Citytv without Moses
Marketing Magazine, February 24, 2003.
What does the station stand for without the man who was its brand?
Smooth talkers
Marketing The Globe and Mail, February 7, 2003.
Dealing with reporters is not just for top executives anymore. Media training is becoming a must-have skill throughout companies with rising public profiles.
Shania Twain’s twin CD release
National Post, December 19, 2003.
Up! features pop and country versions of the same songs.
Grey Cup offers advertising touchdown
National Post, November18, 2003.
CFL audience has been growing all season.
Artistic license
National Post, November11, 2003.
Product placement, common in film and television, makes a rare appearance in the theater.
Deutsch drives Mitsubishi north
National Post, October 21, 2003.
US agency rides across the border, fueled by a US$25 million assignment to launch the automaker’s vehicles in Canada.
Play me at work
Hamilton Spectator, October 19-21, 2003.
Tech toys your boss is sure to hate.
Dunt-da-DUNT-da-dunt
National Post, October 8, 2003.
Hockey Night theme, Canada's other anthem, gets an official recording.
Hip selling
National Post, September 23, 2003.
It’s the smart way to reach that difficult 18-to-34 demographic.
Where’s the Mac? Will the web make a star of Ellen Feiss?
National Post, September 16, 2003.
Slurring student gets instant cult status from Apple web ad.
Planet Africa’s ground control
National Post, September 12, 2003.
TIFF Programmer chooses films from large, diverse continent.
The medium may kill the message
National Post, September 3, 2003.
Digital video recorders and similar devices pose a threat to television advertising as we know it.
Want to buy a f*****g video game?
Marketing Magazine, August 29, 2003.
Why is this vulgar but ubiquitous word suddenly being implied in commercial copy everywhere?
Programming 9/11
National Post, August 28, 2003.
For September 11th, 2002, Canadian and US networks are planning a blitz of specials and live reports. Advertisers are keeping their distance.
He’d make the boss a brand booster
National Post, August 26, 2003.
Ted Matthews believes a company’s brand is too important to be left to the marketing department.
The ‘pop’ in pop-up advertising doesn’t stand for popular
National Post, August 19, 2003.
But annoyance may be the key to its effectiveness.
The short answer
National Post, August 12, 2003.
Relationships between clients and advertising agencies are getting briefer.
Is advertising a dead language?
National Post, July 29, 2003.
Relationships A new book by Al and Laura Reis maintains that ads are not the most effective communication tools for building brands; public relations does a much better job at getting the message to consumers.
It’s funny how some ads work
National Post, July 22, 2003.
Does humor make advertising effective, or just funny?
Splendor in the grass
Canadian Business, July 8, 2003.
For summertime fun, croquet’s okay.
Learn to write a bestseller in ten easy steps
Marketing Magazine, May 6, 2002.
Or buy a polite “doesn’t meet our needs at this time” for $50.
Tech babble
Marketing Magazine, November 12, 2001.
They’ve got a different word for everything, and none of it makes any sense.
CBC’s new hipness hurts
Marketing Magazine, August 27, 2001.
The latest efforts from Razorfish try too hard to pull The National into the world of cool.
Think polyester leisure suit
Marketing Magazine, May 14, 2001.
If you want to sell clothes, why evoke an era that defined capital-U ugly?
How to be dumb
Marketing Magazine, March 28, 2001.
The record industry may have beaten back Napster, but at the cost of alienating its best customers.
The Midas touch
Marketing Magazine, February 26, 2001.
No company is worth a second look until Gerry Schwartz tries to buy it.
If you don’t have anything to say, sing it
Marketing Magazine, December 18, 2000.
Aubergine? I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.
The gray flannel fixation
Marketing Magazine, October 30, 2000.
What is it about advertising that movie and television writers find so bewitching?
The wealth of Wallin
National Post, September 16, 2000.
Broadcaster trusts friend with life savings.
Mr. Smith’s corporate illusion
National Post business Magazine, September, 2000.
Gordon Smith is a film special-effects virtuoso who gets rave reviews from filmmakers like Oliver Stone. He’s a great artist. He’s just not so sure he wants to be a businessman.
What is reality?
Marketing Magazine, August 28, 2000
We ain’t seen nothin’ yet in the quest for reality TV concepts.
Poetry to soothe the creative soul
Marketing Magazine, June 26, 2000
T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost provide copy for two campaigns; an observer wanes poetic.
Takes one to know one
Marketing Magazine, May 8, 2000
The academic ad critics on Mental Engineering commit every sin they castigate marketers for.
New York stories
Marketing Magazine, March 27, 2000
Two new books demonstrate how culture and marketing melted into one lukewarm soup.
Revolution is just a t-shirt away
Marketing Magazine, February 21, 2000
Doesn’t the marketing of No Logo undercut the book’s anti-consumption point?
Dear Bob
Marketing Magazine, November 15, 1999
What the new CBC boss should — but won’t — do to fix our national broadcaster.
Woodstunk? Wankstock? Worsestock?
Marketing Magazine, September 6, 1999
Forget Woodstock — get ready for Altamont 2000.
Face to face at the Vancouver art gallery
nextmonet.com, September, 1999
Exhibition surveys 400 years of portraiture.
Play that funky music
Marketing Magazine, July 5, 1999
Why Gen-X channel-surfers are blasé about the proliferation of ’70s hits in advertising.
New KISS on the block
Marketing Magazine, June 24, 1999
The switch from new country to CHR repudiates the CRTC’s original decision.
Wrong number
Marketing Magazine, May 24, 1999
Bell’s baffling new commercials say more about the telco’s mindset than it knows.
Building a better magazine law
Marketing Magazine, March 1, 1999
If Shania Twain’s music is Canadian, why not Vanity Fair’s content?.
Some restrictions apply
Marketing Magazine, January 25, 1999
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.
Garbage in, garbage out
Marketing Magazine, January 3, 1999
Advertising and computers were made for each other.
Too much of a good thing
Marketing Magazine, November 9, 1998
Nike’s trip-up should be a warning to those who’d use saturation marketing.
Advertising about advertising
Marketing Magazine, September 28, 1998
In our commercial culture, the rise of reflexiveness as a creative trope was inevitable.
King Kingwell™
Marketing Magazine, June 1, 1998
What’s next for the ubiquitous doctor of philosophy and pop culture guru? How about his own ad agency?
Defining all that is Canada
Marketing Magazine, May 4, 1998
Molson Canadian’s latest ads have nailed our schizophrenic national identity.
Front of the line
Marketing Magazine, April 20, 1998
Newspapers are working hard to treat advertisers like VIPs without abandoning editorial integrity.
Flaming Brûlé
Marketing Magazine, March 16, 1998
Tyler Brûlé’s recipe for publishing success seems ethically suspect. So why the praise?
Cable consternation
Marketing Magazine, February 9, 1998
Selling TV in a country where people huddle indoors for half the year shouldn’t be this hard.
Sample and scold
Marketing Magazine, February 9, 1998
Negativland thinks Pepsi is wily, and maybe evil. Better that than irrelevant or boring.
Advice for Mr. Black
Marketing Magazine, November 10, 1997
What advertisers hope for if Hollinger’s boss greenlights a national daily.
We’re number three. We don’t try at all.
Canadian Business, November 28, 1997
KVOS isn’t like other Canadian TV. People actually watch it.
When to extend
Marketing Magazine, November 10, 1997
Brand extension is more than just pasting a daily’s logo on another product.
Rating ratings
Marketing Magazine, October 27, 1997
What The new TV violence code doesn’t really change anything. Is that why advertisers like it?
Canadian Business ups the ante
Marketing Magazine, September 29, 1997
The magazine’s gamble of going twice monthly is paying off handsomely.
Internet security
Newsweek international, September 15, 1997
Lock out digital thieves and vandals.
Internet advertising
Newsweek international, September 15, 1997
Targeting specific Web users.
The Howard has landed
Marketing Magazine, September 15, 1997
Why the outcry over Howard Stern’s Canadian debut? Other media sold out long ago.
Going to extremes
Marketing Magazine, July 21, 1997
The decade’s most overused ad cliché sounds a little stupider each time it recurs.
Steal from this book
Marketing Magazine, May 26, 1997
Why Mondo Canuck should be required reading for Canadian advertising creatives.
Special TV relationships
Marketing Magazine, May 12, 1997
Why Mondo Canuck should be required reading for Canadian advertising creatives.
Anchors away
Elm Street, May 1997
Seven Canadian broadcast journalists talk about why they flew the coop and went south. And it’s not just the money, honest — they love it there.
Think global, fake local
Canadian Business, April 1997
Bill Hayes is the secret weapon for radio stations across Canada. He sounds exactly like your local disk jockey. Except he’s better. And far, far cheaper.
How I quit the government and learned to ban the bomb
Canadian Business, March 1997
Former civil servant Doug Hallett has proven his revolutionary Destructor can get rid of toxic waste. Can it do the same for chemical weapons?
Blurring the line
Marketing Magazine, February 10, 1997
Franchisees of US parent publications are further eroding the distinction between Canadian and American magazines.
Waiting for lift-off
Marketing Magazine, January 20, 1997
With all the delays in launching Canadian direct-to-home satellite TV, it’s no wonder marketers aren’t paying much attention. But DTH’s potential impact is too great to ignore completely.
Corporate rock rules
Marketing Magazine, November 11, 1996
There’s a long tradition of using rebel music in ads. But its backfire potential is huge.
Mr. Rogers’ country
Marketing Magazine, November 4, 1996
He faces many challenges, but nobody is in more Canadian media than Ted Rogers.
Cable cult hit lands in Canada
The Globe and Mail, October 12, 1996
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a cheaply-made, funny, critically-acclaimed series in the U.S. Now it’s seeking new frontiers.
Building a bargain basement home theater
The Globe and Mail, October 12, 1996
Popular new surround-sound systems notwithstanding, video lovers on a budget can vastly improve the cinematic experience by connecting an existing stereo to a regular VCR.
The page boys
Canadian Business Technology, fall 1996
The young minds behind Toronto’s hottest Web design firm are lousy showmen, but never mind. They can teach your page tricks your competitors can only dream about.
McCain’t
Marketing Magazine, August 19, 1996
McCain’s ads are so lame they’re poised on the verge of some weird kind of greatness.
Say cheese?
Marketing Magazine, July 1, 1996
Trying to make sense of the Dairy Farmers’ dazed and confusing cheese campaign.
Building a better mousetrap
Canadian Business Technology, summer 1996
After drawing on Canadian talent for years, Disney is finally opening two new studios north of the border. Is Canada going to become the next Burbank of animation? Or just the next Korea?
Fast-lane culture
Maclean’s, June 19, 1996
Book review: Polaroids From The Dead by Douglas Coupland.
Late breaking news
Shift, June 1996
More insomniacs get their news from World News Now than from any other source.
Think global, act loco
Canadian Business, June 1996 [cover story]
It’s weird, it’s cheap, and as its on-air personalities endlessly insist, Citytv is everywhere.
Adbusted
Marketing magazine, May 24, 1996
The fundamental flaw at the core of Adbusters’ culture-jamming stance.
Taking out the trash
Canadian Business Technology, spring 1996
Bill Clinton thinks that attaching a V-chip to every TV set will help save the family. People who’ve actually used it aren’t so sure.
The patient is always right
Canadian Business, March 1996
The success of a newly merged hospital in London, Ont., can teach a thing or two about customer service to other public institutions — and to private business as well.
Dudley is no dud
Maclean’s, February 19, 1996
Children love the goofy Canadian dragon.
Life in the slow lane
Maclean’s, December 11, 1996
Book review: Driving Force: The McLaughlin Family and the Age of the Car by Heather Robertson.
Telephone terrorist
Canadian Business, December 1995
“Take your brain out of your head,” my new boss advised. “Drop it on your desk, pick up the phone and start dialing.” Working in a broker/dealer boiler room.
He did it his way
Maclean’s, November 20, 1995
Book review: Sinatra! The Song is You by Will Friedwald.
Masters of the game
Canadian Business, July 1995 [Cover story]
Chris Gray and the programmers at videogame producer Gray Matter write the code that’s building an industry bigger than the movies.
Microserfs
Maclean’s, June 26, 1995
Book review: Microserfs by Douglas Coupland.
“Always let the lady download first...”
Canadian Business Technology, Spring 1995 [inaugural issue]
A guide to the rules of etiquette on the Internet.
A race to the home
Maclean’s, February 27, 1995
Cable, satellite and telephone companies battle for control of the small screen
His star also rises
Maclean’s, December 5, 1994
Toronto may have driven Hemingway to fiction. (Book review: Hemingway: The Toronto Years by William Burrill.)
Toying with minds
Maclean’s, November 7, 1994
Book review: The Monkey Puzzle Tree by Elizabeth Nickson.
How a TV channel came to Life
The Globe and Mail, November 8 & December 27, 1994
Two-part story about the development and launch of cable channel Life Network.
Civil war within
Maclean’s, October 24, 1994
Book review: Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai.
Quirky Quarrington
Maclean’s, October 3, 1994
An author fills his books and movies with likable eccentrics. (Profile of writer Paul Quarrington.)
Kinetic artist
Maclean’s, September 12, 1994
Art star Robert Longo turns to the big screen, directing Johnny Mnemonic.
Fiction’s ringmaster
Maclean’s, September 5, 1994
John Irving’s new novel, A Son of the Circus, teems with crazy life. (Profile of novelist John Irving.)
Serial killer novel cuts the ice
The Globe and Mail, July 9, 1994
Book review: The Alienist by Caleb Carr.
White Shark
The Globe and Mail, June 25, 1994
Book review: White Shark by Peter Benchley.
Ren & Stimpy’s big corporate takeover
Saturday Night, April 1994
How a manic Canadian cartoonist conceived, directed and ultimately lost control of two of television’s most animated characters.
Finding humor and maintaining standards
The Globe and Mail, April 23, 1994
Book review: Municipal Bondage by Henry Alford & If You're Talking To Me, Your Career Must Be In Trouble by Joe Queenan.
The mild bunch rides again
The Globe and Mail, January 26, 1994
Some might scoff at the resurrection of a sitcom that ended its five-year run 20 years ago. but The Brady Bunch endures, this time as an affectionate satire.
Canada and me
The Globe and Mail, December 31, 1993
Michael Moore switches his sights from Flint, Michigan, to a fictional feature poking fun about Canadian anxiety about big brother USA.
The sweater girl
Saturday Night, December 1993
Meryn Cadell is not a comedian.
Bedtime reading
Saturday Night, June 1993
Valerie Gibson wrote the book on being a cougar before the term existed.
A pig-out for Irving fans
The Globe and Mail, May 29, 1994
Book review: Trying to Save Piggy Sneed by John Irving.
Zooming in on what went wrong at the CBC
The Globe and Mail, April 23, 1994
Book review: Fade to Black: A Requiem for the CBC by Wayne Skene.
She-bop
Saturday Night, April 1993
To gain a foothold in the New York jazz scene, Renee Rosnes followed in giants’ steps. Now she’s making tracks of her own.
Failed expeditions into the heart of lonely Hunter
The Globe and Mail, March 1, 1994
Three biographies of Hunter S. Thompson were published almost simultaneously. But only one was worth reading.
Back to the tedious future
The Globe and Mail, February 3, 1994
What's more annoying than the magazine Mondo 2000? Mondo 2000, the book.
The rhythm method
Saturday Night, April 1992
The Dream Warriors spin some old themes into an altogether new kind of rap music.
Hip-hop around the clock
Saturday Night, November 1990
Maestro Fresh-Wes’s rapsody in black.
