You're familiar with Adbusters right? They're a Vancouver based not-for-profit that is essentially the exact opposite of Vancouver Is Awesome Inc. They sit on the opposite end of the media spectrum, highlighting the faults of the world, honing in mostly on capitalism and politics with very heavy handed judgements and dire warnings. This is possibly* the only time you'll ever see mention of them on our web site.
But that's not to say that the Adbusters Foundation is not a really important part of Vancouver and it's culture. We simply have a mandate to only deliver the good news so I can't see us exposing you to much of what they're up to over there. We're not opposed to their magazine or to their brand of journalism, because (as I mentioned in my interview on CBC Radio One last week) we encourage our readers to keep up on current affairs and things that are actually important in their community and their world, and then to come to our web site when they're done, just to put a smile back on their face. Our aim is not to change the face of the media or to encourage other publications to follow in our footsteps and adopt a head-in-the-sand policy, as our world would be an incredibly dangerous place if they did. We simply wish to offer a unique service that is not unlike CuteOverload.com which exclusively delivers cute, fuzzy, fun pictures of animals to make you feel all warm inside.
Anyway, now that I've prefaced it, I just wanted to send a huge shout out to Adbusters' art director, Will Brown, whose presentation last night at Pecha Kucha was nothing short of brilliant. He gave us an inside look at the Adbusters office life and assured us that at the end of the day it's not all doom and gloom, and that the people working there are happy, funny human beings living normal lives like the rest of us. At times I wasn't sure if he was completely taking the piss out of us "normal" people but in the end I was 99.99% sure it was genuine, and it made me feel good.
So thanks, Will. That was one of the best presentations I've seen at Pecha Kucha. If you ever want to do a Most Awesome interview where you only talk about the positive things about our city, your favourite things, we'd be glad to have you.
