Every child should live free from violence and abuse.

Last year, more than 27,000 children received services from Ontario’s Children Aid Societies for protection from suspected child abuse and neglect. Child abuse remains a concern in Ontario because too many children suffer from physical, emotional and sexual abuse and lack of proper care. Too many families are coping with stressful life situations and challenges affecting their ability to provide a safe, secure home for their children.

That is why The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, are launching a public education campaign on
October 1st: Child Abuse Prevention Month in Ontario. 

During the October campaign, the public is reminded that kids shouldn’t have to live with abuse because everyone has a responsibility to act when they see or hear that a child is suffering from abuse or neglect.

To learn more about child abuse and neglect, how to spot the subtle signs, and about what happens when you call your local CAS, visit: www.useyourvoice.ca

Read more on how you can help…

Watch out for the Child Abuse Prevention Campaign across a variety of touch-points throughout the Province, including Transit, Digital Outdoor, Cinema, Online, Television CC and Radio.

It’s not surprising these days to see big brand name sponsors supporting many Hollywood parties but Lindsay Lohan has just raised the bar.

The young star recently celebrated her 22nd birthday and with the help of a promotions agency, opened up various components of the party for branding and sponsorship. This obviously isn’t the first time that a star has endorsed products, but this event offered logos on the invite, product availability on site, and images of Lindsay posing with the product… not exactly subtle.

If purchasing all media space surrounding a hollywood star’s birthday is in line with your brand image, then it might be a worthwhile investment.

I am however undecided on who would want their brand at Lindsay’s party…

Check out the website for Lindsay’s sponsorship opportunities at:   http://www.dizmajiz.com/clients/tr/18.html

Imagine if all media & creative could work so magically together that it would evoke a “car-stopping” response - causing you to pull out your camera, take a picture, and share with your friends!

Coca Cola’s new Outdoor campaign shows the powerful brand not only convincing its thirsty passerby’s to “Refresh on the Coca Cola side of Life”, but reveals the talent behind OTHER media executions jumping on board!

How did this obscure Optical join forces with power brand Coca Cola?

Upon asking my friend Google ….

Parinne Optical seems to be the creation of Coca Cola’s marketing masterminds.

Although Parinne is fictitious, this media execution opens up the possibility for two clients to work successfully together, leveraging the notion that maybe 2 boards (and 2 Brands!) are better than one.

The POWER lies in the CONNECTIVITY of the 2 Boards.

Is this a missed opportunity for Hakim or the Ma & Pa Optical down the road?
Would the nostalgic Coca Cola Bottle have the same stopping power on its own??

Many eyes will no doubt be tuned to the much anticipated Euro Cup Quarter Finals this weekend.

As you might expect from a global network, many PHDers have a deeply rooted interest in the outcome.

As a Canadian from Scottish extraction I personally have no stake in the outcome … my only prediction is for plenty of soccer-style “injuries” and more bad blood.

Check out these passionate PHDers … someone won’t be happy on Monday.

Has anyone else wondered, during the lull of the day when you really know you should be doing something more productive but instead you start trawling the Internet for info and checking blogs, that perhaps your time could be spent to better serve others?

Here at phd we have phenomenal initiatives such as phd sustain, and annually we work closely with the United way. But does anyone have any idea of how we can match charity and sustainability to ensure that some of the swag we receive and some of the leftover food we have can be donated to the less fortunate and those who are more in need?

Thoughts anyone?

In the spirit of sharing some stunning creative for one of our clients (and to give myself a kick-start into our blogging world here!), please have a look at this British television ad for Honda/Acura. For those of you who haven’t yet seen it, prepare to be dazzled! The description accompanying this video reads as follows:

If you thought that the people who set up a room full of dominoes to have them knocked over later was amazing, you haven’t seen anything yet. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in these images. Everything that you see happened in real time exactly as you see it. The recording required 606 takes and in the first 605 takes there always was something, usually of minor importance, that didn’t work.

It was necessary for the recording team to install the set-up time after time and it took several weeks working day and night to achieve this effect. The recording cost 6 million dollars and it took 3 months to finish, including the engineering design of the sequence. The duration of the video is only 2 minutes, but every time that Honda shows the commercial on British television, they make enough money to support any of us for the rest of our lives.

However, this commercial has turned out to be the most displayed in the history of the Internet. Honda execs think that it will pay for itself simply because of the free showings (as Honda is not paying one cent for you to see it). When Honda senior execs viewed it, they immediately approved it without hesitation-including costs.

There are only six Honda Accords built by hand in the whole world, and to the horror of Honda engineers, the recording team disassembled two of them for the recording. Everything you see in the sequence (besides the walls, floor, ramp and untouched Honda Accord) is part of those two automobiles.

The voice is that of Garrison Keiller.

The commercial was so well received by Honda execs when they saw it, that their first comment was how amazing the computer graphics were. They almost fell out of their chairs when told that the recording was real without any graphics manipulation.

By the way, about the wind shield wipers in the new Honda Accords, they are sensitive to water and designed to start working as soon as they get wet.

Enjoy!!

You know that better as the theme song to Hockey Night in Canada, played for more than 40 years on CBC.

Well not any more.

Thanks to CTV, TSN and RDS, that great tune will resonate in our ears in a slightly different manner for years to come…they purchased the rights

in perpetuity…

That means forever folks!

There is no doubt of the power of this theme song.  I have personally used it to connect with a Canadian who had it as a ring tone on his cell while walking the streets of London England.  And the controversy it has stirred has taken over gas prices for a day or two as the top story in the Canadian press.  Letters have been sent, petitions signed and Facebook pages set up all over the place to support our second national anthem.

As a hockey fan, I am disappointed by CBC’s decision but happy CTV have kept it alive.  As a tax-payer, I applaud CBC’s fiscal responsibility.  As a media guy, I don’t know yet what to make of it as the shock has yet to wear off.

I would love to hear some more opinions…

Lastminute.com has taken guerrilla marketing to an all new level. In order to promote theatre ticket sales, the company hired several performers to dress in plain clothes in a London airport and break out into song amongst a group of passengers waiting for a flight. By the looks of it, the performance definitely grabbed people’s attention and gave them something to talk about later. Check out the video below.

This morning, Canadian Living co-hosted, with Brandspark a breakfast presentation on food trends and Canadian consumers.  The purpose being to find out what Canadians think and feel about food.  Topics ranged from shopping & eating habits, to who does the cooking and what food trend products are top of mind to Canadian consumers. 

If you’d like to know what "ah-ha’s" came out of this research, contact your Canadian Living rep for more information. 

Or you can turn to Saturday Night Live, they always have an interesting spin on new products in the market!

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=239693

The second annual Global Media Festival just wrapped up Tuesday night. It was 2 days of focus on the future of media. The organizers are C Squared the group behind Cream Magazine , which is dedicated to regularly celebrating the best of global media achievement. And although the organizers opted not to name this conference, for me the resounding theme was one of juxtaposition.

From the outset I was struck by the juxtaposition of a conference dedicated to the digital future of communications being held in the ancient city of Venice. There was plenty of juxtaposition of old and new. From featured speakers like advertising legend Sir John Hegarty to dot come millionaire and MySpace co-founder Brett Brewer… Venice was often a study in contradictions.

There was the juxtaposition of the shortage of natural and human resources and a healthy discussion about the industry need to address both. On Day 2, Peter Seligmann, the CEO of Conservation International addressed the conference on the issue of sustainability. He implored all of us in the communications business to use our considerable influence to make a difference. It was certainly a proud moment for PHD when the efforts behind PHD Sustain were recognized. I also learned that PHD has just recently entered into a pro bono relationship to work with Conservation International, which is great and inspiring news.

Other interesting juxtapositions that became apparent in Venice:

With the juxtaposition of the old mass communication model of one-to-many migrating quickly to become one-to-one (with the rise of social media and peer-to-peer communication) there was a very interesting observation that suggests … in the heyday of mass communication, brands used to tell stories to consumers. In the new digital age of communications, consumers will tell stories about brands.

There was the juxtaposition that Sir John Hegarty alluded to that revolves around experience. His thought for the new age is that we all come from a world where we learn and then do. He believes that we need to alter our behaviour for the new reality to “do and then learn”… and hey … who wants to argue with a man who has achieved knighthood?

There was also the juxtaposition of content and context. For years we have heard the mantra that “content is king”, but in an age where technology is enabling smart messaging to receptive audiences, we are quickly moving to an era where context is king. This is a major leadership challenge for us as media practitioners and there was certainly a resounding spirit of readiness from the media throng in attendance.

One final note on Venice … it was truly great to see PHD so dominant on the world media stage. Beyond the aforementioned sustainability initiatives, our ETNA planning interface was featured in one of the breakout sessions on Media Creativity, and our Global CEO, Mike Cooper, addressed the conference most eloquently on the future of the media business.

Like Venice once proved, it is quite possible for a culturally significant (albeit small) body to make a big and lasting impression on the world… we should all be very proud.