an email from my mom this morning...

"As you are no doubt aware, the end of the world will occur this Saturday, May 21, 2011 (those who have had their heads in the sand and have not heard the news should go immediately to this website

Andy* and I have decided to have an “End of the World” party to provide our friends with a chance to indulge in all the things that they have been avoiding in order to prolong their lives. We will provide caloric-laden food, deafening music, excessive amount of alcohol and cigarettes. We ask only that you bring a cd that you would like to be with you for all eternity. Comfortable clothing would also be a good choice as you will probably not be changing for a very long time.

The party will begin at 8:30 and will be over at the end of time.
No rain date."

For those interested, flip me a note and Ill send you their addy. Sure to be the party of a lifetime.

*thats my pops

final rebuttal- why falling in XO with TO should win

most people you asked about me would first say "she's incredibly competitive" followed by "she's cutthroat" and then "she'd throw you under the bus if she could get ahead".

rest assured, none of that has changed in my campaign to win the torontoist's new slogan contest.

so here's the deal.
as it is down to the wire (the contest closes Friday) i have decided to pull out the big guns and go ahead and call this a two horse race.

with Forever Yonge and i (Fall in XO with TO) playing a delicate first and second place dance, many of my arguments about why mine is better than the competition (i.e. this isnt the arena to promote the diversity of the city - here) don't necessarily apply to this particular contender...

in fact, determining which of these two choices would best serve the defined purpose (intriguing potential tourists to visit our fair city) is a pretty straightforward role-playing process. like so:

take a moment and put yourself into the shoes of a pedestrian, commuter, backpacker or any person of the world (just not a torontonian's shoes) and sit down at a bus stop somewhere outside of the GTA (ottawa, halifax, belleville, napanee, regina, etc). and then look up. there, in front of you stands a poster inviting you to fall in XO with TO. two seconds. you get it. its simple. you realize you havent been to toronto in awhile. you wonder whats new there. you realize that there could be things there to fall in love with. you decide to visit and stimulate the local economy promptly.

alternatively, in the same shoes at the same busstop, you look up and see "Forever Yonge". you think "Rod Stewart.. whats he doing these days?" oh wait, is that the street in Toronto? that really long street with all the dirty tshirt stores where the Sam the Record Man used to be? i think thats the street all my friends from Toronto always tell me to avoid when visiting the city. weird that it has a poster...

do the right thing.
VOTE XOTO

xoTO is mine, yours and ours - and it works.

it's been a tough week for a girl who was excited about her slogan being a finalist for the torontoist TO slogan contest.

after being selected as a finalist the comments field on the FALL IN XO WITH TO page was filling up with both props and criticism. so i took to my blog to address the concerns of skeptics suggesting my phrase was not a viable candidate and i think i addressed most criticism. ( here)

turns out, that was just the beginning of the arduous defence process (#firstworldproblem). thanks to the city of toronto.

on saturday, this post at the torontoist revealed that the city of toronto was unveiling a surprise XOTO campaign to launch at nuit blanche and noted the similarity of their messaging to my submission. ugh, a slogan writer's battle is never ending.



as such, i feel the need to address this coincidence and explain why it is not "unfortunate" but should instead be complementary and only strengthen my campaign.
so in 3 points, here we go:

1. it's not the same idea - they complement each other. the XOTO idea is something that we can build on as a city and its residents. it is a sentiment that current TO inhabitants can engage in. FALL IN XO WITH TO is a complementary and natural extension of this. even Lauren Oneil, a popular toronto blogger @Lauren Out Loud, took note of the city's campaign and then used the poster of my submission in her post supporting the campaign.

2. i didn't steal it from them, they stole it from me! see my "you know what's the bomb? this city! that's right TO i'm talking to you" post from last february

3. it employs modern language. there has been some criticism around the use of "XO" when referring to "love", and "TO" for Toronto -some saying it is misleading. the reality is this texting, sexting, tweeting shorthand is the language of today. and toronto has a reputation for being "cutting edge"* so it just makes sense.

so that's it.
i feel a little silly spending so much time on this but i cant have you thinking i am slogan-plagiarizer (i clearly don't mind if you think that i can't spell)

for more reasons why i think FALL IN XO WITH TO is pretty great, see my original justification here


* "XO" is sooo cutting edge ;)


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