I've been living in Paris for the past 3 months and re-reading my last post (yes it has been awhile!) I realize how our geographical landscape and the culture that it insinuates very much molds our relationships with businesses. To take it another step further, not only do our relationships with businesses change depending on where in the world we physically are, how we think about promotions, marketing and advertising - our perspectives - are very much intertwined as well.
Toronto seems to be the lab rat of cities where on any urban corner you can be either bombarded by a mob of hawkers or equally intrusive billboards. I peronally have become desensitized to the phony hype that businesses try to instigate. I've seen it all, although I do stop, from time to time, to appreciate the more ingenious & out-of-the-box promotion solutions, the majority "me-too" campaigns are grey clutter.
It was only until moving to Paris that I fully digested that perhaps, Toronto was one of several lab rats and clearly not the worldwide norm. It was eerie at first, trying to pinpoint (other than the obvious) what made Paris's urban landscape so charming. I found that to a large extent it was its absence of advertising.
As if the city was saying,"Look, let's try to keep the focus on the city itself, not on consumption." How different is that voice in Toronto? Clearly, our architecture scene is not on par with cities with a deeper, more enriched history. But how much of the clinical, starkness that Toronto exudes in comparison with European cities is due to a lack of history? Toronto has a thriving arts scene and yet, we are moved toward looking at the facade of a building and not the building itself.
My thoughts on advertising are conflicted, especially being someone from within the industry itself. How can we communicate our ideas to the masses without being obnoxious and loud? It seems the harder we try to make ourselves known, the further consumers feel pushed up against their bubble wall.
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