{"id":13846,"date":"2016-04-06T19:11:28","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T23:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=13846"},"modified":"2016-04-13T18:07:51","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T22:07:51","slug":"brocks-banter-there-are-other-keinz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-there-are-other-keinz\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: There ARE other Keinz"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between ketchup and catsup? Well, catsup has more tomatoes, comes in a bigger bottle, is cheaper, but it tastes just like ketchup. Now, we know that\u2019s not true \u2013 but that\u2019s what your competitors are saying. They are selling their watered-down, flavourless sauce by pretending they are you. It makes you angry, doesn\u2019t it? Me too. But, I always say, if you don\u2019t like what they\u2019re saying, change the conversation.\u201d
\nSo said adwoman Peggy Olson in a room full of Heinz suits in the second half of Mad Men as her former boss, and mentor, Don Draper, leaned in to listen from the other side of the closed door to hear what his prot\u00e9g\u00e9e pitched to a potential new client.
\nThey were familiar words. In fact, they were words first uttered by him on the series a season or two before while trying to retain a skeptical client.
\nThe teacher was now the student.
\nShe had learned well.
\nImmediately following her speech, Peggy stepped to the side and revealed a spiffy new ad campaign for the iconic red sauce. Featuring the equally iconic Heinz bottle on its side, anticipating the deliciously thick liquid to dribble out of the neck with a satisfying \u201cplop!\u201d, the image was framed by the words: \u201cHeinz. The only ketchup.\u201d
\n\u201cEnd of conversation,\u201d Peggy concluded.
\nPerhaps it was for a while, but ad execs of the 1960s \u2013 even those dreamed up in the present day by AMC showrunners \u2013 couldn\u2019t have anticipated that the conversation was far from over, particularly where Canada is concerned.
\nAll you need to do is look at the unlikely surge of national pride and patriotism that has cropped up around ketchup, of all things, resulting in French\u2019s Ketchup getting a much-longed-for foothold in the red channels of the condiment market, brilliantly using their capital to keep the Leamington tomato industry alive after Heinz pulled out to take their operations back to their American home.
\nBuying local has never been sweeter and connoisseurs are savouring the competition. (I\u2019ll stop there)
\nFrench\u2019s brainwave is keeping a vital local market alive, scores of people employed, and given Heinz a wake-up call on the importance of community in their business structure.
\nBut, more importantly, it has changed the conversation.
\nLittle more than a year ago, the airwaves were inundated with commercials featuring actors dressed up in Heinz ketchup bottles welcoming their \u201cnew, better tasting\u201d yellow-hued sister of the cruet set to the party.
\nWhile the kitsch factor in those ads, looking to gain a foothold in the mustard market, was already through the roof, it now has a certain quaintness in retrospect as while Heinz was pouring money into its efforts to beat French\u2019s at its own tangy game, their rival was seeing red and quietly plotting their market domination.
\n\u201cEnd of conversation.\u201d
\nThe conversation shift was never a new technique. It has always been a tried and true method for a variety of objectives, but we are seeing it more and more frequently these days.
\nWe are seeing it in the American primaries going on right now with the Hillary Clinton campaign framing her election bid as one about experience trumping all else, so to speak, while Bernie Sanders is shifting the conversation to real and supposed Wall Street fat cats being the source of all of America\u2019s ills, a topic very much in his wheelhouse.
\nRarely, so far, has the conversation been about who truly represents the ideals of the Democratic Party, and what that Party line actually stands for.
\nOn the other side of the aisle, there are the Republicans.
\nThere is Ted Cruz, who has veered from his policy talking points to framing himself as the only viable alternative to Donald Trump. There is John Kasich, who has turned the conversation from gabbing about his lacklustre irrelevant start in the race to being the only politician in the GOP field who has managed to stay relatively above the fray, and then there is Donald Trump.
\nWell, Mr. Trump attempts to change the conversation every day to keep the talking heads yakking, whether it is setting the rights of women back forty years, deporting all immigrants unwilling to put a ring on it, and planting the seeds of nuclear annihilation.
\nEssentially, Donald Trump is that inexperienced intern at the Chef Boyardee plant throwing just about everything at the wall to see what sticks.
\nNow in Aurora, the groundwork is being laid for another conversational shift.
\nOver the past five or six years, barely a month has gone by without the word \u201chotel\u201d passing the lips of a local politician, business person, or community organizer. It was a buzzword when the only game in Town was falling into a steady state of disrepair. It was a buzzword when it ultimately closed up shop. It continued to be a buzzword during the last municipal election when candidates were vying to be the white knight for many a white sale looking to furnish a hotel that is barely a dot on the horizon.
\nNow, it is a buzzword once again as politicians saddle up these horses which, although not quite dead, are gasping for breath.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s have a conversation,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson at last week\u2019s Council meeting regarding the ongoing battle Mayor Geoff Dawe is having at the Region to have the upper tier re-think their development charge strategy as it relates to future hotel developments.
\nThe Mayor\u2019s recent comments on the situation, Councillor Thompson argued, had put out a \u201cnegative message\u201d when it comes to Aurora and the hotel industry.
\n\u201cI would much rather have a conversation around this table and change the narrative to be a more positive one whereby Aurora is willing to work with the local hotel community and try and figure it out,\u201d he concluded.
\nIt is a noble sentiment, but sometimes, no matter how hard you try, the conversation won\u2019t budge.
\nWe have heard time and again the hotel development charges are seen as a significant hurdle for the hotel industry. All conversations seem to loop back to that particular point. In this case, it might be better to draw a line under the conversation already underway before changing direction mid-sentence bound for the same destination.
\nAs far as conversations go, development charges might be a watered-down flavourless sauce, but the sauce should be sopped up before moving onto dessert.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir \u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between ketchup and catsup? Well, catsup has more tomatoes, comes in a bigger bottle, is cheaper, but it tastes just like ketchup. Now, we know that\u2019s not true \u2013 but that\u2019s what your competitors are saying. They are selling their watered-down, flavourless sauce by pretending they are you. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Bk","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 19:22:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}