Vice magazine (whose degenerate content is a spiritual forbearer to the smut of American Apparel) printed a letter to the editor from Noel Islavksy, of Moncton, Ont. "What's the matter with your advertisers? Has none of them ever heard of subtlety?" wrote Islavksy. "I, like many men, would appreciate a good tease a lot more. I'm not a prude or anything, but most ads just come off cheesy, not stylish."
I hear you, Noel. In a new short story in the May Harper's, Steven Millhauser writes of the Age of Concealment: "It was as if, after half a century of reckless exposure, a weariness had overcome women, a yearning for withdrawal, a disenchantment with the obligation to invite a bold male gaze." Amen.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
From The Too Good To Be True Dept.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chatelaine Switches To Fixed Schedule For Staff Resignations
In order to improve editorial stability and reduce staff turbulence at Chatelaine, a new policy mandates that staff resignations can only occur on alternating Wednesdays.
“We can’t stop staff from leaving their jobs,” explained Chatelaine publisher Kerry Mitchell. “But we can make sure they resign in a more convenient manner.”
Given the long and successful history of the Chatelaine brand, the past two years of staff unrest has spooked some advertisers, along with executives at Rogers Communications. Since 2004, Kim Pittaway, Beth Hitchcock, Bonny Reichert, Kim Zagar, Caren Watkins, Dre Dee and Ruth Hanley, among others, have left the storied women’s magazine. In order to convince the magazine community at large that a measure of stability was at hand, recently hired editor-in-chief Sara Angel instituted the new scheduling policy on Monday July 17.
“The problem is not staff attrition,” explained Angel. “It’s being unable to predict when that attrition might occur. Our new resignation procedure removes the guesswork and will allow our remaining staff to focus on producing the best magazine possible.”
Since implementing the policy, a decorative bowl of zesty basil minestrone soup -- slated to appear on the January 2007 cover of the magazine -- resigned effective 12:01am on Wednesday, July 19.
The publishers of Chatelaine do not expect anticipate further staff fluxations until Wednesday, August 2.
###
Chatelaine Switches To Fixed Schedule For Staff Resignations
In order to improve editorial stability and reduce staff turbulence at Chatelaine, a new policy mandates that staff resignations can only occur on alternating Wednesdays.
“We can’t stop staff from leaving their jobs,” explained Chatelaine publisher Kerry Mitchell. “But we can make sure they resign in a more convenient manner.”
Given the long and successful history of the Chatelaine brand, the past two years of staff unrest has spooked some advertisers, along with executives at Rogers Communications. Since 2004, Kim Pittaway, Beth Hitchcock, Bonny Reichert, Kim Zagar, Caren Watkins, Dre Dee and Ruth Hanley, among others, have left the storied women’s magazine. In order to convince the magazine community at large that a measure of stability was at hand, recently hired editor-in-chief Sara Angel instituted the new scheduling policy on Monday July 17.
“The problem is not staff attrition,” explained Angel. “It’s being unable to predict when that attrition might occur. Our new resignation procedure removes the guesswork and will allow our remaining staff to focus on producing the best magazine possible.”
Since implementing the policy, a decorative bowl of zesty basil minestrone soup -- slated to appear on the January 2007 cover of the magazine -- resigned effective 12:01am on Wednesday, July 19.
The publishers of Chatelaine do not expect anticipate further staff fluxations until Wednesday, August 2.
###
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Three Days on the Charts
A few kind people have been emailing me about my death of the double-entendre article that ran in the Sunday Star. And so, inspired by this article in Slate, I went to the most emailed section of the Star. And as of Wednesday, July 19, at 2pm, I was #10 on the the top 10 emailed articles chart.
Regular readers will recognize that I try and not do this sort of thing very often. The only reason I searched for myself in the first place is because of the Slate piece and the fact that I was receiving email from friends and strangers alike.
If I'm still on the charts this Saturday, I'll ask for a raise from my kindly editor.
Update: The article made it onto www.aldaily.com! I also syndicated the article with Featurewell.com, a service I've wanted to try out for a long time...
Regular readers will recognize that I try and not do this sort of thing very often. The only reason I searched for myself in the first place is because of the Slate piece and the fact that I was receiving email from friends and strangers alike.
If I'm still on the charts this Saturday, I'll ask for a raise from my kindly editor.
Update: The article made it onto www.aldaily.com! I also syndicated the article with Featurewell.com, a service I've wanted to try out for a long time...
Saturday, July 15, 2006
From The Film Tristram Shandy
- Why do we want to spend a year of our lives making this film?
- Because it’s funny.
- Is that all?
- Is that not enough?
- If it’s genuinely funny, that is enough.
- Because it’s funny.
- Is that all?
- Is that not enough?
- If it’s genuinely funny, that is enough.
Friday, July 14, 2006
George Saundersland Blips the Big Screen
There is a scene early on in the film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang that to me brings to life the sort of commercial you might see in a George Saunders short story. Harmony is describing to Harry the only evidence of her acting career -- a fairly popular beer commercial...
Harmony: You know the one with the bear. And it goes well, I prefer Genaros --
Harry: Genaros! But I’m a bear, what do I know? I suck the heads off fish.
Later we are treated to the actual commercial, with its stilted surrealism and a suitably low-rent CGI bear. In the ad, the bear bursts from a huge cake, two bottles of beer in each hand, which he proceeds to toss to the Bavarian crowd around him. Then the bear crams a fish into his mouth, and yes, sucks its head off. As the commercial ends, Harmony giggles bemusedly and turns to the camera to give us a “what-are-you-gonna-do” shrug.
Perfect.
Harmony: You know the one with the bear. And it goes well, I prefer Genaros --
Harry: Genaros! But I’m a bear, what do I know? I suck the heads off fish.
Later we are treated to the actual commercial, with its stilted surrealism and a suitably low-rent CGI bear. In the ad, the bear bursts from a huge cake, two bottles of beer in each hand, which he proceeds to toss to the Bavarian crowd around him. Then the bear crams a fish into his mouth, and yes, sucks its head off. As the commercial ends, Harmony giggles bemusedly and turns to the camera to give us a “what-are-you-gonna-do” shrug.
Perfect.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
The Best $65 You'll Ever Spend...
Not sure how I missed this. I found it searching for this. At the same time I found this.
Things could be worse, of course. He could be doing this.
Or he could be this:
Stroumboulopoulos said he was on vacation when he got the offer to host the talent search show, less than a week ago.
"I was riding my motorbike outside Chicago and I felt the vibration of the call in my leather jacket, but I didn't answer it," he said.
When he picked up the message, Stroumboulopoulos said he rode back to Chicago and got on the plane to Los Angeles.
And that's that.
Things could be worse, of course. He could be doing this.
Or he could be this:
Stroumboulopoulos said he was on vacation when he got the offer to host the talent search show, less than a week ago.
"I was riding my motorbike outside Chicago and I felt the vibration of the call in my leather jacket, but I didn't answer it," he said.
When he picked up the message, Stroumboulopoulos said he rode back to Chicago and got on the plane to Los Angeles.
And that's that.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Billionaire Leaves $4 Tip
It’s been a long time since the Globe and Mail has managed to nauseate me to the degree it did yesterday morning. In the Toronto section, page one, was an article entitled A Billionaire’s Breakfast.
Let me check my calendar, are we still living in the Gilded Age? What kind of man-of-the-people horseshit are they trying to peddle when they publish an article like this:
For Kenneth Thomson, meals didn't need to come with a side of caviar. A home-style breakfast suited him just fine. His chef of choice? Whoever happened to be whipping up brunch at his local Golden Griddle.
Over the past year and a half, Mr. Thomson, who died on Monday at the age of 82, was a fixture at the modest breakfast joint on Laird Drive, not far from his Rosedale home. Every weekend, he would stroll into the restaurant with his wife, Marilyn, his son Peter and Peter's family and order a brunch buffet for $10.95.
I especially like this portion:
Waiters at the franchised restaurant said Mr. Thomson rarely let them lift a finger, insisting on getting his own food at the smorgasbord. And he always greeted them when he walked in the door en route to his usual corner booth.
The entire point of a buffet is THAT YOU SELECT YOUR OWN GOD-DAMNED FOOD. Yes, I’m so angry that I’ve resorted to Caps Lock, which might well be a first for this blog.
And here is the kicker:
The tips were pretty good, too. Though renowned for his careful spending habits, Mr. Thomson was quite generous when it came to gratuity, often leaving in excess of 35 per cent.
He’s a mother-f***king billionaire. Thirty-five percent on a pre-tax meal of $10.95 is $3.83. I did some quick math – a billion dollars, at five percent interest, earns $50 million per year. That’s $136,986 per day. At this point, the math gets a bit rough, but assume that he earns about a buck fifty per second. Per second.
Last week, my girlfriend and I went to the Crooked Star, which is our favourite bar in the city. The CS has done the unthinkable – they treat customers with respect and the drinks are priced reasonably. We left a tip in excess of 40 percent on our last visit, and although it need not be said, I will say it anyway: we are not billionaires. Oh no.
Let me check my calendar, are we still living in the Gilded Age? What kind of man-of-the-people horseshit are they trying to peddle when they publish an article like this:
For Kenneth Thomson, meals didn't need to come with a side of caviar. A home-style breakfast suited him just fine. His chef of choice? Whoever happened to be whipping up brunch at his local Golden Griddle.
Over the past year and a half, Mr. Thomson, who died on Monday at the age of 82, was a fixture at the modest breakfast joint on Laird Drive, not far from his Rosedale home. Every weekend, he would stroll into the restaurant with his wife, Marilyn, his son Peter and Peter's family and order a brunch buffet for $10.95.
I especially like this portion:
Waiters at the franchised restaurant said Mr. Thomson rarely let them lift a finger, insisting on getting his own food at the smorgasbord. And he always greeted them when he walked in the door en route to his usual corner booth.
The entire point of a buffet is THAT YOU SELECT YOUR OWN GOD-DAMNED FOOD. Yes, I’m so angry that I’ve resorted to Caps Lock, which might well be a first for this blog.
And here is the kicker:
The tips were pretty good, too. Though renowned for his careful spending habits, Mr. Thomson was quite generous when it came to gratuity, often leaving in excess of 35 per cent.
He’s a mother-f***king billionaire. Thirty-five percent on a pre-tax meal of $10.95 is $3.83. I did some quick math – a billion dollars, at five percent interest, earns $50 million per year. That’s $136,986 per day. At this point, the math gets a bit rough, but assume that he earns about a buck fifty per second. Per second.
Last week, my girlfriend and I went to the Crooked Star, which is our favourite bar in the city. The CS has done the unthinkable – they treat customers with respect and the drinks are priced reasonably. We left a tip in excess of 40 percent on our last visit, and although it need not be said, I will say it anyway: we are not billionaires. Oh no.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Sign Me Up Right This Instant!
(Needless to say, this is real.)
The Influencers Come Knocking!
Recruitment of Trend Savvy/Cool Hunting/Tastemaking Writers
June 10 2006
ATTENTION PASSIONATE AND INFLUENTIAL WRITERS!
THINK YOU KNOW WHAT'S ON AND UNDER-THE-RADAR SCREEN OF CANADA'S OPINION LEADERS, TASTEMAKERS AND SOCIAL RINGLEADERS?
Are you the fountain of influence, the keeper of trend-savvy insight and the arbiter of cool things?
If so, then we're looking for you!
In fact, we're looking for a team of Canuck journalists/writers/coolhunters to become our eyes and ears to the leading edge of Canadian culture and marketplace.
The initiative is called The Influencers. It's so new, we are just now putting the finishing details on our website. It will be launching in July nationwide.
The Influencers is totally unique - part word of mouth grapevine, part trend-savvy media, part social media/marketing engine and part non-profit profile raiser.
We are looking for writers and journalists with a broad cross-section of interests and a intellectual curiosity about new and interesting things.
Initially, each one of our 18+ subject areas, needs to be updated monthly. Updates will include a review of breaking trends, a listing of interesting discoveries, profiles of cool or buzzworthy stuff and eyebrow-raising weblinks found across the Canadian universe and beyond. Content will be crafted from a number of sources - including your own personal experience, web/magazine research and our active database of local influencers.
Your opinions will be published online, consumed by a special community of passionate, well-connected and very informed readers.
The perfect contributor? You have the following traits:
• Ahead in adoption, you have na instictive feel for what's next
• Connected to a wide social network
• Travel a lot, attack life
• Informationally curious
• Vocal and aren't shy in sharing your opinion
• Exposed to a lot of interests
• Suasion over your social networks and readers
• Want to participate in a revolutionary type of media/marketing initiative
• perhaps most importantly, write passionately and expertly about subjects you're interested in.
Key FAQs
We can already anticipate some questions you might have, we'll try to be as transparent as we can here in answering them:
What is the basis for launching The Influencers?
The Influencers' core reason for being is to tap into interesting ideas, products and services and seed and spread them through word of mouth. We think it's a better, effective way to learn about stuff - readers and consumers enjoy it, marketers benefit from it and only remarkable, genuine products succeed with it.
Is there anything like The Influencers out there right now?
No, at least we don't think so. We're pretty unique - if you combined Daily Candy, Trendspotting, a well targeted grassroots magazine and a My Space community, you might get pretty close.
Who runs the Influencers?
The parent company is Agent Wildfire, we are a marketing and communications group operating out of Toronto. We have led or worked with some of Canada's most loved products and brands and we're Canada's experts and zealots on the persuasive power of word of mouth.
Is this a paying gig?
You betcha...but if your core reason for interest is to get rich, than I would suggest greener pastures elsewhere. We pay fairly, we'll ratchet it up over time and offer bigger enhanced roles for people that really dig into what we do. Six figure book deals may exist, just not here.
So if I'm not getting rich in the short term, why should I be interested?
Well...you've got free reign to talk about stuff you are passionate and already know a lot about, writing to national group of engaged readers who are highly involved and passionate themselves. We hope you also identify with us as a company/publisher with a worthy cause, a genuinely interested soul and a unique idea with strong growth and exposure prospects.
Is this a full time gig?
No, although over time it may be just that for people that enjoy doing it. Most writers will be responsible for 3-6 articles per month, escalating in frequency over time.
How will you decide which writers to invite to the dance?
We're looking for writers with passion for their subject matter. We want a representative group nationally. We want writers who share a connection with our mission of getting interesting stuff on the hearts and lips of our readers. We want bad egos left at the door. Experience matters but enthusiasm counts for more.
I'd love to participate but do I have to disclose who I am - there may be some messy conflicts?
No - you can either operate as a ghostwriter or public figure - it's more important what you write than who you are. If you'll be writing incognito, just come up with a conversation inspiring pseudonym or interesting alias.
What subject areas do you need to cover off?
Take the survey below to discover the full list of 18 coverage areas
If you don't fit the profile or can't get involved given your current role, we would welcome you forwarding this message onto an interested colleague.
Thanks in advance...we look forward to talking with you.
Spread the word,
Sean Moffitt
Founder and Managing Director, The Influencers
Email: smoffitt@agentwildfire.com
Phone: 647-436-6802
Web: http://www.agentwildfire.com
The Influencers Come Knocking!
Recruitment of Trend Savvy/Cool Hunting/Tastemaking Writers
June 10 2006
ATTENTION PASSIONATE AND INFLUENTIAL WRITERS!
THINK YOU KNOW WHAT'S ON AND UNDER-THE-RADAR SCREEN OF CANADA'S OPINION LEADERS, TASTEMAKERS AND SOCIAL RINGLEADERS?
Are you the fountain of influence, the keeper of trend-savvy insight and the arbiter of cool things?
If so, then we're looking for you!
In fact, we're looking for a team of Canuck journalists/writers/coolhunters to become our eyes and ears to the leading edge of Canadian culture and marketplace.
The initiative is called The Influencers. It's so new, we are just now putting the finishing details on our website. It will be launching in July nationwide.
The Influencers is totally unique - part word of mouth grapevine, part trend-savvy media, part social media/marketing engine and part non-profit profile raiser.
We are looking for writers and journalists with a broad cross-section of interests and a intellectual curiosity about new and interesting things.
Initially, each one of our 18+ subject areas, needs to be updated monthly. Updates will include a review of breaking trends, a listing of interesting discoveries, profiles of cool or buzzworthy stuff and eyebrow-raising weblinks found across the Canadian universe and beyond. Content will be crafted from a number of sources - including your own personal experience, web/magazine research and our active database of local influencers.
Your opinions will be published online, consumed by a special community of passionate, well-connected and very informed readers.
The perfect contributor? You have the following traits:
• Ahead in adoption, you have na instictive feel for what's next
• Connected to a wide social network
• Travel a lot, attack life
• Informationally curious
• Vocal and aren't shy in sharing your opinion
• Exposed to a lot of interests
• Suasion over your social networks and readers
• Want to participate in a revolutionary type of media/marketing initiative
• perhaps most importantly, write passionately and expertly about subjects you're interested in.
Key FAQs
We can already anticipate some questions you might have, we'll try to be as transparent as we can here in answering them:
What is the basis for launching The Influencers?
The Influencers' core reason for being is to tap into interesting ideas, products and services and seed and spread them through word of mouth. We think it's a better, effective way to learn about stuff - readers and consumers enjoy it, marketers benefit from it and only remarkable, genuine products succeed with it.
Is there anything like The Influencers out there right now?
No, at least we don't think so. We're pretty unique - if you combined Daily Candy, Trendspotting, a well targeted grassroots magazine and a My Space community, you might get pretty close.
Who runs the Influencers?
The parent company is Agent Wildfire, we are a marketing and communications group operating out of Toronto. We have led or worked with some of Canada's most loved products and brands and we're Canada's experts and zealots on the persuasive power of word of mouth.
Is this a paying gig?
You betcha...but if your core reason for interest is to get rich, than I would suggest greener pastures elsewhere. We pay fairly, we'll ratchet it up over time and offer bigger enhanced roles for people that really dig into what we do. Six figure book deals may exist, just not here.
So if I'm not getting rich in the short term, why should I be interested?
Well...you've got free reign to talk about stuff you are passionate and already know a lot about, writing to national group of engaged readers who are highly involved and passionate themselves. We hope you also identify with us as a company/publisher with a worthy cause, a genuinely interested soul and a unique idea with strong growth and exposure prospects.
Is this a full time gig?
No, although over time it may be just that for people that enjoy doing it. Most writers will be responsible for 3-6 articles per month, escalating in frequency over time.
How will you decide which writers to invite to the dance?
We're looking for writers with passion for their subject matter. We want a representative group nationally. We want writers who share a connection with our mission of getting interesting stuff on the hearts and lips of our readers. We want bad egos left at the door. Experience matters but enthusiasm counts for more.
I'd love to participate but do I have to disclose who I am - there may be some messy conflicts?
No - you can either operate as a ghostwriter or public figure - it's more important what you write than who you are. If you'll be writing incognito, just come up with a conversation inspiring pseudonym or interesting alias.
What subject areas do you need to cover off?
Take the survey below to discover the full list of 18 coverage areas
If you don't fit the profile or can't get involved given your current role, we would welcome you forwarding this message onto an interested colleague.
Thanks in advance...we look forward to talking with you.
Spread the word,
Sean Moffitt
Founder and Managing Director, The Influencers
Email: smoffitt@agentwildfire.com
Phone: 647-436-6802
Web: http://www.agentwildfire.com
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Dark Horse Humour
Tabatha Southey, nominated four times in the Humour category of the National Magazine Awards, fails to win either silver or gold on Friday night. Granted, there were a total of ten articles up for consideration, but still, she accounted for 40 percent of the nominated articles.
That is simply not funny.
Meanwhile, congrats to the Spacing folks for winning Gold in the Editorial Package category.
That is simply not funny.
Meanwhile, congrats to the Spacing folks for winning Gold in the Editorial Package category.
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