Monday 31 October 2011

Telus is primary enabler of harassment through its financial support of giant video screen

Telus has recently provided a statement to the Take the Giant Screen Down Now organisation which effectively declares that continued assault of local residents by Telus advertising on the giant video screen at Terry Fox Plaza until whatever random hour on major event nights is acceptable and that a continuation of operating hours well past sundown on all other nights is ‘issue solved’.  This concept that a reduction of operating hours on some nights ‘solves the issue’ is ill-formed as it suggests that continued harassment of this community and disregard for City by-laws is perfectly acceptable so long as it's not perpetuated all of the time.

With mounting public pressure and increasing scrutiny by public officials into PavCo’s questionable methods, there is little doubt that the giant video screen at Terry Fox Plaza will soon be taken down.  Once removed, and once the bad apples at PavCo have been purged from the organisation, which side of civic history will Telus be on?  Will it be A) supporting community values and social responsibility, or will it be B) financing the disruption and harassment of our glass residential neighbourhood?

Telus damaging its own brand equity by imposing harassment on community

The following is an email sent to Telus media relations group (jim.johannsson@telus.com; shawn.hall@telus.com) and to the Telus investor relations group (ir@telus.com) on Oct 27th and 30th 2011:

Telus,

Did you know that your advertising is the source of much anger and resentment by a large community in downtown Vancouver?  The video screen operator, PavCo, has recklessly and contemptuously erected a new giant high definition LED screen directly in front of hundreds of residential glass homes and is blasting your ads at high intensity from an area called Terry Fox Plaza.  Check out: http://takethegiantscreendownnow.blogspot.com/ (and recall that blogs are read from the bottom up)

Shawn Hall of Telus has advised our group that Telus is "satisfied that the issue has been solved" and that continuous blasting of your ads into our glass homes on main event nights is considered acceptable by Telus.  Given Telus' supposed commitment to community values and social responsibility, might you wish to reconsider this position?  More importantly, might you want to reconsider your branding of the BC Place Stadium altogether?  This issue is quickly going to transition from a PavCo problem into a huge Telus brand equity problem.

- - -

Please respond.  We are referring to your incessant Telus advertising appearing on a giant video screen disrupting an entire community. Although Telus does not own the screen at Terry Fox Plaza, it is YOUR advertising which is assaulting us in our glass homes.  We are certain that your investors and your marketing team will be very concerned about your firm’s brand equity in a sensitive case like this. Do not miss this opportunity to inform your teams of this quickly escalating and potentially explosive issue.  Our group will soon begin exposing advertisers as ‘enablers’ of the giant screen (through your ad revenue support) and will start shaming those companies publicly.  We thought it would be fair to advise your company of this first so that you could act responsibly and pull your advertising from this screen. 

Regards,
TtGSDN

Sunday 30 October 2011

Two important groups come together to bring down giant video screen

A new and powerful alliance has been forged between ‘Take the Giant Screen Down Now’ and the Twitter campaign group ‘StopBillboard’.  Please be sure to follow StopBillboard on Twitter and to re-tweet all StopBillboard tweets to your followers.  http://twitter.com/StopBillboard

Thursday 27 October 2011

How would you feel if someone stuck a giant spotlight in front of your home?

This next column by Geoff Olson (part-1 of 2) really captures the extent of the despicable situation which PavCo has recklessly created for residents of this neighbourhood.  Keep your eyes peeled for part-2 of Geoff Olson’s coverage of this story in next week’s paper or check back on this blog for the post.  

(Please click on the following link) http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/Giant+Place+screen+city+Mordor/5611516/story.html

Disgrace befalls hero’s memorial

Renowned satiric cartoonist and respected columnist Geoff Olsen of the Vancouver Courier provides his impression of the disgrace that has been mindlessly imposed on the memorial of Terry Fox, arguably the biggest hero in this City.  (please click on the image to read captions)


PavCo's contempt for downtown residents

Here's an important letter to the editor about how PavCo's contempt for downtown residents will not be tolerated. Please do not ease off your letter writing; this is far from over.  

(Please click on the following link for the full story) http://www.vancourier.com/sports/Letter+week/5572162/story.html

Friday 14 October 2011

Why do we need a giant video screen anyways? – debunking the rhetoric

In this second interview on the Bill Good Show on CKNW, I debunk all of the empty rhetoric that PavCo has weakly offered up for building a giant video screen in front of hundreds of residential glass homes.  When listening to CEO of PavCo Warren Buckly’s responses, it becomes obvious that there is actually no justification for keeping the giant video screen in operation. – Ask your friends: What public good is it serving? (CKNW audio/video link should appear just below this paragraph)


Interesting fact: Did anyone notice that for both live radio interviews where I shared the mic with PavCo (first on Rick Cluff, and then here during my second show with Bill Good), Warren Buckley didn't even have the courtesy to show up on time to hear my complaints? Both times he simply called in, came on the radio, admitted to both radio anchors that he hadn't listened to me at all (I went first both times), and then delivered the pre-packaged company line. So much for being sensitive to residents' concerns.

BC Place Stadium officials continue to assault residents’ health and well-being

This CBC story demonstrates how PavCo has shown reckless disregard for residents’ sleep, health and well-being. What is the reasoning given by PavCo for sidestepping City of Vancouver bi-laws, ignoring urban planning best practices and going ahead and building a giant video screen directly in front of hundreds of glass residential homes? – “The project is being done under Provincial jurisdictions” and so they claim that they’re not legally bound to consider the health and well-being of the residents in the neighbourhood. (CBC video link should appear just below this paragraph)

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Reasons why the Giant Video Screen must be taken down (part-1 of 2)

This is a radio interview with Bill Good on CKNW (part-1 of 2). On the radio show, I address many of the major reasons why the Giant Video Screen must be removed. Please listen to it with your friends. (CKNW audio/video link should appear just below this paragraph)


Reasons why the Giant Video Screen must be taken down (part-2 of 2)

This is a radio interview with Bill Good on CKNW (part-2 of 2). On the radio show, I address many of the major reasons why the Giant Video Screen must be removed. Please listen to it with your friends. (CKNW audio/video link should appear just below this paragraph)


Flashing Lights Will Illuminate Our Living Rooms

This is a CBC News story that properly captures the theme of 'flashing bright lights into our homes' and also captures PavCo's very weak explanation that they have been transparent all along. In fact, PavCo management was so secretive about this that no one in the City planning office even knew about the Giant Screen until both the City and the local residents woke up one morning to find it erected. (CBC video link should appear just below this paragraph)

Thanks for working together - *NEW FLYER*


To those False Creek and Downtown residents affected directly: This image is a copy of the Flyer we need to place on our respective lobby notice boards. Please print a copy and post it on your lobby notice board asap. Please also think of checking back every few days to make sure it's still posted.  Thanks for your willingness to work together.  (Simple instructions: Click the picture; a new browser window should open. Print the image from your browser, or save the image as a file so you can print it from another application.)
 


Please make your voice heard

**Update on this previous post**:  If you’re interested in contacting officials to complain about how the giant screen is disrupting your home life or that of other residents, please refer instead to the post on this blog entitled ‘PavCo Minister says that breaking Vancouver City By-laws is a successful conclusion‘ – There are new suggestions in that post which might simplify your task and also help unify our message.

(Previous post):  Residents who are being visually assaulted by the screen in their homes have called, emailed and written complaints to:

- Premier Christy Clark (provincial, highest urgency)
- MLA Mary McNeil (provincial, highest urgency)
http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/39thParl/mcneilm.htm
- Minister Pat Bell (provincial, highest urgency)
- Mayor Gregor Robertson (municipal, medium urgency)
- Councillor Geoff Meggs (municipal, medium urgency)
- Chief Building Official Will Johnston (municipal, medium urgency)
- ‘311’ City Complaint Telephone Line (municipal, medium urgency)
call 3-1-1 or 604-873-7000

Please take 20 minutes: It is important that all concerned residents take time to write at least one letter of complaint this week (if you can, also send copies to all those others listed above). Our collective message is that they must Take the Giant Screen Down Now (along with an explanation of how it’s negatively affecting your life at home, or that of other residents). Emails and phone calls are also good, but when contacting provincial agencies, mailed letters are provided the highest level of attention. Thanks for working together and doing your part. We are all members of this community, we have a right to a peaceful and enjoyable life (even downtown!), and taking individual action as part of this collective group is a very powerful thing.

Incredible number of affected residents

This is a diagram of some of the buildings/residents which have been made known to the ‘Take the Giant Screen Down Now’ organisation as being visually assaulted by High-powered Flashing Advertising in their glass homes by the Giant Video Screen at Terry Fox Plaza. This diagram really gives an incredible sense of the full impact of PavCo’s reckless actions. (please click on the image to enlarge)

What this Blog is about

This Blog is an openly accessible informational bulletin board for Vancouver residents who are concerned or discontent (many are outraged) about the highly adverse impacts of the new Giant Flashing High-powered Advertisement Video Screen erected by PavCo in front of hundreds of residential glass homes at Terry Fox Plaza at BC Place Stadium.

Please consider visiting the publicly-accessible Facebook PAGE ‘Take the Giant Screen Down Now’ for more information about this unbelievable situation, or consider joining the Facebook GROUP (same name) to connect with others and contribute to the organised protest against this intolerable Giant Video Screen.


Affected by the Giant Video Screen but not on Facebook? – please send an email to take.the.giant.screen.down.now@gmail.com