Your Alberta Blog

PAB screwed up

Posted At : April 23, 2009 3:33 PM (MST) | Posted By : David Sands
Related Categories: General government

The whole world seems a twitter over a screw up by we of the Public Affairs Bureau, Government of Alberta.

In our branding initiative, we put together some very striking images of our beautiful province, and wove them around a narrative that we came to call the Alberta story.

At one point in the narrative we mentioned our regard for people in other places, and in that place we used the only image that did not come from Alberta. Intentionally. We all knew that every single image we put out to represent Alberta had to be of Alberta, or we would be roasted. See that narrative here, you can see the non-Alberta image at 1:24 along with the words that accompany it.

Then we screwed up.

We took images from the narrative, and used them as standalone still pictures on our website. And along the line, we grabbed that one, solitary image that was not from Alberta and added our nifty new "Alberta" signature.

Asked about this use by an Edmonton Journal columnist, we explained why we used it in the brand book. We did not explain how it came to be used as a standalone single image with "Alberta" written on it.

We're sorry.

The picture has been removed from the cycle of standalone images, however it still lives in the narrative, as you will see in the above link.

And, Northumberland, you are beautiful, too.

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Thank you for admitting an error was made and correcting it. I understand how this mistake could have happened, but I think the real error was spending the day denying it was a mistake to do it. It is nice someone finally took the appropriate step: saying "oops" and pulling the image.

Hopefully in the future we will see more of this kind of action when faced with errors from our public servants and less of the 'old-school' "we didn't do anything wrong" form of public relations.

We’re obviously not their yet but its nice to think we might someday expect that from the Government of Alberta.

# Posted By DJ Kelly | 4/23/09 4:49 PM (MST)

This new PR campaign was touted by the Government. Public Affairs staff should not be speaking about this to the public - rather the Minister responsible or Premier should do their duty and apologize to Albertans instead of hiding behind public servants.

# Posted By John Andrusiak | 4/23/09 5:47 PM (MST)

well done for saying oops and dealing with it here. stuff happens. good on you for this move towards openness and for humanizing this issue

# Posted By Jas | 4/23/09 6:35 PM (MST)

In the grand scheme of things - a simple mistake and easily explained. No one was hurt and maybe a few more people will go to Northumberland! Maybe the general outrage was because this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to government incompetence. When screwing up simple ad campaigns they are out wrecking health care, shoring up private companies, ruining the environment and generally acting like they (and not ordinary people) own the province.

# Posted By Ken O'Connell | 4/23/09 7:03 PM (MST)

But what a great stroke of luck that this tempest in a teapot occurred at the same time the Health Minister order security to bar the NDP and Liberal leaders from commenting on a Government announcement at Government House.

# Posted By Mark Wells | 4/23/09 9:50 PM (MST)

I have never seen myself in any of the stock images used in brochures. Who are these people, and who enjoys their ubiquitous, anonymous, bland presence in printed promotional material? Not me. Am I supposed to aspire to become like them, outwardly well-adjusted and perfectly coiffed, the point being to suggest conformity? I find this stuff to be absolutely nauseating anyway. But, it doesn't really matter where stock images originate, they're just stock images -- obviously as unreal as dreams -- they don't have a country or a community. It's abstract, designed to cut through what's left of intellect straight to the subsconscious I suspect. Well, it's working on me, but I'm not sure in a way that you anticipated or meant to foster. I'm an Albertan... where am I?

# Posted By Trent Moranz | 4/24/09 8:38 AM (MST)

I understand mistakes - they are made by many, however, the amount of our money that was spent on that mistake is why it makes all the difference in the world. It's a wake up call for everyone trying to pull the wool over someone's eyes or has a lack of detail. You can't just use random stock images anymore - People know the difference and it matters to people what they see. You were trying to make a campaign for people to love Alberta and instead, the opposite was created. Instead of good news about this wonderful Alberta campaign, bad news comes alight and it's what everyone is talking about.

# Posted By Mel | 4/24/09 11:41 AM (MST)

This goes to show how $25M of tax payers money was spent. If consultant involved and PAB couldn't review a major visual detail like which photo are we selecting, it just hurts to even begin to imagine how recklessly this whole contract was undertaken with $25M. Without knowing more details, I just can't comprehend how $25M can be spent on coming up with a communication/promotion plan??? The main product - "freedom to...whatever" is so complicated that more than 90% of people won't remember it. The height of total lack of common sense and unprofessionalism is so high that it almost smells like a big scam where only winner is Edmonton based consultant firm who walked away with $25M of tax payers' money.
I still love Alberta Advantage and it will never die from our hearts and mind.

# Posted By Cosmo | 4/24/09 1:27 PM (MST)

For $25 million, the ad agency can't take fresh pictures? Tisk. Of an Alberta beach? Double tisk. And yet another tisk for having so little regard for ethnic diversity. What province do they live in? Is it 2009 or 1953?
Here's a suggestion for a provincial brand, based on the very successful one created for our western neighbour: Super. Natural. British Columbia.
Extra. Ordinary. Alberta
cheers
mm

# Posted By Mairi MacLean | 4/24/09 4:42 PM (MST)

I know this is not directly Stelmach's fault but this is just one of an on-going set of bungling that this government seems to be good at. That's what happens when you choose cabinet ministers based on loyalty rather than competence. The only difference is that now, all Canadians, not just Albertans, will know how big of an embarrassment this government is - and I'm a Conservative!

# Posted By Canbuhay | 4/24/09 5:13 PM (MST)

25 million for a slogan that's hard to remember and only talks about fluff. Somebody other than Calder Bateman got paid for this, must be nice to know people in high places. I wish I can get a 25 million dollar contract and screw it up royally.

# Posted By Ed | 4/24/09 6:17 PM (MST)

You "took the images" from the narrative and this one ended up in your campaign? Did you even pay for it? This looks like one of a series of photos available from a stock agency, a big, litigious stock agency. Next time, hire real photographers to do your photography.

# Posted By Darrell | 4/24/09 6:17 PM (MST)

The ad is supposed to promote Alberta. Every other image in this commercial was from Alberta. Yet we are supposed to believe that an image from a stock photography agency of Northumberland was planned? There was no change in the narrative or style to indicate that this image came from anywhere other than Alberta - it is extremely misleading. The apology should be for both "planning" on using one image amongst a series of images of Alberta that was not from Alberta and for then trying to justify the action. (And with a $25 million dollar budget why are stock photos being used anyway?)

# Posted By Patti | 4/24/09 7:12 PM (MST)

I am very disappointed.
The "screw-up" was one thing; the apology was, to say the least, incoherent and the sentence at the beginning of this Blog contains a gross grammatical error: The whole world seems a twitter over a screw up by we of the Public Affairs Bureau.......
This should read: "by us..."
A good proofreader is required!

# Posted By Mieke Wharton | 4/24/09 9:01 PM (MST)

Please kill me now. This apology makes no sense (from a written English point of view). "... over a screw up by we of the Public Affairs Bureau." Are you thinking of the U.S. Constitution, i.e. We the People? Anyway, it should be "by us at" and the rest of the post is a bit incomprehensible too. Or maybe I quit trying. Because this is a government website, more formality than "we screwed up" is appreciated. Also, the "strength forged over time but tempered by wisdom and maturity" text in the BrandBook lays on oil pipelines, so, yes, I get the design message there (our oil is good!). Apart from the image from another country, oops, it's quite zippy. 5.5/10 (with $25m cost considered - it actually looks slightly amateurish for the price)

# Posted By wild vetch | 4/24/09 9:53 PM (MST)

While unfortunate, you can't buy the kind of publicity generated by this incident. As a taxpayer I'm delighted in the international coverage of this gaffe. In my contrarian opinion the results mean more than method and in this case the goal of promoting Alberta was certainly accomplished.

# Posted By Chad Smith | 4/26/09 12:06 AM (MST)

Not only should a campaign about Alberta include images from Alberta... those images should be taken by Alberta photographers. As someone in the industry it is disheartening to see that our government and its affiliates do not recongnize the importance of supporting their own citizens. Very dissapointing.

# Posted By Shauna | 4/26/09 3:16 PM (MST)

I may add to my comments above: the people in the promo material are all kind of white.

# Posted By wild vetch | 5/2/09 1:46 AM (MST)

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