Lakehead ...

About the most insulting thing I can use to retort against their pathetic ad campaign is that it came from Lakehead.

Lakehead.

Yuck.

Dear Ms. Abaya,

I am writing to object in the most strenuous terms to Lakehead's ad campaign Yale Shmale [sic and sick]. (Schmale would be spelled with a "c" as it is, essentially, a Yiddish thing.)

Who thought this one up? Whoever it is, badly missed the mark: the mark of decorum, of relevance, of acceptable limits, etc., etc. To build Lakehead up and, supposedly, impress Canadians with your edgy sense of humour (not), by putting both Yale and President George W. Bush down is pretty pathetic. This kind of humour is juvenile, if not infantile, and has the effect of making Lakehead look mean-spirited, crass, and, frankly, stupid.

I think your communications department needs to re-think this campaign. You have insulted the elected leader of the United States of America, our number-one trading partner and closest neighbour, millions of Americans who voted for George W. Bush, and also one of the finest institutes of learning in North America. Lakehead's audacity in doing this is breathtakingly arrogant.

Do you think it wise for a mouse to bite an elephant? It's a pretty silly thing to do, isn't it? Might I suggest that the juvenile brains behind this ad campaign act their age and come up with something less childish?

Yours sincerely,

PS--Above, the e-mail I just sent to Lakehead's so-called "communications" department.

I'm suspicious. The YaleShmale page offers links to a "mylakehead" page, not directly to Lakehead's official pages. The official communications pages discuss new marketing campaigns, but don't mention this one. Either some Lakehead staff are running this somewhat surreptitiously, or it's a hoax.

So much for that self-effacing humour y'all were boasting about regarding that Huffington Post NYT spoof. But I never thought I'd see the day that the commenters on SDA would be defending those ivory tower elitists at Yale.

Laura: It's a news report. Click on the first link at Relapsed Catholic.

Jonesy: You're a moron. Prove that anyone here is defending Yale. Do you believe Lakehead is a better institution than Yale? By your twisted logic, I'll conclude that dumb idea before you.

Doug,

I don't believe that Lakehead is better than Yale. I also don't believe Pepsi is better than Coke, but I don't get all worked up about their commercials putting down Coke. Lakehead made an attempt at humour, and it was kind of weak. GWB, being a public figure, is subject to humour and ridicule and can file a lawsuit if he thinks his image was used improperly. Otherwise, just don't send your kids to Lakehead.

Laura wrote: "I'm suspicious. The YaleShmale page offers links to a "mylakehead" page, not directly to Lakehead's official pages. The official communications pages discuss new marketing campaigns, but don't mention this one. Either some Lakehead staff are running this somewhat surreptitiously, or it's a hoax."

Maybe rather than it being a hoax, Lakehead took the offending poster/ad campaign off its Web site...that's always a possibility. I imagine they're taking a lot of heat about it right now.

Laura, this is not a hoax.

I sent an email expressing concern to Fred Gilbert, president of Lakehead U on Friday after hearing about this on the CBC. He was kind enough to respond today that the reaction received has been "a lesson too late in the learning". I give him credit for the candor.

Remember also one rule of advertising, a negative reaction is better than no reaction. At least now we all know about Lakehead U, how many did before?

With classes about to begin in a week or so, is this a strategic time to be advertising a university? Maybe at Lakehead, they have lots and lots of space? Why?

Not much different than a t-shirt I once saw that read, "Tis better to fail at Western than to graduate from Guelph".

But using a sophomoric t-shirt slogan as an ad campaign says a lot about the university.

Not much different than a t-shirt I once saw that read, "Tis better to fail at Western than to graduate from Guelph".

But using a sophomoric t-shirt slogan as an ad campaign says a lot about the university.

Andy, to again quote Fred Gilbert's note, which I trust he wouldn't mind:

"quite frankly convential approaches had failed to penetrate the key market and the timing is critical". So they were desperate. Desperate people do desperate things.

used to be called "Lunkhead", back in the day...

Most Democrats in US must have had their education at Flakehead U. Renowned Canadian flake's now have their first choice of education eflatulence. Black Flys are smarter is their new motto.

When I see posts about stuff like this, I can't wait for parliament to reconvene.

Lakehead will never rise above mediocrity with this type of crap.

My all time favorite Guelph/Western tee-shirt, worn by a young lady:

"I'd sooner shovel shit at Guelph, than sleep with it at Western."

For those who are happily unaware of these universities, Guelph is big on agricultural programs.
BTW, I went to neither of these places.

Having done my first year at Lakehead I'm totally embarassed by this juvenile type of campaign.

Clearly even bad publicity is good publicity. How many Flakehead grads read Reuters anyways?

:)

cheers, retarded ivy league alumnist

Laura, it's not a hoax. The first I knew about it was seeing a whole lot of the black and white posters last weekend on a street near where I was staying.

What idiots! I think the ad department must be run by "toddlers" who grew up watching The Simpsons and South Park. Too bad they can't tell the difference between watching a TV show for laughs and being taken for laughs by doing something so puerile, apparently, in earnest.

Lakehead's dunderheads' spelling error--as BATB points out, it should be the Yiddish "Schmale" not "Shmale"--is the icing on this oh so pretentious, but utterly tasteless cake.

LOL!

So Lakehead University thinks George Bush is not so smart? Back in February, Lakehead president Dr. Fred Gilbert ruled that the university would not provide wireless Internet to it’s students because it poses a safety and health danger – something that no body of research has ever proved.

Who’s being stupid now??

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060224.wxlakehead0224/BNStory/National/home

I don't care what you say about me as long as you spell my name right.

Another great line from the Univ. of Guelph was seen on the sidelines of the 1985 Vanier cup against Mount Allison University.

"Mount Allison before she mounts you"

Guelph won BTW, on a long TD pass caught over-the-shoulder by Pari Ceci.

And I did go to Guelph.

ROTFL...Ohhh...that's funny.

"...literally a tongue-in-cheek way of getting attention."

"Literally" has got to be one of the most commonly misused words.

"I was literally freaking out." (How is this done?)
"He literally hangs around the house all day." (Is he a bat?)

Whenever people habitually misuse expressions, I wonder where they were educated.

But can it get any better than someone representing an educational institution screwing up so bad when trying to explain an ad that mocks someone else's intelligence?

I wrote a letter of complaint to the President of Guelph. So far, no reply.

"I am deeply disturbed by your advertisement attempting to entice students to attend Lakehead University by openly denigrating the academic and moral qualifications of Mr. Bush, the President of the USA and denigrating the academic integrity of Yale, one of the major universities in the world.. This is unethical, it is not only beneath the dignity, but it actually denies the intellectual nature of the academic world with its mission of a respect for truth, veracity and integrity. Your campaign rejects all three qualities of a university by its logical fallacies and invalid data.

First, it is a basic empirical and logical fallacy to conclude that Mr. Bush is a 'bad or undesirable person' in view of being 'not smart'. You do not have the right to make this judgment because both your data base and your premises are incomplete and selective, i.e., biased. This is methodologically scientifically unacceptable. How can a university engage in such unscientific tactics?

There are, after all, many who support Mr. Bush's policies and for you, a university, to ignore their data base and their conclusions and openly support only those who disagree with Mr. Bush, is unethical and antithetical to the scientific and truth-seeking role of a university.

Second, it is yet another basic empirical and logical fallacy to set up a correlation between Yale and 'being an undesirable person' or a 'not smart person'. Surely you must know that this is a fallacious correlation. It is a propositional fallacy to claim that IF you go to Yale, THEN you might become a 'bad person', as imagized by Mr. Bush, who is defined as 'not smart'. Your attempt to make this correlation is logically invalid, because there are no provable connections between the two statements (If and Then).

Equally, you cannot assert that IF you go to Lakehead, THEN, you will become a 'good or 'smart' person'. The same logical fallacy applies in your trying to make this connection.

For you, Dr. Gilbert, to claim that this campaign is not disparaging both Mr. Bush and Yale Univresity, is unacceptable and a denial of the truth. Your campaign is openly disparaging both Bush and Yale.

Your data base can't be denied. Your data base shows that you are verbally attacking Yale with the verbiage of 'YaleShmale' which is a recognized form of disparagement. You then make the link that going to Yale does not necessarily mean 'smart' - and your example is Mr. Bush. This is not merely ad hominem - which is unacceptable, but also empirically and scientifically invalid. After all, you ought to know that one example proves nothing and as I noted above, not all people agree with your conclusion against Mr. Bush. Yet - your advertisement ignores both this basic rule of statistics, with its requirement for a strong sample base, and ignores the fact that your data base is unreliable because it is selective.

Then, by extension, you are linking that disparagement of Yale, with Mr. Bush by linking 'Yaleshmale' with Bush. That's ad hominem and irrelevant to the academic standing of both Yale and Lakehead.

Nor is it 'fun' to use logical fallacies and ad hominem. That is the mark of an uneducated and ignorant individual. For an institution of knowledge to blatantly make use of logical fallacies and invalid data - is outrageous. After all, what is education but an attempt to give students the power to reject arguments based on unsound data, invalid logic and unscientific correlations? Yet, your advertisement uses all three!!

You then make use of a third logical fallacy, which is to insert a 'red herring' of diversion, and claim that 'it's all in fun'. No, it isn't. Disparaging a major university, disparaging a major world leader, ignoring facticity and logic, using logical fallacies in your argument - none of this is 'fun' when done by an academic institution.

Your advertising campaign is a disgrace to the world of academics.

OK, with Frosh Week approaching, it may be time to share the Carleton University football chant with you all. Background: the football team is called The Ravens.

Ravens, once, Ravens twice;
Holy Jumpin' J***s C****t.
Rim, Ram;
God Damn.
Son of a bitch!
S**t!!

Talk about literate, eh? Literally.

Yale almost always has lousy football teams.

They even have their own cheer for when the other teams score against them, which is often.

Thats all right!
Thats okay!
You'll all work
For us someday!

Dr. Gilbert is the same tin-foil-hat-wearing moron who banned wireless networking on lakehead's campus for "safety reasons". This is on about the same intellectual level.

http://digg.com/tech_news/Canadian_school_bans_Wi-Fi

Where's Lakehead?

Who cares?

ET, I trust that you sent the letter to the President of Lakehead (not Guelph.) Please post his response. Should be interesting, what with you using all that logic and those big words in your letter.

All you need to know about Lakehead:

"30% of graduates would not recommend the university to a friend or relative"

Source: MacLean's survey 2004.

Tempest in a teapot. It's about par for the course for what passes as political discourse in universities (including Yale) these days, isn't it? Why should anyone be surprised. Besides, even to a Bush supporter like myself, it is slightly humourous. As for Lakehead? My son seems to be doing well despite Gilbert and this little faux pas. Whether it brings more sutdents to L.U. or not, I wouldn't let it dissuade me from going or sending my children.

In a similar vein is the ad campaign from this retailer: http://www.simplyaudiobooks.ca

Note the ads below the "Welcome to the #1 Online Audiobook Service. Period." tagline.

The Bush ad is on a billboard near my home.

I wonder if they have a retail store. If I had the cojones, I'd go in and take up a lot of time with staff to select, say, a few hundred bucks worth of merchandise. And when they ring it up, and ask for payment... "Hold on a second. Aren't you the guys with that Bush-doesn't-read ad? Forget it, then -- I don't want any of this stuff."

Buncha wankers.

I'll just bet that Lakehead picked up one heck of a lot of the children of the left through this ad. A dumb one but one that says where they're coming from. A safe place for the Lefties to sent their budding Democracy Haters.

Pat

come for the lake, stay for the head has always been my favourite.

Agast1991 says, "I don't care what you say about me as long as you spell my name right", presumably, making some fun of those of us who think spelling "Schmale" wrong has anything to do with Lakehead's integrity disaster.

Well, A91, if you're a university, using "ad hominem", a discredited intellectual tool, while trying to ridicule a prominent public figure by positing your intellectual superiority, it's maybe a good idea, especially when your attack's going to be on lots of posters in Canada's biggest city, to be damn sure that you haven't made any errors-- especially when you're paying the big $$ to a professional company with, presumably, many people to check and double check the copy. (That SOMEONE, somewhere in the vetting and decision making process couldn’t figure out that “Shmale” is wrong gives a fine snapshot of the colossal idiocy of these people.)

Lakehead (Lakedick, maybe?) and the McLellan Group have made complete asses of themselves--even without the spelling error.

P.S. Make that “August” a few lines back. 'See I checked: And this is just a blog post!

As long as we're being spectacularly pedantic and silly, I'd like to remark that Guelph has a mayor, and not a president... :)

I like Tom (11:04) and Lj (12:04) best so far.

Makes Devry look not to shabby.

To all who question the spelling of "Shmale" in the campaign: it's not wrong.
Jewish spelling is mostly phonetic, which is why there are so many different ways of spelling "Hanukkah" (among other words). Thus, it can be written "Shmale" or "Schmale".
Figured I should get that out there.

For all who may want to dispute my previous post:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shm-reduplication

If 30% of graduates would not recommend the university to a friend or relative, the flip side is that 70% (a majority) would.

It is sad that some of you don't/can't find humour in a harmless ad campaign. Some of you should look up a tv show called 'Talking to Americans' by Rick Mercier. Then you might understand why some people in Canada find this creative. Oh ya, did anybody watch 20/20 last night with their story 'Stupid in America'

It's sad that those who gave the go-ahead for this at Lakehead couldn't come up with something funny, if humour was their goal.

Instead, they revealed themselves as petty, unoriginal, small-minded, and insecure.

The ad was so hilarious I couldn't stop laughing. I guess humour strikes everyone in different ways. What I find also funny is the ongoing argument here around how shmale/schmale should be spelled. I mean, who really cares?