A goodwill safety conscious gesture? Or yet another example of the stealth marketing many oil and gas companies use to insinuate themselves into your home?
Passed onto me by a resident along the a KinderMorgan pipeline route in Burnaby, these ‘landowner packages’ containing an insulated lunch tote bearing the KinderMorgan logo, a pocket knife ( ?) and some pipeline safety info/propaganda were left on doorsteps along the pipeline just before Christmas.
While not as insidious as the ‘educational packages’ targeted to school children,Enbridge was planning to distribute to classrooms in northern BC back in 2009…. but I think another example of stealth marketing via free swag at Christmas time.
The question is, will items like this.. work?
Westcoast Views with Laila Yuile 
Will it work? Nope.
LikeLike
One wonders how many people sat in how many meetings to come up with this dead dog of a marketing ploy.
” Why, thats a great idea !” exclaimed the VP of Western Canadian Operations.
“Who should run with this” , queried the VP of Marketing.
“Hold it! Who’s division will the money come from?” demanded the VP of Accounts
” Not me! I paid for the pipeline leak!” squeeled the VP of Emergency Repairs.
“What about Rob in Community Relations?” asked the VP of Advertising.
“Yeah, great idea ! Robs got boxes of cheap chinese knives with our logo still on them from our sales trip to asia with Christy Clark last summer.” laughed the VP of Marketing
“Done!” boomed the VP of Western Canadian Operations.
” Have my people call his people and get the ball rolling”, gushed the VP of Marketing( it was the first new project she had since China and she was bored).” Christmas is only 3 months away and we have to have a meeting to decide what brochures we will put in the environmentally friendly paper bags”
The meeting is adjourned
Everyone smiled with supreme accomplishment as they left and texted their appropriate underlings with endless instructions on how to prepare for their next divisional meeting…………
LikeLike
: ) I agree…. and seriously, what is up with leaving pocket knives in bags on doorsteps. ?
LikeLike
Something the children could cut themselves with. I smell a lawsuit…..
LikeLike
LOL! They are transparent alright. At the very least high rollers get better swag bags. A tote bag filled with propaganda handouts and a pocket knife. I should think a thousand dollar gas card would have given them better results. Doh! Did I say that out loud?
LikeLike
Sure hope Lynn’s right, re: lawsuit over the pocket knives!
If you think about it, Laila, the cheap Chinese-made branding materials are quite appropriate from Kinder-Morgan’s POV: Gotta get that carbon-laden oil over to China ASAP – if trinkets made there by low-wage, over-worked, factory line-workers can help, so much the better.
Let’s hope the Burnaby residents can’t be bought off so cheaply . . . .
LikeLike
It’s amazing what underhanded tactics are used, when it comes to pipelines and oil tankers. Vancouver is a tourist destination, already at risk for a spill. A dead harbor, is a dead Vancouver.
It’s the same with Enbridge and the massive oil tankers. China’s behemoth tankers will only be the beginning, for many more country’s tankers. Japan and other country’s, were up at the tar sands looking around.
That is exactly what is happening to Vancouver. More pipelines and more tankers. And, to hell with the BC citizens livelihoods.
BC’s mines and mining jobs have been given to China. BC mills have been shipped to China, with our raw timber. Campbell thieved and sold our BC assets. Christy Clark has not cleaned up any, of Campbell’s corruption and thefts. Now they want to use BC, as a conduit for Communist China. BC owes, Harper, Alberta, China, Kinder Morgan and Enbridge what?
LikeLike
Almost butI knew you couldnt make it through one comment without mentioning the antichrist….Harper 🙂
LikeLike
When I was in college (about 20 years ago) one of my favorite classes was a Business 101 type class. The best part of that class was the text book which used examples of businesses who had used examples of “how to do it successfully” & also “how to do it unsuccessfully” for each topic in the text book. Ex of how not to was Air Canada in the 80’s management disaster compared to Lufthansa Air & their stellar successes at the time. As I recall most of the failures were a result of executives who were so out of touch with what the average citizen’s life was like, what they felt ECT. Now I watch Kinder Morgan blunder along, making decisions from within their bubble, apparently not having a clue as to what are basic norms of right & wrong in our society. If it wasn’t so sad it’d be funny.
LikeLike
Jean, some of those Air Canada executives are now working for TransLink.
LikeLike
I rest my case!
LikeLike
and some of them work for SNCLavalin ( which is basically translink in another suit)
LikeLike
Executives are recyclable, however not usually good for the evironment….
LikeLike
How cheesy is that? In fact, they might as well have given cheese instead of a bag of cheap crap that’s just going to end up in landfills. Smells like crass marketing strategy to me. I don’t think it will work, in any case.
LikeLike
Not surprising it smells like oil and was made in China…. : )
LikeLike
Of course anyone who watches any American TeeVee knows from BP’s advertising campaign that would appear to come from the Gulf Coast Tourist Bureau would know that the beaches, shellfish and everything is better than ever on the Gulf Coasts of Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. One would think that the whole Horizon explosion and months long leak was simply a tactic to improve conditions along the coast and generate more tourism………
Perhaps Exxon should use the money they are saving by not paying any of the settlements (continuing to fight in court twenty years later getting reductions in liability in decrements, while they wait for the affected folks to die off) to explain how the Exxon Valdez was another tourism improvement project in disguise….are you listening Enbridge?
LikeLike
Those Gulf Coast TV ads make me as angry as Harper’s dumbass War of 1812 ads. Equally insulting & waste of money. I wish someone would do a survey of how many people get the fact that nothing the actors say in the Gulf Coast ads have anything to do with BP. The line that stands out for me is, ” Alabama has more sunny days”…… Really? BP is responsible for more sunny days? And just how many more? Are people really that dumb to believe any of it? I’m guessing they must be or BP wouldn’t be running them for this length of time.
LikeLike
BP just sold off its shares in Russian oil fields…..for 28.5 Billion dollars. Cash deal.
Why?
In preparation for the US lawsuit verdict to be handed down later this year.
Its expected to be the highest civil settlement in US history.
Amounts of $5 Billion and $10 Billion are being kicked about
BP can publish all the “happy happy” feel good ads they want. The US Courts are still deliberating. The poison is still in the Gulf. The crayfish are still inedible.
LikeLike
My bigger issue with this proposal is that we are shipping out our future and the benefits will accrue to others, not British Columbiana and, increasingly, not even Canadians.
We need this oil in the future and we need to learn to manufacture from this raw feedstock. Apparently, the oil is coming out faster than there are Canadian jobs to benefit from it. So pathetic is the benefit that Alberta has a deficit and a debt. Again, who benefits from the asset? Certainly not us but we are certain to pick up all liabilities.
Government needs to be reinvented. When firms like Kinder Morgan control the National agenda, we are in for a bleak future.
LikeLike
Most important sentence in your comment: Government needs to be re-invented.
LikeLike
Perhaps if we were in Texas, they’d leave a free gun instead of a knife!
I miss the living and working distance requirements by a few km., or I’d be getting a bag too.
IF the oil HAS to move, I’m far more in favour of the KM plan than the Enbridge one… which IS happening, according to their ads, which are phrased in affirmative phrases like “it will.” No “ifs.”
Go back in your mind to 1950, when the province was planning major power and pipeline and highway projects. It was a very “get ‘er done” attitude back then — and we are benefitting from those historic efforts. B.C. would be a far different place if we didn’t have the power and energy distribution that is now in place. We have to be thankful that environmentalists didn’t exist at the time.
Of course, it was way easier to develop the hinterland. Now, we’ve got lots of people with a legitimate NIMBY beef, because they are living so close to the pipeline. Actual money (or gas cards) might help move things along — but not little bags of junk.
I like Much2Say’s point: we need the oil for ourselves… or at least the refining jobs. There is a refinery being set up near Edmonton to deal with the oilsands product. That’s a good start.
LikeLike
I totally agree that we need more refineries.
I was actually surprised to read that the profits for refinery owners is minimal due to the lengthy delays recieving environmental approval , NIMBY protests. Massive construction costs, ongoing environmental safeguards, No one wants to build a refinery in North America anymore. Too many headaches. Can you imagine the costs involved in “updating existing refineries” ie removing all the asbestos wrapped around piping in a refinery?
Millions of $$$$$.
The Shell refinery in North Burnaby ( 70 years old and only a 60,000 barrel per day facility) was disassembled piece by piece and shipped to India about 5 years ago. The Shell property is now a tank farm. Prime waterfront land (like most refineries built decades ago)with 70+ years of goo spilled on it. Cant wait for a developer to market THOSE homes! The much larger Chevron Refinery in North Burnaby has been quietly upgrading its facility for years. A good ongoing maintenance plan. But the refinery is still tiny in comparison to a “profitable” monster like the ones in Texas.
I have heard profit amounts such as less than 1 cent per gallon kicked around. Mind you when your dealing with billions of gallons a year….it adds up.
So when you hear of another 40+ year old oil refinery (there hasnt been a new refinery built since the 1970’s) in Texas or Louisiana or New York or Bellingham catching fire …..prepare for price hikes.
Or factor in the cost and insurance liabilities of one oil spill ( and I’m thinking of the everyday spills when ships are being filled at the refinery dock… 10 gallons, 100 gallons,etc.)
Cause we may have lots of oil but we have very few refineries left in good old North America.
For the reasons stated above.
Affordable solar power where are you?
LikeLike
The good folks at spectra have been leaving baggies of bling around for years at properties that they cross. In the last 15 years we have seen inspections on valves located on our property drop considerably. I’d rather forego the offshore crud in favour of increased integrity spending any day. They do have good people doing the work, but they need to have more of them. Bean counter mentality considers these integrity minders as liabilities rather than assets. Slick marketing won’t increase safety.
LikeLike
Now this is a blog topic all in itself CFVUA. We should chat about this….
Until then, Happy New Year. 2013… the year we said enough. I hope.
LikeLike
Anytime!
LikeLike
a bag, a knife, & propaganda?????? bet you the stuff was all made in china. Companies such as them just don’t get it. If they really think people can be bought off for so little they obviously aren’t aware of the property values in the lower mainland.
People are concerned about the enviornment & what bitamen will do to land & water but then there is the issue of all that bitamen on the water & what it will do to the property values? Not much that I do know. I remmeber when the backhoe hit the pipeline in Burnaby. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
LikeLike