Torontonians are a fickle bunch. We like to imagine that we’re laid back and relaxed, but really, we’re not. Everyone thinks their neighbourhood is the best, the most chilled out, the one with the most benefits. East End vs West End is a common discussion amongst us Toronto folk (in that debate, Yonge Street is the dividing line.)
One thing most of us Toronto residents can agree on is the very long commutes we have, especially at rush hour. Between Summer time construction shutting down streets, the parking lot that is the Don Valley Highway and the too-frequent subway delays, commuting in this city can lead to a grumpy populace.
This past Monday, Coors Light Canada made the mistake of messing with the Toronto commute – at peak rush hour, no less.
Coors Light Canada had a promotion going this summer called Search and Rescue. The promotion involved the distribution of prize-filled briefcases throughout the country. Upon finding a briefcase, a person was to tweet a picture of themselves with the case to the attention of Coors Light Canada. They’d then receive a skill-testing question that they had to answer. Once answered correctly, they were able to open the briefcase and win the prize inside. Prizes included things like driving a race car, tidal rafting and summer bobsledding.
The promotion seemed to be going pretty smoothly, until last Monday when someone in Toronto took the following photo:
The briefcase was chained to a fence near the busy intersection of Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street. Someone spotted it and not seeing the Coors Light logo – and not wanting to take any chances – called the police. While the police investigated the situation, streetcars were diverted around the affected intersection:
510 Spadina service diverting both ways via College, Bathurst, Queen, due to a Toronto Police investigation at Dundas and Spadina. #TTC
— Official TTC Tweets (@TTCnotices) July 7, 2014
Eventually, the incident was brought to the attention of the Coors Light folks who reached out to the TTC:
@TTCnotices Sincerest apologies for any disruption this has caused. We are contacting appropriate people immediately to fix the situation.
— Coors Light Canada (@coorslightca) July 7, 2014
Not surprisingly, Torontonians were not impressed:
@coorslightca @TTCnotices Your marketing department is filled with morons. And your beer sucks.
— Branden Wesseling (@BCWesseling) July 7, 2014
.@coorslightca @TTCnotices Awesome. You’re the reason it took me an extra 20 minutes to get home from work. I’ll continue avoiding your beer
— andy gardner (@plorry) July 7, 2014
@TTCnotices Well this is not a cool, refreshing way to end my day @coorslightca #streetcar #diverted
— Tylers (@Tylersdaytoday) July 7, 2014
@coorslightca @TTCnotices How did it not occur to anyone that this might be an unwise idea?
— Smallmedium (@Smallmedium) July 7, 2014
@coorslightca do you guys even think before you plan this stuff? A lot of people are late, pissed off, and screwed over thanks to you.
— Alison (@roundraglanroad) July 7, 2014
Big fail. BIG @annhui: Amusing exchange bw @coorslightca and @TTCnotices right now. Looks like Coors promo gone wrong, causing traffic snarl
— Boyd Erman (@BoydErman) July 8, 2014
@jerodmcdaniel Coors Light shut down one of the most major intersections in Canada by ‘Hiding a secret package.’ in a transit booth.
— Lee Brien (@LBrien) July 8, 2014
@TTCnotices @coorslightca ‘Hahahaha! Remember that time my marketing event was mistaken for terrorism?’ Said no good marketing dept ever.
— Colin Watson (@luckyjackaubrey) July 8, 2014
Maybe the bomb squad thought it was an actual briefcase full of Coors Light
— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) July 8, 2014
Was my streetcar ride an hour because of Coors Light? Smdh
— scott lewis (@thescottlewis) July 7, 2014
Coors Light Canada announced on Monday night that they would be bringing the promotion to an end:
All adventures must come to an end. Thx to all who participated in #searchandrescue. For those who were disrupted in anyway, our apologies.
— Coors Light Canada (@coorslightca) July 8, 2014
Up until Monday afternoon, the Search and Rescue campaign was going pretty well. I’m sure it would have continued to be popular with the Coors Light audience had the bomb squad not had to be involved in the contest. You really have to wonder why no one at the company questioned placing a briefcase on a public transit platform in the middle of a busy intersection in Toronto. Briefcases chained to trees in a park don’t garner quite the suspicion that they do in the middle of a busy intersection in a big city.
Coors Light Canada learned a very valuable lesson this week: don’t mess with Torontonians’ commutes. We can be a real crabby bunch when we’re late getting home. Especially on a Monday.