Thursday, September 25, 2008

VANOC's West Minist-error

VANOC recently embarked on a hiring spree for its communications department and it appears some of the new hires are not from British Columbia.
A news release was issued after 5 a.m. Sept. 25 to notify media that the "major milestone" announcement would happen at its Campus 2010 office headquarters at 9:30 a.m. The advisory lists several Olympic and Paralympic medalists who will attend what is expected to be the unveiling of the Games' slogan.
The first is Paralympic alpine skier "Daniel Wesley, West Minister, British Columbia."
His bio contains the same malapropism, but in the body it correctly reveals he is from the Vancouver suburb New Westminster.
New Westminster was the first capital of British Columbia from 1859 to 1868.
The B.C. Geographical Names database lists West Midway, West Milligan Creek and West Minton Creek. But no West Minister.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Slogan-nearing

Get ready for the official slogan of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics and the advertising campaign that will tell it to the world.
VANOC has scheduled a 9:30 a.m. news conference on Sept. 25 in Vancouver with five Olympic and Paralympic medalists to help unveil the latest "milestone" on the road to 2010.
The timing is right because special advertorial supplements are slated for Sept. 27 editions of the Globe and Mail and Canwest-owned metropolitan daily newspapers. Both companies are VANOC sponsors. It's all part of the countdown to the Oct. 3 launch of Olympic ticketing.
Vancouver-based Hyphen Communications created the ad campaign, which was approved by VANOC's board at its Sept. 17 closed-door meeting. Creative director David Martin was not available when I called on Sept. 24.
Celebrate the Possible has been the de facto mantra of VANOC for two years and could remain so from Thursday onward. However, Vancouver law firm Borden Ladner Gervais applied to trademark With Glowing Hearts on VANOC's behalf Sept. 12.
With Glowing Hearts is a line from O Canada.
If it is the new slogan, it is in keeping with federal government policy. The minority Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper replaced its Canada's New Government slogan with The True North Strong and Free (also an O Canada lyric) when it realized that the 2006-elected government was no longer new.
The slogan is the verbal identity of the Games. Torino 2006 used Passion Lives Here and Beijing 2008 was One World, One Dream.
On the other side of the five-ring fence, anti-Olympics activists already have a slew of slogans, such as No Olympics on Stolen Native Land and Homes Not Games.

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