How SFU Business fared in the news for the week of October 3, 2008

BC News

• As stock markets plunged after the U.S. House initially voted down the $700 billion bailout package, Julie Ovenell-Carter of PAMR suggested to media that business assistant prof Amir Rubin and Andrey Pavlov, associate professor of finance, could offer expert comment. The Early Edition show on CBC Radio interviewed Pavlov, the Surrey-North Delta NewsLeader interviewed Rubin, and TheTyee.ca news website called both of them. PAMR also proposed to media that fisheries experts John Reynolds and Larry Dill could comment on a court case in which ocean advocate Alexandra Morton is arguing that the federal government did not have the right to hand over regulation of fish-farming to the provincial government. The BC Almanac show on CBC Radio promptly called Reynolds.

Meredith Manifext

• Another busy media week for marketing prof Lindsay Meredith.

He was in countrywide stories on the use of “with glowing hearts” from Canada’s national anthem as a tagline for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and Paralympic Games. “From a Canadian national perspective, very, very high resonance,’’ said Meredith. “You can’t do better than a national anthem.’’ He said the tagline should travel well, too. The Vancouver Sun started the ink flowing, and the story spread rapidly to print and broadcast media from
coast to coast.
CanWest News Service assessed the hits and misses in the federal parties’ campaign advertising. With help from Meredith, it gave the edge (as of Sept. 26, at least) to the Conservative party.
Wrote CanWest: “Thanks to major pre-election strategizing, deep pockets, and a charm-offensive clad in a blue sweater vest, the Conservatives are looking like the party to beat in the traditional advertising ring, says Lindsay Meredith, a professor of marketing strategy at Simon Fraser University.”
Speaking on a number of federal election issues, Meredith was also on CFUN AM1410 talk radio (twice) and did a long interview on the Calgary Today show on CHQR AM770 there. That station also feeds a sister station in Edmonton.
With the launch of a new national do-not-call list, PAMR advised media that Meredith could talk about the impact on telemarketing. The Province quoted him: “It will hopefully cut down on the computer-generated, automated messages, and throw a curve-ball to those slimy guys doing telephone fraud.” Marketing magazine also promptly pursued him.

Other Election News

• The Province reported on a web campaign designed to help environmentalists figure out which other candidate has the best chance of knocking off the Conservative in their riding. But retired SFU prof Gary Mauser said: “Strategic voting rarely comes off. Not enough people have enough energy and enough information to make it work.”

The Environment

• The Vancouver Sun reported three Lower Mainland companies took top prizes in the New Ventures BC energy conservation competition. “The New Ventures BC competition attracted almost 200 competitors who had to convince a jury of venture capitalists that their ideas were commercially viable. New Ventures BC was established in 2000 by SFU’s business school and is funded by private and public sponsors.”

• The Calgary Herald carried a feature on the green movement as a form of spirituality for many people. It quoted Mark Wexler, business ethics prof: “Unlike the ‘sacred’ religions that focus on belief in a supernatural, secular religions are emerging . . . that can be as attractive to atheists as to members of organized religions.”