Moms Gone Mad

Motrin learned a valuable marketing lesson this week - there are two groups you don’t want to make light of - Democrats and Moms.

The video was a new online ad launched over the weekend for the company’s pain reliever Motrin.

The commercial was targeted at mothers who need relief from back pain from carrying — or, as the ad says, wearing — their babies in a sling.

I also hear it’s International Baby Wearing Week… oops.

Here’s the offending ad:

And here are a sampling of the reactions:

Line of the day: “I’m not easily offended”.

I Keep Telling Myself…

Vancouver is the best place to live.

Old one from Rick Mercer.

The good news is that real estate is going down fast. Now you can get a 400 sq. ft. apartment for under $300K.

And Then I’ll Bring World Peace.

Vancouver’s new Mayor Gregor Robertson will not only head our city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but he also promises to solve an issue that has no one has been able to fix.

“Job No. 1 is calling together an emergency task force on homelessness and working on solutions to getting people off the street into a safe place to live as quickly as possible,” said Robertson, a 44-year-old businessman and former MLA, who won the Mayor contest in a landslide.

“We will bring out brightest minds together and end homelessness in Vancouver,” said Robertson.

You’d think that with an average expenditure if $44K per homeless person, they’d manage to at least get them a room.

The East Hastings area is the fastest growing area of Vancouver… it attracts the homeless from across Canada due to the the quality of drugs and services down there.

Good Luck Greg, you’ll need it.

photo credit: tris

Canadian Culture Takes A Hit

Trailer Park Boys to end.

Seems that we’re going to get one last season of the show, then it’s over. They are promising one last movie in ‘09.

Get the final dose of the Sunnyvale gang in the World Broadcast Premiere of “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys – A Trailer Park Boys Special” airing exclusively on Showcase on Sunday, December 7 at 10 p.m.

You’ll want to grab your screen savers now before they’re gone.

They’ve also released a sneak peak for the fans…

The good news is that we have HBO in Canada… so add in the odd hockey game  - there’s no need to watch Canadian TV anymore. Except maybe Corner Gas.

Another Way To Save The Polar Bears

Michael Buyers gives us another nugget of NDP wisdom…

Shut down the oilsands, NDP candidate urges

At Least It Has A Garden And A View

Vancouver Olympic convention centre $400 million over budget

… according to the CBC

Vancouver’s new convention centre is projected to cost almost double the amount originally forecast, but B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell thinks citizens shouldn’t worry.

Campbell revealed Thursday the current budget for the convention centre is $883 million, about $400 million more than originally budgeted.

“There’s a tendency to look at one side of the equation and not both sides,” Campbell said. “The other side of the equation is that we already have $2 billion of economic activity.”

The Good news is that it has a rooftop eco-system of nearly 2.5 hectares.

There are 400,000 indigenous plants on the rooftop, more than there are flowers in all of Vancouver’s 200 parks, all serviced by 43 kilometres of irrigation pipes, “enough to stretch from Vancouver to Port Moody and back,” Campbell said while on a rooftoop garden tour.

I won’t be surprised when they need to plant potatoes. We’re only facing a loss of a billion or two from the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

In other news, looks like we’ve also been hit with a $100 million bailout for the athlete’s village.

But who’s counting…

Fox Continues To Beat CNN

Fox added another personality to continue its domination of CNN and MSNBC.

With Glenn Beck leaving CNN Headline News for Fox News, CNN is losing the only right-leaning personality they have.

I always thought it was a strange fit… one that I’m sure bothered the higher-ups over at CNN.

Glenn’s departure is a blow for CNN Headline News. Beck’s show was an instant sensation, and led the network to launch another talk show with Nancy Grace.

“I’m not surprised to see him go because it always seems like he fit in well with the other Fox people instead of with Headline News,” said Alan Breznick, an analyst with Heavy Reading, a media and telecommunications research firm based in New York. “I think (CNN) wanted character, but they didn’t necessarily want conservative ideologies.”

Maybe Fox News will get the channel placement that CNN has in Canada some day - where I have to pay for Fox while CNN is free.

photo credit: Joel Washing

We Usually Only Take Their Homeless

photo credit: Vlastula

BC has been a little mad at Alberta ever since Ralph decided to give one-way tickets to Vancouver to all newcomers seeking welfare benefits - along with a list of how much better Vancouver’s benefits were.

Seems that Vancouver is now looking to Calgary for a better type of export.

A banner was seen flying high above Calgary’s skyline Tuesday reading, “Join Vancouver’s Finest”. It’s part of a public relations campaign paid for by the Vancouver Police Department to try and bolster its ranks for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“It’s a trying time to hire new officers — the days when we’d get 1,000 applications just by running a cheesy ad are over — so now we have to go to extraordinary means.”

John Dooks, head of the Calgary Police Association, wasted no time in hammering the air-recruitment stunt.

“I think they’ll be hard-pressed to get any of our current members to leave Calgary, but this could be an opportunity for someone who wants to get into policing, but didn’t qualify for classes here, due to high standards,” said Dooks.

“They could go to Vancouver, learn about policing, and when they get good, they can come back here.”

The war continues…

Clinton Spills The Beans

photo credit: http://TheConcreteJungleBook.com

Bill visited Vancouver today.

Clinton had polite compliments for local politicians, praising Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan’s for his city’s record on sustainable building and alluding to B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell’s environmental policies.

“I know he’s taken some heat for his aggressive position against climate change,” Clinton said. “I believe it’ll be the greatest economic generator you could embrace.”

I guess he missed East Hastings on his way in and confirmed my suspicions… global warming scare mongering + carbon tax=$$$.

It’s Great To Be Canadian

It’s great to be Canadian this week…special thanks to the Green Party, the NDP and the Liberals.

It’s Official - BC Is Conservative

photo credit: M-J Milloy

Nearly half of B.C. voters - 46 per cent - cast their ballots for Conservative candidates, up from 37.3 per cent in 2006. If you take Vancouver out of the equation, (where the Conservatives won), the other half of BC voters overwhelmingly voted Conservative.

Overall, 61% of all seats went Conservative - remove Vancouver and you have 86% of seats going to Harper.

It’s time this reality is taken into account in BC - the people aren’t as radically left as they have you believe.

Let’s hope this translates into the local political scene.