Two things I am done with

Ok, here's a little rant of a post.

There are two things in my environment that I am done with, completely over.

The first is flash mobs.  (Or anything involving flash and/or mobs).  Now, I used to be a fan.  That cell phone commercial at the train station was awesome, and so was the Black Eyed Peas on Oprah.  Other than that, it's all old news and unexciting.  Anyone wishing to start a flash mob now is sooo 2008 (and also 2000-and-late).

Side note - do you remember what cell phone company the ad was for?  Me neither.  FAIL!

Second thing - "teaser" ad campaigns, especially Edmonton-centric ones.

You know what I'm talking about.  We were blessed in March with not one, but TWO such campaigns.  The first was for Southgate mall, and it was their second offence.  At least their teaser had glittery, mesmerizing, trance-inducing signs.

The second one, and also a second offense was for Now! Radio.  Avid followers (again, read: nobody) will know my feelings about this station.  You will also know my feelings about their last campaign.  This time around was a whole series of inane and highly creepy billboards that read like Three Lines Free (for those who are old like me) or craigslist ads (for those who grew up with the series of tubes), asking where "Red Scarf Girl" was, and if creepy billboard man (Prince Charming?  more like Prince Rapist) could find her again.

After a looooong protracted campaign, it was revealed that Now! radio was behind it all.  And we all laughed and laughed.  Then we gave them kudos for being so interesting.  Then we puked.

I am not an advertising person - so I don't get how this can be effective.  I can't imagine that it's true that all publicity is good publicity.  (for example, if McDonald's is in the news for serving mice instead of cows, will that drive sales?)  The only thing these ads did was solidify my dislike for the Now! radio brand.  In my mind, the big reveal was absolutely disappointing.  It should have ended with Red Scarf Girl and Prince Charming really being Belinda Stronach and Peter MacKay getting back together in a Scientologist wedding, or something similarly spectacular.

And this bait-and-switch was brought to you by the station that bills itself as "Honest" and "Open" and "Not Fake"  (and p.s., don't get me started on what that means for a radio station).

My favourite part of this whole saga is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO MENTION of this anymore on the Now! website.  This is brilliant advertising.

I can only hope that the next campaign they run involves flash mobbing in some form or another.

When? Soon. Now! BARF!

If you don't live in Edmonton, or if you do, and have been living the hermit lifestyle for the past month, let me catch you up:

About a month ago, billboards went up all around Edmonton with what looked like the Sprite bottle bubbles in the background and the word WHEN? printed in giant letters.

Then, after a few weeks, all the billboards were replaced with the word SOON. I could hardly contain my enthusiasm.

Then, the big reveal yesterday at 1:02 - the launch of a new radio station in Edmonton called Now! Here are reasons why I already don't like this station:

1) Stupid ad campaign. I hate the build-up / reveal style of ads. Whatever marketing genius thought these up should be tied to a chair and forced to watch endless loops of "Where's the Beef" ads.

2) The name. Seriously? Now! (note the exclamation mark). What kind of name is that? Also, why do they need to shout the name of the station?

3) The morning show. Now, granted, I haven't heard the morning show yet, but the hosts are named Mars and Crash. Is the first lession in DJ school 101 about how you have to pick a zany name? "Here's our morning hosts, Jiffy Pop and Quicky Lube". Stupid.

4) The song selection - "guitar-driven rock songs from artists that write their own songs" - sounds promising. First artist listed? Nickleback. Enough said. Actually, not enough said - this looks like the worst parts of The Bear, Capital FM and K-Rock all mixed together.

5) The frequency. 102.3. That's WAAAY too close to Sonic 102.9. Considering that Sonic's tower is a piddly little thing in Nisku (right by that awesome Flaman treadmill guy) - the Now! broadcast takes over that entire 102-ish frequency range. Which makes it near impossible to find Sonic on my clock radio, which uses an old-school analog dial for tuning.

Don't get me started on how much point #5 upsets me. For years, I've woken up to the hilarious ramblings of Garner Andrews on Sonic. Or, 3 out of 5 days a week, a song by Metric. What an awesome way to start the day! Now that Now! has taken over my clock radio's ability to find Sonic, I had to tune it to the Bear. I do NOT want to wake up to AC/DC. Also, Paul Brown and the other Paul Brown (Yukon Jack) (oh yeah, and the ditzy woman - seriously, why hire a hot chick for radio?) are complete morons, and make me want to throw my radio and smash it when I hear them. Not a good way to start the day in a good mood.

I want my MTV.

And by MTV, I mean Sonic.