Author: Gabriele Zambito

Categories
News

Ritz-Carlton’s viral holiday social media post was not what they said it was

The luxury hotel chain backtracked on it’s promise that every share would equal one gift for a sick child

 

Update:

Ritz-Carlton Montreal spokesperson Katia Piccolino said that the intention behind the campaign was never to deceive the public. Rather, the purpose was to raise awareness and get people to donate to the Tree of Lights campaign for Sainte-Justine, which many people did, she said.

It all came down to the wording of the post itself, she said. “If we would have put a cap on the number of toys we were going to donate, then this problem wouldn’t have occurred.” Piccolino apologizes for and admits to this error.

Finally, the Ritz-Carlton Montreal decided to extend their donation to the Montreal Children’s Hospital as well as Sainte-Justine. Children from both Hospitals are expected to receive toys in time for the holidays.

 

Ritz-Carlton Montréal’s viral Instagram post was suddenly taken down on Monday morning, Dec. 7, after having been up for less than a day.

The video post featured essential workers in a hospital during the late hours of night, as well as sick children who were unable to be in proximity of their families due to the global pandemic. An inspirational piano tune played the background of the video as the closing caption read “far from our eyes, close to our hearts.”

The heart-warming video was paired with a caption that stated the Ritz-Carlton would be collaborating with Decarie Motors et Vo-Dignard Provost Groupe to deliver toys to the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation.

The post stated that every Instagram story share would result in one toy donated to a sick child in need.

Due to a high number of shares, the post blew up overnight. Within nine hours, it reached 150,000 views, according to MTL Blog. Representative for the Ritz-Carlton Montréal, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Concordian, “it created a buzz that was so unexpected we had to take it down.”

The representative further explained that the post had reached its goal of 500 shares, a number that would guarantee a toy for every child at Sainte-Justine. The original post made no mention of this 500 share limit.

People who shared the video were not happy about the secrecy that went in taking the post down. The video was put back up after the backlash. Angry social-media users took to the Ritz-Carlton’s latest Instagram post to express their disdain for the alleged questionable campaign.

Accusations that the luxury hotel used sick children as a publicity stunt to better their image were many people’s concerns. One Instagram user said, “got more shares than y’all thought and didn’t want to start having this be a non-profitable venture.” Some threatened to boycott the hotel all together if they didn’t release a statement saying that they would donate all the toys.

A statement was released to the hotel’s Instagram, claiming that the objective was to raise awareness for the children of Sainte Justine hospital. The statement issued an amended goal of donating toys according to the hospital’s needs rather than for every share to Instagram as originally promised.

The controversial video still received  2.1 million views. Over the time of this two-day campaign, the Ritz-Carlton’s Instagram account saw an increase of nearly two-thousand followers, yet the hospital’s Instagram account following remained constant.

The Ritz-Carlton Montréal representative is disappointed that people would assume that the hotel company would not honor their word. But when asked why there wasn’t more transparency behind the campaign and the deleting of their post, he refused to comment.

The representative says the Ritz-Carlton is an annual supporter of the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation. The luxury hotel chain has previously thrown Breakfast with Santa Claus events and have done similar campaigns in the past. They promise to deliver 500 toys on December 20th.

The CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

 

Screenshot of Instagram post.

Categories
Opinions

We Do Not Need Another Celebrity Makeup Brand!

Hear me out, if a beauty product works well, I will be the first person to come to its defense and encourage others to buy it.

That being said, one thing I simply cannot stand behind is the manipulation of consumers coming from celebrity beauty brands.

Selena Gomez recently announced that she is launching her own brand called Rare Beauty, following in the steps of Kylie Jenner, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Mille Bobby Brown and several other celebrities who own a beauty brand. I can’t blame her, the highly profitable beauty industry is booming.

According to Vogue, the $532 billion global industry has become so saturated that we, as consumers, are completely overwhelmed by our choice. Including celebrity makeup brands in the mix makes it even more impossible to buy products that we believe will work for us.

Let’s go back to November 2015, when Kylie Jenner launched her beauty brand, Kylie Cosmetics, which at the time consisted of three shades of liquid lipstick. The three shades sold out in mere seconds and created huge waves in the makeup world. This launch sent out a message to many celebrities that a large following paired with three simple beauty products can send their fans into a spending frenzy.

According to Criteo, beauty kits and skin care have the highest online penetration compared to any other products available online. Emarketer called the US retail commerce of health, personal care and beauty products the second-fastest growing category among those they track.

Once celebrities began to realize that there was an unbelievable amount of profit to be made in e-commerce and product development, plenty of other celebs have and will continue to jump on this bandwagon. Countless celebrity cosmetic brands have emerged and have been putting their fan base back a few bucks.

Loyalty to a celebrity or idol should not translate into buying their products. These brands aren’t targeting everyday consumers who shop at the drugstore or perhaps Sephora for their beauty products. Their exploitative marketing strategy relies on hype and the loyalty of their fanbase to result in sales.

However, this exploitation is not necessarily new to us. Celebs have been collaborating with cosmetic companies to create fragrances and become the face of a brand for years now—the reason being that it works. People buy products that are associated with celebrities, regardless of how involved they were in its creation.

As I mentioned, if a product works and is something the cosmetic industry has never seen before, I will support it. What made Kylie’s launch so successful is that she was one of the first to harness the hype surrounding her infamous pout and launch an e-commerce brand. I must admit, this was a brilliant business move.

Another celebrity makeup brand that did it right was Fenty Beauty, by Rihanna. The singer and businesswoman launched a 40 shade foundation line, which no other brand has ever done. The diversity and inclusivity that is engrained in her brand created a niche and a need for her products. Many people who were unable to wear foundation found their shade because of Fenty Beauty.

The truth is that celebrity cosmetic brands typically don’t bring anything new to the table. They can get away with creating a similar version of a product that is already on the market and trust that their followers will buy it.

At this point, if a brand isn’t establishing their own niche in the industry by launching a unique product, I have every reason to believe that they simply want your money. 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Categories
Arts

Art therapy as a means to cope with grief

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Concordia’s Iranian community shows us how art-making can help heal past trauma

Whether it’s venting, crying or spending time with your loved ones, grief differs from person to person. Poetry, storytelling and painting are forms of art therapy healing that took place on Jan. 16 at Concordia’s Art Hive event in efforts to heal together rather than apart.

In light of the recent plane crash that occurred in Iran, Concordia is offering support resources for students that have been affected by the tragedy. Programs like Concordia’s Art Hive, located at the Sir George Williams Campus, are there for students who feel mournful and need a creative outlet.

Hanieh Tohidi, a Creative Art Therapy graduate student at Concordia, created the Persian Art Hive event out of a necessity to do so for her fellow Iranians. 

“I felt a lot of sadness and grief coming from Iranian people and felt that I needed to start this event,” she said. After receiving an award provided by the J.A. De Sève Foundation to finance the Art Hive at Concordia’s downtown campus, Tohidi was finally able to make her vision a reality.

The idea started a year ago when sanctions began in Iran and tensions started rising. “The plan was to start the Art Hive much later, but unfortunately this tragedy happened,” she said. “We started the hive under pressure, knowing that the community would need more support; especially students starting their semester.”

Najmeh Khalili-Mahani, a scientist at Concordia’s PERFORM Centre and affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as Design and Computation Arts, joined the effort to create the downtown Art Hive. She felt a lack of culturally-specific support for Iranian students. “I thought the magnitude of the event is something that would not be appreciated unless somebody understood the cultural and political context from which we had fled to Canada,” she said.

Art therapy allows people to express their emotions and complex feelings without having to verbalize them. “It is very hard to communicate decades of trauma happening to us to someone who may not necessarily know the background of it,” Tohidi said. “We would have to explain to psychotherapists or councillors why we are getting triggered by specific events.”

People tend to respond to the sense of community that is formed through art and simply being together, according to Tohidi. Since language may not be everyone’s favourite means of self-expression, art therapy introduces a number of creative outlets to allow for free art-making such as music therapy and drama therapy.

Art therapy is highly regarded as a method of coping with bottled-up emotions. Everyone is welcome to let their emotions come together to create a piece of art.

According to Tohidi, the practice of art therapy predates traditional psychotherapy by several thousands of years. Before there was language, there was art. “People would paint on the walls of caves to express their fear of facing hatred from the unknown,” said Tohidi. “That was the sort of therapy that they resorted to. Art was there to allow them to communicate.”

A 2015 scientific study suggests that art therapy can be beneficial in treating issues such as depression, anxiety, low mood, inability to cope, low-self esteem, post-traumatic stress disorder and even some phobias.

Coping with grief through art, poetry and storytelling is very much a part of Iranian culture. “The idea of healing together comes from the psychology of liberation, which is what art hive is based on,” said Tohidi.

“The idea of artist doesn’t exist in art therapy,” she said. “We are all artists.”

The concept of art therapy gives weight to the personal process of artistic creation. Rather than being a result-driven artistic endeavour, Tohidi wants people engaging in art therapy to forget about the outcome of their art. “Art therapy is a re-learning of being in the present moment and observing what we are doing and how we interact with people,” she said.

Most importantly, the Art Hive is a safe space. “If we are non-judgmental, we can have conversations about our art and our inside world,” Tohidi said.

As beneficial as art therapy may be, Tohidi points out that it is hard to come by nowadays due to financial limitations. “The public population can’t benefit from art therapy as they would psychotherapy in public service because insurance may not cover it,” she said. More often than not, art therapists are hired through extra funding that is raised through fundraising or donations.

The Art Hive (SGW campus) continues to be available to the Concordia community, as well as outsiders. For information about the scheduling of Art Hive events, please check the Concordia Art Hive and Montreal Art Hive Facebook page.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Gabriele Zambito and Hanieh Tohidi.

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