Emma Brooks | Digital Media Enthusiast

Wednesday night, Diet Coke hosted a lovely pre-screen party for a TIFF movie, Irish Route at Hank’s on Church St.

I have to say, I was really impressed with the whole evening – the crowd was great (my one issue with the Smirnoff Exp), the set-up was lovely, all the little touches were there, and the Diet Coke was flowing! As I’ve said before, I’m a huge Diet Coke lover so I basked in all Diet Coke-related goodness. I enjoyed the mixed cocktails made with Diet Coke, had a lot of fun with the photobooth with both Jon Crowley and Randeep (funny how I must say Jon’s full name but not Deep’s!), and got treated to complimentary hair touch-ups.

After the prescreening event, we boarded a Diet Coke-branded hummer limousine (way awesome) to the Elgin theatre where we were given reserved seats in the mezzanine section which was great and watched the film. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d like Irish Route (not one for soldier films) but I really did enjoy it. It was heavy, but had unexpected moments of humour.

Thanks again Mosiac XM for the invite. I had a great evening – even if I was up until 2am thanks to all the caffeine coursing through me!

Here are some pictures – apologies for the low quality; I only had my iPhone 3G with me.

Jon Crowley and Deep

#DietCokeTIFFest

Michael Nus and Jon Crowley

Photobooth Photos

Bartender at the Diet Coke TIFFest - he had skills!

I tried writing this last night on my WordPress iPhone app and it ate it completely! Pah! What a waste of my time.

So last week I got a lovely package from Mosiac XM for their Diet Coke TiFFest event happening this Wednesday, September 15, 2010.

I haven’t had a chance to get to any TIFF events, so I was pretty excited to get an offer to go to a pre-screening party put on by Diet Coke and a screening of Route Irish. Not only that, but anyone that knows me knows that I love my Diet Coke. Man, do I! I once declared I would marry such a drink. It’s just perfect in every way and I barely go a day without a delicious sip or ten. So getting a package on behalf of Diet Coke was pretty, pretty high up there on “Things I Need in Life”.

I’ll be taking the infallible Jon Crowley as my +1 and am very much looking forward to it! Thanks Diet Coke!

Publicis Lion likes Diet Coke too:

Making a video go “viral” is always a tough request to hear, as anyone in digital knows. This request is generally not possible because getting a video noticed online in the mass array of noise is always a combination of a stroke of luck and a strong enough idea.

A recent Wired article, titled, “Screw Viral Videos. You Heard Me. Pass It On.” seems to back this up. As Jim Louderbac writes, “By its nature, viral videos are designed to surprise, titillate and entertain. They are, by nature, unique; the 27th keyboard cat, or the 12th dancing baby is just plain boring.”

And this is so very, very true. “Socially shared” videos (my new term for viral videos – it may not be good but I can’t stand the term viral anymore and anything is better) posses some of the three fundamental pieces that help them succeed:

• 1. They are unnaturally funny.
• 2. They are shocking.
• 3. They are completely different than anything seen before.

A good video will posses one of these three things. A great video: two. I’m can’t think off the top of my head of one that contains all three – but if you can, please leave a comment.

The latest public service announcement for City of Toronto fills one of the above. No, not that it is unnaturally funny – it is quite funny but not astoundingly so – but for a PSA from the City of Toronto, this is something completely different than any citizen has seen before.

And therein lies its success. So far this video has generated over 17,000 views and is one of the most popular videos on their uploads list, where most of their video views range from 8 – 1,000 views. It has been featured on CBC National, National Post, many local news stations, and now, CNN. A huge accomplishment, for sure – especially when a tiny PSA for Toronto is being played alongside a video made by Proctor and Gamble in the US, that is a mini-movie unto itself (at 4 minutes) and made specifically for online.

So, congratulations, City of Toronto, for doing well and getting noticed in the mess of “viral” videos.

Full disclosure: My agency, Publicis, created and produced this PSA for the City of Toronto. I’ve been helping them with the digital strategy on this.

Hey ladies!

You know what I wish I had?! A date with an absolutely flawless man who talk to me in a completely condescending way about something they will NEVER GET – literally and figuratively: Periods!

Yes, you’re a man, Brad, Ryan and Trevor. And only men can be the experts on feminine hygiene, according to BBDO Toronto. Because us women? Well, according to these ads, we’re mute and dumb! We don’t get complicated things like menstrual products. It’s just too HARD to understand what products we use every month and you never do. My brain hurts! All I want to do is watch you take off your shirt and educate me on what it’s like to be a woman.

Let me show you what I mean:

Oh yes, and there’s two more ads like these that are JUST as creepy, ladies. Yaaaay.

First of all: What the fuck were the planners thinking on this one? Did Stayfree even GET planners for this account? Let’s be clear about this: This strategy? This direction? Completely missed their target. Like, you missed this SO hard that I’m surprised you even know what a man is and a woman is. If you’re not sure, they are COMPLETELY SEPARATE GENDERS. OK? OK!

BBDO Toronto, I ask you seriously: Did a man come up with this (creative) strategy? Because it reeks of man.

This infuriates me. It creeps me out. I’m bored! And I’m not even angry I’m bored at these terrible, terrible ads and that you wasted 7.5 minutes of my life because I’m too pissed off at everything else about these commercials!!

Look: I’m a woman. I try really fucking hard some times to be everything society tells me to be. I try to be cute. I try hard to keep my weight down (because apparently I love “thinness”). I try hard to be a great cook (and succeed! I make a mean pasta dish, seriously). I try to volunteer and then feel guilty about not giving enough time or money. I can’t even try to like chores.

To have a man come onto my TV screen, look me in the eye and outshines me in every way does not make me want to date him. I don’t even want to be near him. I certainly don’t want to listen to him tell me about how great Stayfree’s panty liners are in a “just smile and nod, darling” way.

Here’s a better idea for Stayfree: Get to know your target. OK? You’ll find out some interesting things! Like, we’re not fucking dumb! And we don’t look to men to tell us what to buy! I KNOW! DID NOT SEE THAT ONE COMING!

Just to clarify this for you, this is your target:

Now that we have our target, let’s write a strategy!

“Stayfree’s feminine products work just as hard as I do.”

Stayfree? Call me.

Thanks to my mom for passing this along to me. As you asked, here are my thoughts about it!