Bigge Blurbs

I asked Danny Burns, a marketing manager at Nissan Canada, why they decided to launch the car using social media only.

“When you look at the vehicle, it makes sense.” I took a second glance at the Cube. It looked like a minivan that was squished and gutted. I was reminded of those Suzuki microbuses in Latin America where they shove people in until no one can move their arms.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” I replied.

He explained that it’s not a car for the masses, and so it would not work with a mass media campaign. Nissan wants to lure younger buyers, so reaching them on social media made sense.

“If I opened a bar in the United States, a bottle of vodka would cost me five bucks and I’d sell a cocktail for $4.25,” she said hotly.

“Here a bottle of vodka costs $35.26 and I still have to sell a cocktail for $4.25, and I have to pay a 10 per cent liquor tax and GST, and I have to go through all these hoops for licensing.”

Cars were circling for his parking spot as Kerim Sursal loaded 50 bottles of wine into his car as quickly as he could.

“Nothing brings Canadians together like shopping for booze,” he said ambiguously.

Some shoppers question if the five-cent fee is a deterrent or a penalty. Lawyer and mother of two Tierney Grieve is annoyed, she says, pushing a cartload of groceries in plastic bags to her car where she has defiantly left her reusable bags. “People judge you,” she says.

She needs the plastic to line rubbish bins at home. “There’s a lot of social pressure to demonstrate how socially conscious we are,” says Grieve. “Screw it. I need some bags.”

Sheila Heti, author of Ticknor

“You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” from the Annie soundtrack (1982)

Last year, I spent the summer in Williamsburg. One day, I decided to play a game as I walked to the L train. I smiled at everyone I passed. No one smiled back. So I played it the next day, and the next, always with the same result: a slight raise of the chin and a glance away. Give me a break, darlings! Don’t you remember Annie? There’s only one antidote to your misguided attitude: “Who cares what they’re wearing/On Main Street or Savile Row/It’s what you wear from ear to ear/And not from head to toe/That ma-ah-ah-ters.”