Voici deux publicités, l’une pour Virgin Mobile, l’autre pour la Française Des Jeux, mettant en scène deux marabouts, tout deux noirs, l’un exorcisant le mal d’un forfait mobile, l’autre voulant avoir plus de chance de gagner au loto grâce à des pouvoirs magiques.

Le rôle de marabout n’est pas valorisant pour les noirs, cela les réduit au traditionalisme et à des croyances primitives. Ces idées d’exorcisme et d’influence sur la chance auraient très bien être pu mises en scène autrement avec un exorcisme catholique et les chances grâce à divers gri gri.

De plus, dans la publicité Virgin Mobile, le deuxième personnage noir porte des dread-locks et marche de façon très nonchalante. Là encore un autre stéréotype est flagrant : les noirs sont nonchalants et négligés, en particulier s’ils portant des dread-locks.

Il y a un contraste très fort dans le même spot avec l’homme blanc, habillé comme un cadre et qui lui se présente d emanière bien plus respectable.

Hetero calendar balances out the gay calendar

On Thursday I reported from Virgin Mobile’s National Fearless Day event at Circa nightclub in Toronto.

The main event of the day was the Fearless Competition, in which the top three vote-getters in Virgin’s online competition, as well as three random contestants chosen from the audience, competed in three ‘Fear Factor’ style events. The prize on the line? $5000.

I had a chance to speak with the three online winners and they were all very interesting.

Aaron was hoping to win so he could send his parents to Thailand to do some missionary work.

Andrea runs a business selling a calendar (www.getyourassoutthere.com) that has pictures of a man playing sports naked (she gave me a free calendar and I am proud to say it is hanging in my room.)

Finally, Star Spider (yes, that is her legal name) runs a company with her husband where they design real-life, alternative reality games. I asked her if her business is similar to ‘The Game’, starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. She said, “Yes, but without all the psychological manipulation.”

The event was hosted by comedian Nicole Arbour, who bills herself as the world’s sexiest comedian. She also gave me a calendar filled with semi-nude pictures of her. I have hung that in my room to counteract my homoerotic calendar of men’s asses. Cory Monteith, star of the hit show ‘Glee’, was also at the event. I was unaware of who he was before Thursday (I don’t have cable), but girls were going nuts over this guy. This is just a hunch, but I think he may have regular sex.

Finally, I got to meet and interview Sir Richard Branson. I waited around for about twenty minutes while he did interviews with ‘real’ media types on a couch in a makeshift media room at the nightclub. When I finally was granted permission to interview him, I was informed that he was actually done with interviews and I would have to interview him while he was walking to his limo. My cameraman had to walk backwards through dimly lit hallways and staircases trying to capture our interview while simultaneously concentrating on not falling backwards and cracking open his skull. Did he succeed? You’ll have to stay tuned for the video.

I read Branson’s autobiography the day before meeting him and I had really high expectations going into our interview. He was exceedingly cool and he did not disappoint me in the least. Star Spider, the aforementioned contestant, did not think he was very cool at all. She thought he was callous and immoral in his treatment of the creatures used for the ‘Fearless Day’ events. She even made a video about it. What do you think? Does she have a point? Or is she being over-sensitive?

All in all, it was a terrific day. I love interviewing people and doing reporting from events. I would not enjoy this if I had to be a serious, professional reporter. But it is fun to infuse my own personality into interviews and use humour to engage with people. I think Sir Richard Branson enjoyed my off-kilter questions, especially after he had to endure the same ol’ cliché questions for twenty minutes before our interview.

The National Fearless Day video will be going up in the next couple of days. I will post it as soon as I have it. Thanks for checking in. Keep on keepin’ on.

Virgin Mobile Canada has announced that it will begin to sell the iPhone 3G and 3GS in Virgin Mobile Retail Stores and online in Canada in the “coming months.” VMC joins fellow Canadian carriers Telus, Bell Canada, Fido, and Rogers in becoming an authorized iThing dealer.

When we get more firm information regarding a firm launch date and pricing, we’ll obviously be sure to share with our favorite readers/neighbors to the north. But for now, we can all get back to watching Strange Brew and drinking Labatt’s.

By: Erina Digby

Last night, a small group of us Causecasters returned to Los Angeles after a whirlwind trip to Washington D.C. for the Virgin Mobile sponsored Public Enemy event. On Wednesday Nov. 18th we experienced an exciting and successful mobile stunt performed by the group but also met a number of inspiring young individuals, doing their part in raising awareness for youth homelessness in the District of Columbia. Here are just a handful of photographs from the evening…including an up close and personal encounter with Flava Flav’s most famous accessory

sound check in Lisner Auditorium

CauseCast table at the show

Sasha Bruce House

The crew setting up for interviews in the boys room at Sasha Bruce

Harmonie doing her thing with Flava Flav!

Flava Flav making the rounds at Sasha Bruce

Public Enemy performing on a flatbed truck through the streets of D.C.

outside Lisner Auditorium before the big show

Guess what? Virgin Mobile is getting the iPhone and they let Canadians know about it in a very tersely worded statement:

Virgin Mobile Canada will launch iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in Virgin Mobile Retail Stores and online in Canada in the coming months. For more information on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone.

Good grief! Their marketing boilerplate took more real estate than the actual statement. What is it with these Canadian cell phone companies releasing such short statements about getting the iPhone? In any case, the devil is in the details and we’ll have to wait for important details like pricing for the phones (I’m expecting it to be just like everybody else) and plans (ditto). Of course they could surprise me with a reasonably priced unlimited data plan, but I’m not holding my breath.

Here at U&F we can use all the help we can get when it comes to monetary funds.   Christmas is around the corner and our benifactors wallets are as tight as a nuns vagina!

Forced to make money by any means possible we stumbled upon this gem!  Eat a scorpions tail dipped in honey while walking on a tight rope in front of a group of protestants…… or something like that!

It’s Sir Richard Branson’s National Fearless Day!  (www.nationalfearlessday.ca)  He is judging and giving away $5,000 to a Canadian guy or girl that proves to be the most fearless this Thursday November 19th.

Registration and Competition are at Circa NightClub (126 John Street, Toronto) Reg is 11am and the competition is at 1pm.   (its open to guys and girls 18yrs – 30yrs)

Pass this on, you know you have friends that would do anything for $5,000!!!!   And you get to meet Sir Richard himself!

NOVEMBER 19TH, 2009
@ CiRCA NIGHTCLUB
126 JOHN STRET
TORONTO, ONTARIO
REGISTRATION: 11AM – 12:30PM
COMPETITION: 1PM

www.nationalfearlessday.ca
http://www.circanightclub.ca
TWITTER: CiRCAToronto

Sir Richard Branson and me waterskiiing. What a hoot!

I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of being Virgin Mobile’s ‘Fearless Reporter’ for the past month. My job has been to interview people on the streets of Toronto about their biggest fears and put these repartees up on NationalFearlessDay.ca.

National Fearless Day, the holiday that Virgin has made up for their latest marketing campaign, is happening on November 19th. Virgin had a contest in which you could submit your video entry explaining why you’re fearless. That contest has closed, but you still have a chance of being declared Canada’s Most Fearless person if you come to the Virgin Fearless Day event on Thursday, November 19th.

If you are unemployed or willing to skip out on work, come to Circa Nightclub between 11 am and 12:30 pm to register. The actual ‘contest’ to determine the most fearless Canadian will happen between 1 and 2 pm. I have no idea what the contest will entail. I’m hoping they’ll let me give all of the entrants a monster wedgie, but that’s probably wishful thinking.

If you don’t feel like coming out and chasing the opportunity of making $5000 and meeting Sir Richard Branson, then at least check out the Fearless Day website. I have 15 videos on the site for your viewing pleasure.

Personally, I am extremely excited for Thursday’s event, as I will have the opportunity to chat with Sir Richard Branson. If you don’t know who he is, Branson is the multi-billionaire who started Virgin using his intelligence, industriousness, and unorthodox business tactics. He is also given to concocting extremely outlandish PR events. I am not speaking as a Virgin talking head right now; I genuinely respect and admire Branson a great deal.

My main goal is to produce an entertaining and humorous video in the short time that I will have with Sir Richard Branson. If you have any ideas or suggestions as to what I should say to him, I’m all ears. Well, not all ears. Half ears, half hearing aids. The point is, I’m listening.

Or just have more Disciprine than my mind can grasp?

Sir Richard Branson asks us to show him what it means to be fearless...  and he promises to give some lucky Canadian $5000

National Fearless Day

Branson himself made headlines in the 1990s when he floated around the world in a helium balloon, and more recently he  sailed across the Atlantic in an open boat.  So he’s without question one of the most fearless businessmen on planet Earth.  As such he’s perfectly qualified to judge a video contest that asks Canadians to submit their most fearless video for consideration and a chance to win $5000

Want even more insight into this event?  Check out comedian DJ Demers blog to get a grasp on all he’s doing for the cause…

A site catered to winning free shit…I like it. Sponsors hook up with Uncle Louie to put their companies on blast by giving you, the fans and the average joe, a chance to win free shit from them. A win-win situation if you ask me.

Je n’arrive pas à choisir entre le nouveau téléphone rose et la future fuite des cerveaux

(Free 0 – Fin du droit d’image 1)

A terrible haircut and a moustache? This guy really is fearless!

The Virgin Mobile Fearless Campaign is in full swing. As I said in an earlier post, Virgin has entrusted me to be their voice on the street. What a foolish mistake that was.  I’ve been telling everyone how awesome Koodo is.  I’m just kidding, Virgin rocks.

Check out their super slick site to see some of the interviews and other short clips I’ve made. My cameraman and editor for these videos is a man by the name of Terry Nelson. He is very good at what he does and stunningly handsome if I may speak out of turn. (I have to compliment him so he continues to make me look good in these videos. There is a plethora of terrible footage he could use if he wanted to ruin me.)

By the way, if you are bored and/or in search of a thrill, you should enter this contest. All you have to do is make a one minute video explaining what fear you would like to conquer on ‘National Fearless Day’, November 19th. The winner gets $5000 and a meeting with Sir Richard Branson himself.

I’ll be heading out on the streets for some more interviews before the 19th, so let me know if you have any ideas I could use or if you want to get interviewed!

Thanks everyone. I hope everything is going well in your life.

Back in our day, the kiddies all ran around with Helios, VK Mobile looked like it could be the next Pantech, and “Kickflip” was a phone, not a skateboarding move. Okay, fine — we knew like one or two people that used Helio, VK Mobile never even made a dent in the US market, and skateboarding had a lock on kickflips long before the wireless industry did — and actually, that perfect storm of bad news may have ultimately led the once-promising MVNO to the sad situation we have here today under Virgin Mobile’s stewardship. Virgin has now all but erased the memory of Helio from its website, leaving just the Ocean and Mysto to soldier on — and the phones now go by their ODM’s names (Pantech and Samsung, respectively) rather than Helio proper. The strangest part is that the Ocean seems to have outlasted its replacement, the Ocean 2, which is now gone — unless you hit up Virgin Mobile’s Korean language site, a sub-brand in itself that it inherited from Helio and has a track record of giving members of the community better, faster access to hot devices. Any way you slice it, though, it never made sense for Virgin to run two brands — Helio’s fate was sealed the moment the sale was finalized, but considering the company’s spot-on mantra of “bring awesome Asian phone tech to North America,” we’ll always have a soft spot in our hearts for these guys.

Après Bolloré, Kertel ou encore Orascom, c’est au tour de Numéricable et de Virgin Mobile de jeter l’éponge dans la course à la quatrième licence de téléphonie mobile. Les deux opérateurs ont renoncé à déposer conjointement un dossier jeudi 22 octobre, soit à une semaine de la date limite du 29 octobre fixée par l’Arcep, les gendarmes des télécommunications.

Comme raison à leur désistement, les dirigeants de Numéricable et de Virgin Mobile ont invoqué de « nombreuses incertitudes » liées au déploiement d’un nouveau réseau 3G. Le titulaire de la quatrième licence devra en effet couvrir 25% de la population en métropole dans les deux ans, et 80% dans les huit ans. Pierre Danon, PDG de Numéricable, avait pourtant assuré que la société et ses partenaires possédaient tous les moyens financiers nécessaires, et qu’ils avaient déjà réunis « à peu près 300 à 400 millions d’euros ». Un apport insuffisant : les dernières estimations du déploiement du réseau font état d’un montant pouvant atteindre un milliard d’euros. Auquel s’ajoute le prix de la licence 3G, à savoir 240 millions d’euros. C’est cet investissement faramineux qui est la cause de la réticence de Virgin Mobile et Numéricable.

« C’est un raisonnement économique », concède Pierre Danon. Ce prix exorbitant s’explique par des difficultés techniques et juridiques. Le 15 octobre, un rapport de l’Agence française de sécurité sanitaire de l’environnement et du travail (Afsset), dans le cadre du Grenelle des ondes, a conclu qu’il n’y avait aucune preuve convaincante d’un effet sanitaire à court ou à long terme dû à l’exposition aux radiofréquences. Or, il y a une « inquiétude grandissante de la société française », a estimé le PDG de Numéricable. Un autre facteur s’ajoute à la méfiance des riverains et des élus : le manque de place à côté des réseaux existants. « Ces faits tangibles ne seront pas sans conséquence sur le délai et le coût du déploiement du réseau » ont indiqué les deux partenaires. Ainsi, en fonction de la facilité d’implantation, obtenir la pose d’une antenne-relais peut coûter entre 5 000 et 70 000 euros et peut durer jusqu’à trois ans. Au total, c’est 12 000 antennes qui devront être posées, alors que le marché semble quasi-saturé.

4e licence 3G : une coalition « tout sauf Free » ? (Photo : PCinpact.com)

Le découragement des deux opérateurs ne peut que profiter à Free. À deux jours de la date limite du dépôt de dossier, la maison mère de Free, Iliad, apparait comme le seul candidat potentiel – et crédible – à l’attribution de la quatrième licence 3G. Le fournisseur d’accès Internet espère ainsi convertir ses nombreux clients ADSL à la téléphonie mobile. Mais être seul en lice ne garantira pas à Free l’attribution de cette licence. En 2007, le dossier de Free, alors unique candidat, s’était vu rejeté. Motif : « jugé non conforme aux critères de qualification ». Free a d’ailleurs promis de réduire drastiquement le coût des abonnements s’il entrait sur ce marché. Ce qui ne plaît guère aux opérateurs actuels : le 21 octobre, Bouygues Telecom a déposé deux recours auprès du Conseil d’État pour faire annuler l’appel d’offre, et Vivendi (SFR) a confirmé avoir fait de même en début du mois.

Ces actions de la part des concurrents donnent du crédit à Xavier Niel, PDG d’Iliad, qui dénonçait il y a quelques semaines une coalition « tout sauf Free ». Le président Nicolas Sarkozy avait même contribué à la polémique, se disant « réservé » quant à une quatrième licence 3G. Et d’ajouter que « le prix le plus bas n’était pas forcément le meilleur ». Un lobby des opérateurs donc, peu désireux de voir un nouvel arrivant sur leur terrain de jeu. Même si les conditions d’attribution sont contestées par les acteurs du secteur, Xavier Niel n’en démords pas. « Obtenir la quatrième licence 3G est notre priorité », a-t-il déclaré fin août. Free sera bientôt fixé : l’Arcep devrait rendre sa décision début 2010, voire avant Noël s’il n’y a qu’un seul candidat. Et sauf coup de théâtre, c’est ce cas de figure qui semble se profiler.

Akyryn

Last week, I was out on the streets of Toronto talking to the people.  I was asking them a whole bunch of questions related to fear and fearlessness for Virgin Mobile’s ‘Fearless’ campaign.  The campaign website hasn’t gone live yet, but I thought I’d show you some of the videos that are up so far.  If you want to see all of them,  check out Virgin Mobile’s YouTube channel here. 

We will be putting up one new video per day until November 19th, which Virgin has declared ‘National Fearless’ Day. I know that is a made-up holiday, but Sir Richard Branson made it up. When you get knighted, you can make up your own holiday too.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW8ZsxozaU8]

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upId5LXP9LQ]

Stay tuned for more to come!

my organisation is launching a new sim of Rs. 49 only with very very competitive call tariffs. All local and STD calls will be 50 paisa/min. flat…without any rate-cutters or tariff vouchers! This is certainly in view of Reliance Communication that these competitive rates have been launched-Reliance few days back rocked the market with its ’simply reliance’ plan of 50 paisa. But now we are there to hit back hard-as our handsets are also of superior quality and we match their tariffs! we will, we will hit back!!!

This photo is 100% unrelated to this post.

Last Tuesday, I experienced what will forever be known as my Epic Day of Failure. Well, I guess it won’t forever be known as that, but at least until my next epic day of failure comes along.

Yesterday, exactly one week after my Epic Day of Failure, I found myself at the other end of the suicidal thoughts/pure bliss spectrum. First, I had an extremely fun day interviewing Torontonians as part of my recent gig with Virgin Mobile. Then I capped the day off by performing a well-received set at Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto.

As a relatively new comedian, I can’t begin to describe how much of a confidence boost my set at Yuk Yuk’s provided. After failing miserably at Comedy Bar last week, it was incredibly re-assuring to remember that I am in fact capable of making people laugh.

Below you’ll find some video footage of my set. It is up on my YouTube channel, djdemerscomedy. If you subscribed to my videos, you would have already known that it was up. Why haven’t you subscribed yet? I only have twelve subscribers. That is so, so sad.

The video cuts off after three minutes. There was still a solid two minutes of funniness coming up. My friend that filmed for me, Kevin, claims that the camera just randomly shut down. If this is true (and I’m not entirely sure it is, Kevin), then I am very upset with my camera. If it was actually Kevin’s fault and not the camera’s, then I am not mad at Kevin. Simply because he is bigger than me.

Thanks for checking in, guys and gals. Let me know what you think of the stand-up. Unless you didn’t enjoy it. Censorship is awesome!

I will be out on the streets all day today talking to the citizens of Toronto.  I’m creating some video footage for Virgin Mobile as part of their new marketing campaign called ‘Fearless’. I will be asking people what they’re afraid of, who they think is the most fearless, and other questions related to being fearless.  The marketing campaign is called ‘Fearless’ and I will be talking to people about anything related to being fearless.  Makes sense, right? In the corporate world, they call that synergy.

I’ve never really done anything like this before. I know that a lot of people with whom I attempt to converse will brush me off and continue on their way. Ironically, I have a fear of rejection so I will be conquering my fears while talking to people about their fears.  I also have a fear of failure so let’s hope that trumps everything and these videos kick some serious ass.

I’ll let you know when the videos are live on the Virgin website. In the meantime, I am outta here to talk to some Torontonians.

What’s hip-hop-happening, y’all?

I had a meeting with Virgin Mobile (my former employer) on Friday. I am going to be involved in a really cool project with them and I have to start ASAP. Consequently, I don’t have much time to write this post.  OK, I’ll admit it – I just watched four episodes of Californication.  But now it’s time to get to work!

I just wanted to let you know that I entered this really cool contest put on by Sirius.  The winner gets the performance opportunity of a lifetime, as well as two free passes to watch Russell Peters in action.

As of right now, after fifty views, my video has a rating of 1. Out of 5. That is awful. I know I’m not Jerry Seinfeld, but a 1 out of 5? I’m better than that, no? If I truly am that awful, perhaps I’ve chosen the wrong profession. But that never stopped Ashlee Simpson from pursuing her dreams, so I’ll use her as my inspiration.

If you think I am better than a 1 out of 5, go to the site and give me a better rating. If I dip below 0.5, I am going to start making my Facebook statuses (stati?) thinly veiled suicide references.  While this would undoubtedly be extremely entertaining, please give me a high rating so I don’t have to sink to those depths.

Thank you once again from your favourite serial contest-enterer, Donald James Demers.

Officially VM says its not supported but they have an installer and some people have gotten it to work.  Suggest following the steps in this thread at the apple forum.

With the economy slowly on the mend and the industry struggling with bandwidth, there is a merger mania going on in the mobile industry. Orange & T-Mobile over in UK have kicked things off and Sprint-Nextel followed it by acquiring the Virgin Mobile MVNO that operates on Sprint’s network. In addition, Bharti Airtell merger with MTN was stopped by Indian Government. There are more rumors which are making the investment bankers salivate. So what are they pushing?

First up is the perrenial favorite, Microsoft & RIM merger. Henry Blodget, CEO of Business Insider, thinks that Microsoft should buy RIM even though it might be expensive. On paper, this match is made in heaven with Microsoft’s strong engineering, deep pockets and large, loyal commercial customer base and RIM’s strength in enterprise email and hardware. This has been talked about for two years or more now but Microsoft has indicated that they are not interested. It remains to be seen how long it takes the talking heads and the investment types to convince MS otherwise.

This next one is intriguing and if it comes to fruition, this could shake the worldwide mobile industry up and at the same time give some joy to its competitors. There are rumors coming out of UK over the weekend that Vodafone might be considering merging with Verizon Communication so that it can get some benefits from its investment in their joint venture Verizon Wireless. Now, if this were to happen, it could be big news as two of the most popular wireless brands would merge and  can become truly a worldwide behemoth. However, there are dangers in this for both companies as the integration could take their focus away from growing and fighting off the competition. From timing perspective, this might be a now or never moment. Given that the industry is slowing and worldwide economy is not expected to expand until after Q3 of 2010, it might be tempting to roll the dice. However, there are significant hurdles to this deal as regulators in Europe, Asia and US will have to approve the deal which alone could take up well over a year. In the meantime, the two companies must keeping moving forward. Vodafone needs to continue to focus on growth in Western Europe and India while Verizon needs to build out its LTE network and not give up ground to AT&T. If the two companies can pull this off with any form of succcess, it would be a significant coup and feather in the cap of the leadership team. But, all this is conjecture until the deal is announced.

Finally, this deal seems to be equally long-shot. Deutche Telecom, is considering acquiring Sprint-Nextel and merging it with its T-Mobile Unit. While regulators should not have hard time approving it, the merger process would be insane with Sprint still trying to clean up  after its Nextel acquisition. In addition, Sprint needs to decide what to do with its Clearwire investment.

Well it’s been a fantabulous week for spoiling myself.  Take a look at these goodies…

1. My new mobile; it’s a 6700 Classic Nokia.  My old XpressMusic was dying and the contract was almost up so the nice people at Virgin Mobile waived the small payout fee left and sent me this beauty on Monday.  I have to say I have been with Virgin for umm about 4 or 5 years now and they are great.  I’ve never had any issues, the people are nice and helpful and I’ve had coverage in places where James’  Telstra network hasn’t.  Anyhoo the 6700 is a nice, simple phone as I don’t really use my mobile much except for messaging and the occasional call.  It has a 5 megapixel camera which is quite good compared to the other phones out there.  Now I just need to load up on some groovy ringtones!

2. I finally bought something off madeit.com.au the aussie version of etsy.  I had earmarked these two as favorites for a while and they arrived in my letterbox on Tuesday.  I love them love them love them.  Did I mention how much I love them?  How pretty are those earings?  And how cool is the necklace – it’s perfect for me being as indecisive as I am hee hee.  I got them from Gillian at Eclectic moi and she was so helpful and prompt sending my goodies.  They arrive in lovely packaging and with a few little surprises.  I can highly reccomend Gillian as a seller.  Go check out her jewelry, it’s all so exquisite and her photos are wayyy better than mine.  And yes I will be buying more!

3. Now some of you may not see the excitement in this one but I’ve never been happier to do the vacuuming!  A week or two ago my old vac broke (yes I have been living with dust bunnies everywhere) and Wednesday I bit the bullet and bought a new one…..ermmm…two.  Yes I bough two vacuums but wait let me explain!  I had been thinking about getting a little dust buster type thing for those inbetween vacuums, you know the scenario; visitors on their way and no time to drag out the big vacuum or your partner wore his work boots inside and now there’s little dirt piles here and there…need I go on?  So that’s why I bought the Ergorapido – fancy name huh?  It’s pretty cool as it has a detachable hand held on it too.  I will have to report back on it’s performance as it’s busy charging before it’s first use.

Now the Miele Cat and Dog is awesome!  I had to have a lot of therapy to overcome my fears of spending so much on a vacuum but I reasoned that since the housework needs to be done why not have decent tools?  I used it as soon as I got it home yesterday and whoa does that thing SUCK!  I nearly did my shoulder in trying to vac the carpet but luckily there is a power adjustment for different jobs.  My floors have never been so clean (well they still need a wash but you know what I mean right?).  I love my vacuum.  Did I just say that?  And I have to say that the most pleasant customer service experience during this adventure was at Harvey Norman with a lovely staff member called Richard, which is where I ended up purchasing both vac’s.  The other two sales people I dealt with (at Retravision and Godfreys) could really do with some polishing of their customer service skills.  I had to mention this as I am big on customer service (after working in retail many years) and bad service is a real bone of contention with me.  So if you want a new vac go see Richard at Harvey Norman Shepparton!!!

4. Oh I almost forgot I got a new haircut too

I got a little arty with the photo!  I know not exactly a craft post but hey I never said this blog was exclusive lol!  So have you spoilt yourself lately?  Are you also in love with your vacuum?  Do you also loathe bad customer service?  Received any good service lately?  I want to hear all about it – leave me a comment below.

Happy Friday

Kris

Hier la compagnie Canwest s’est placé sous la protection de ses créanciers.  Le Chapter 11 canadien en quelque sorte.

Je me suis posé la question du pourquoi et du comment pour en arriver à une autre question.  Est-ce que le Canada est trop petit pour autant de médias?

Sincèrement je crois que oui.

Tout d’abord dressons le portrait sommaire de Canwest.

- réseau de télé Global
- chaînes de télé spécialisées MovieTime, DejaView et Fox Sports World
- principaux journaux The National Post, The Gazette
- le site Internet canada.com estimé en valeur à plus de 20 millions de dollar, le 101e site le plus consulté au Canada.

Si on regarde les principaux empire médiatiques du Canada.
- Quebecor (incluant Vidéotron et le Groupe TVA)
- Rogers Corp. (incluant Rogers Média)
- Shaw Communications
- CBC / Radio-Canada
- Éditions Gesca (incluant La Presse et La Presse télé)
- BCE (incluant CTV / Globemedia)

N’y a-t-il pas trop de médias pour le Canada qui compte à peine moins de 33 millions de consommateurs?

Je crois sincèrement que oui.

Regardez la panoplie de canaux canadiens disponibles sur vos forfaits Vidéotron, Expressvu ou Shaw versus la qualité du contenu.

Vous vous demandez encore comment ça se fait que ces chaînes peuvent survivre? Ça tient du miracle trop souvent si vous vous voulez mon avis.

Quand on y pense, est-ce qu’il y a de la place au Canada Anglais pour trois réseaux nationaux généralistes que sont CBC, CTV et Global ?  Il faut prendre compte également que le consommateur du Canada Anglais est anglophone et pour lui c’est avec une grande aisance qu’il peut aller d’un réseau canadien à un réseau américain.  Autres que pour le contenu local (nouvelles par exemple) qu’y a-t-il pour un consommateur du Canada anglais comme différence entre les réseaux américains ABC, Fox, NBC, PBS et CBS ou les réseaux canadiens Global, CTV et CBC ?

Voilà un gros problème des médias du Canada Anglais.

C’est clair qu’il y a  trop d’offre pour la demande des consommateurs canadiens et les prix ne cesse de monter chose qui est conrraire à la loi sur l’offre et la demande.

Donc plutôt que de continuer à augmenter l’offre il faudrait que les compagnies médiatiques du Canada se fasse un examen de conscience et qu’ils assurent leur prospérité en améliorant l’offre sur la qualité plutôt que d’augmenter l’offre sur une demande stagnante.

Et de grâce baisser vos prix si vous désirez stimuler cette demande stagnante.

Parlant d’offre avez vous récemment magasiné pour un appareil et forfait cellulaire ?
Bell, Telus, Fido, Koodoo, Virgin Mobile, Videotron, Cityfone le choix il y’en a.  Le problème c’est que les prix ne vont pas selon la grandeur de l’offre versus la petitesse de la demande. Qu’on se comprennent bien, il ne se vendra pas 32 millions de cellulaires au Canada.

Ainsi, les joueurs en place sur le marché du cellulaire stimulent leur offre et leurs profits en haussant les prix sur la petitesse de la demande des consommateurs canadiens.  Ça n’a aucun bon sens.  C’est même irréel comme principe économique.

Je comprends que le réseau cellulaire pan-canadien c’est quelque chose à déployer vu l’étendu du pays versus le peu de consommateurs.  Mais tout de même il faut que les compagnies de cellulaires cessent de voir le mot CON dans le mot consommateur.  Parce que de mon point de vue consommateur, c’est clair que les compagnies de cellulaire me prennent pour un con en m’offrant si grand pour un prix beaucoup trop grand.

Maintenant du point de vue investisseur, faites-vous plaisir, tenez vous loin de ces monstres médiatiques qui s’endettent plus rapidement que la croissance de leurs profits nets.  Car mon opinion est que si Canwest peut s’écrouler en bourse, dans le futur rien ne garantie pas que les autres ne peuvent pas tomber également.

Pour plusieurs chef de ces titans du médias, la convergence a un prix et c’est le consommateur qui paie cette convergence du fait que ces titans du médias remboursent des intérêts sur de lourdes dettes.  Qui paie ces intérêts vous pensez?  Le consommateur canadien.

Tout ce battage médiatique entourant la chute de Canwest relance le débat de plus bel sur la privatisation de CBC/Radio-Canada.

Mais chers lecteurs canadiens, qu’on se le demande.  En ces temps de récession, est-ce la mission du gouvernement de nous offrir un service de télé?

Saviez-vous que l’empire CBC /Radio-Canada coûte environ 40$ par année à chaque citoyen du Canada ?  Sans compter vos frais de câblodistribution ou de satellite pour regarder les dites chaînes sans les oreilles de lapins traditionnels.  Imaginez.  Vous êtez une famille de quatre.  Ça vous coûte 160$ par année juste pour garder en vie CBC / Radio-Canada.

Est-ce la mission du gouvernement de nous offrir les chaînes RDI, CBC Newsworld, les réseaux CBC et Radio-Canada?

Ma réponse à cette question est NON.  La mission du gouvernementdu Canada est de gouverner, de stimuler l’économie par des décisions réfléchies et non de divertir le peuple et de compétitionner l’entreprise privé.