The Olympic Games would not exist without sponsors, that’s a fact. They bring the millions, they make it happen. But since early January, Burrard Skytrain station has turned into a giant ad for McDonalds and I hate it. Really, it is everywhere: platforms, corridors, walls, floors… It is so tacky and I don’t like being brainwashed! I guess I could stop at Granville station for a change, but there it’s all about Coke…
Posted by Mathilde Salvert
Tags: Vancouver 2010 Olympics Advertising Brainwashing Skytrain
joanna (January 31st, 2010)
I usually bike everywhere, but when I stopped at the Granville Station and was bombarded with the Coke advertisement, I really felt disgusted. I felt like we were going back to the time where happy families surrounded by happy meals were posted in every corner.
Why not take this opportunity to transform it into something probably meaningful?
Obvious (February 1st, 2010)
Your noticing it and posting a blog about it. I’d say it’s fairly effective.
Steve Mynett (February 2nd, 2010)
@obvious: If any press is good press then yes, the advertising is effective because we’re talking about. However if you think that it’s garrish and offputting, like I do, then perhaps bad press is nothing more than bad press.
Clayton Misura (February 2nd, 2010)
@obvious: A blog post dedicated to the garishness of an ad campaign doesn’t mean it’s effective. The superlative statement “any press is good press” is discredited everyday – Kanye West, Balloon Boy – I agree with Steve, sometimes bad press is just that.
Kevin Broome (February 15th, 2010)
Is it perhaps the product that you are hating more than the actual advertising? Afterall, the last time I checked you guys were a branding company. This is what you do for a living. You are the brainwashers. One could argue that the view of the mountains at Main and Kingsway would have been far more beautiful and less distracting if there had not been a District on Main billboard blocking the view for a good part of the summer. Only difference here is scale and dollars.
Rather than a complaining about the inevitable, I would be more interested to learn, if you were given the task of branding a subway station, how you would do it tastefully? Is there a way to avoid alienating viewers like yourself, while still driving home the message and getting the client’s money’s worth? Now that would be an interesting blog post.
Mathilde (February 16th, 2010)
I’m not hating the product, but the lack of creativity. Being an official sponsor McDonalds has full exposure and no competition for 2 weeks, and yet the only think they come up with is a bunch of giant burgers… There’s nothing clever here, nothing daring, witty, amusing or new. With a full subway station, they could have had so much fun! Their previous campaign in Vancouver – “free coffee” done by Cossette – was great…