Toronto’s first cannabis store opened this week on April Fools’ Day and it pulled a prank on everyone including itself.
The store’s very first customer was fake. A pretend customer. Someone who works for the store as its publicist.
When found out, their excuse was that they wanted to make sure its first sale, which was being recorded by the city’s news media, didn’t have any “issues.”
Every other cannabis store in the country, since last October, has managed to open and sell to their real first customers without any “issues.”
This Toronto store is now getting publicity for all the wrong reasons:
It may have violated Canadian advertising standards:
“A testimonial, endorsement, review or other representation must disclose any “material connection” between the endorser, reviewer, influencer or person making the representation and the “entity” (as defined in the Code) that makes the product or service available to the endorser, reviewer, influencer or person making the representation, except when that material connection is one that consumers would reasonably expect to exist, such as when a celebrity publicly endorses a product or service.”
and maybe also Canada’s Competition Act:
Section 52 of the Act is a criminal provision. It prohibits knowingly or recklessly making, or permitting the making of, a representation to the public, in any form whatever, that is false or misleading in a material respect. Under this provision, it is not necessary to demonstrate that any person was deceived or misled; that any member of the public to whom the representation was made was within Canada; or that the representation was made in a place to which the public had access. Subsection 52(4) directs that the general impression conveyed by a representation, as well as its literal meaning, be taken into account when determining whether or not the representation is false or misleading in a material respect.
The store even seems to have contravened the Ontario Building Code and provincial accessibility laws.
Marketing Your Business
There’s little difference between having a fake customer promote your business and using fake photos to promote your business. Yet many companies still use stock pictures on their web sites.
When a business uses stock photos, they fool no one but themselves. Misleading or lying to your customers or the news media never ends well.
You can’t undo or paint over your public relations or marketing mistakes. It’s like when someone tries to recall an email. If you think you can recall a mistaken email and have everyone pretend like it didn’t happen, you’re fooling only yourself. (Yes, some email software may have a “recall” function but it’s only there to appease the foolish.)
Only authenticity can build trust and only custom photography can create that authenticity.
For your next marketing, public relations or corporate photography project, call a professional photographer. A professional will bring out your best side and prevent you from making a fool of yourself.
