Canada skip Cheryl Bernard calls after a shot at the Olympic Centre on Feb. 25, 2010 in Vancouver. Winning a silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics hasn't turned into a silver lining for Canadian curler Cheryl Bernard. Despite getting plenty of international publicity and television face time at the 2010 Games, Bernard and her teammates have been forced to launch an advertising blitz to gain a new sponsor for the upcoming season and beyond.Rick Eglinton
Oh, Facebook. We realize you're only six years old, but must you act like a spoiled child who won't take no for an answer? Early this week we learned that - despite promises to the contrary - the social networking site has been allowing advertisers to scoop up information that would identify its users. Then, a research paper revealed perhaps an even deeper breach of privacy: Advertisers could learn the sexual orientation of users. Some shrugged at the revelation, saying anything posted on a Facebook page is de facto public information. Still, it's times like this that we wonder why Facebook has any friends. (Except advertisers, of course; they'll be friends with anyone.)
Cheryl Bernard could certainly use some friends. The skip of the Canadian women's silver medal-winning Olympic curling squad announced this week that she and her team are shopping for sponsors after a backer for the 2011 season fell through. Using space donated by the Jim Pattison Group, Bernard & Co. will appear on a trio of Calgary billboards with the announcement: "TEAM SPONSORS WANTED ... Hurry Hard!" Ms. Bernard told The Canadian Press that she and her teammates will do more than simply wear the logos of sponsors while they play. "We will give them our time to be spokespersons for their company or product," she said. So, Corporate Canada, are you ready to (curling) rock?
Truth is, there are too many good causes to support. Take the Bicycle Factory, an initiative of Cadbury that enables chocoholics to help donate bikes to Ghanaians. Last year, Canadians who bought a specially marked Cadbury product and then entered the UPC code on a dedicated website led the company to donate about 5,000 bicycles to make life easier for kids in Ghana. A documentary about the effort aired this month, and on Monday night the campaign, developed by Toronto's The Hive, won the "Best of the Best in the World" nod at the MAA Globes awards in Washington. No word on whether they celebrated by getting drunk on chocolate.
Because let's face it: Ad folks like to drink. Next Thursday night they'll be slinging them back at Toronto's Arts & Letters Club for the latest Conversuasion, an occasional industry get-together featuring marketing tales from the trenches. This edition includes Jim Marcus, a Tribal DDB Chicago bigwig; Mia Wedgbury of High Road Communications; and Greg Hounslow, who boasts the title of "emerging media adviser" at WestJet. Truth is, the first two are speaking about stuff we find totally uninteresting ("Aligning people to solve problems"? Wake us when it ends), but Mr. Hounslow's subject is "From Polar Bears to Social Media." Wait - are Coke's ursine mascots on Facebook? Why won't they friend us?