Rob Ford's Toronto

[jusbokeh]

It's not rediculous considering he targets older people whom have strong word of mouth networks.

You help an old lady you can bet all her bridge friends will hear about it next week.

 

[anne]

http://noisey.vice.com/en_dk/music-video-premieres/the-pizza-underground-official-video

Apparently not

Eyewonder, where did you come up with this? Hilarious! Velvet Underground songs with pizza themes played horribly. If you want to understand Rob Ford's popularity, one only need see the comment by the middle-aged woman telling McCauley Culkin that she loves him. No matter what steaming turd celebrities produce, there will always be people who want to stand in line for it.

 

[PinkLucy]

Mayor Rob Ford's re-election campaign is moving forward, one selfie at a time
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-...ction-campaign-moving-forward-one-selfie-time

"Torontonians relate to him because he’s real, and he’s honest — or if he’s not honest, he’s real about it.

It’s a deceptively clever tactic, according to Myer Siemiatycki, a politics professor at Ryerson University.

“This is re-writing the rule book as to how you run an election campaign. He does not tell the media about his whereabouts, not wanting to be within their reach and scrutiny. Instead, he wants to present himself as this massively popular, attractive political public figure who the people of Toronto just can’t get enough of,†he says.

Siemiatycki suspects Ford is hoping the multiplying effect of social media will work in his favour. People tweet photos of themselves with the mayor, and the pics go viral. They show the mayor smiling with regular people, happy to be seen with him. It’s free, uncritical publicity.

“It’s almost ingenious. It’s an attempt to very much control how he is perceived and what image of himself is portrayed,†he adds.

I don't know that I'm buying this. The thing with social media is that you can't control how you are perceived and what is portrayed because things like Kimmel and all the other talk show bits go viral, probably more so than the dorkie selfies.

Also, no one on Rob's team has shown that they are terribly brilliant when it comes to social media and online messaging, so if that's the best strategy they've got, they're in trouble.

 

[anne]

I guess I really stood out as Elena popped her head out the door. She sees me and comes out onto her porch flailing her arms around telling me off.

Why would they bother to respond to gawkers or tourists? It probably happens every day. This family is bi-polar in their feelings about celebrity. They court it then complain about it.

 

[marcus_a_j]

The only way I would submit myself to take a selfie with Rob Ford is if I was wearing one of those "I'm with stupid" t-shirts, pointing at him.

 

[Toront-oh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6MntfApOg

^I discovered the Mayor said the "N" word. Can someone post this and confirm?

Edit: If i am lying please remove my posting privileges. Thank you

-MP

i never understood what he was saying in that video before. a little late but interesting

 

[anne]

I've wondered this myself. If Smith was murdered for the video, Mo trying to sell it would seem stupid, no? That said though, the Star or Gawker (can't remember) did say the seller wanted to get the hell out of dodge and go to Alberta. Having the media know about it might put enough attention on its sale that it could potentially dissuade another murder connected to it.

I'm sure you recall it wasn't the owner of the video who tried to sell it to Gawker, it was a "broker". (sorry, I've forgotten their names) The broker told gawker that his contact wanted to move out of Toronto and start a new life and that's why the price was so high. These aren't going to be sophisticated people and hindsight is 20/20 but they wouldn't know how media works. I'm sure they never thought that the media would jump at the chance to have the video. They likely thought it was a slam dunk. If the video had been sold, they would have been long gone and untraceable.

Remember when the story broke in both Gawker and the Star, the guy who had the video (his name was not yet known), tried to shut it all down. The broker said he changed his mind and wanted to be left alone.

 

[GavinTheAlmighty]

I don't think the delusional Ford supporters are necessarily crazy. They are fixated on whatever they think Ford has achieved, or on what they perceive as unfair criticism of Ford. But otherwise they seem sane, perhaps even well adjusted.

My neighbour kitty-corner to me is a hardcore Fordite. He's generally a nice guy, he is very rich, but he buys into the Myth of Rob Ford 110%. Here are some paraphrased comments from him:

His personal problems don't affect his job
The Star is out to get him
Lots of high-ranking government officials do drugs and I've seen it in my job
He's saving us money
He's keeping those lefty socialists in check
He's keeping our taxes low

Invariably, when you point out that his personal problems do affect his job, spending has gone up, the Star was equally critical of Miller, he can't work with council (even his right-leaning allies) and he raised taxes, the answer is always "But the lefties are going to be worse." It's impossible to have a serious discussion with someone who responds with that - it just shuts the conversation down.

 

[PinkLucy]

Never mind the "personal problems". People who think that Ford's issues are personal problems aren't ever going to care about his drug/alcohol use. Instead, ask just exactly how he is saving money and what he thinks about tax increases related to the subways that he promised would NOT result in tax increases. Demand specifics, because apart from the VRT, they can't give you any.

 

[GavinTheAlmighty]

Never mind the "personal problems". People who think that Ford's issues are personal problems aren't ever going to care about his drug/alcohol use. Instead, ask just exactly how he is saving money and what he thinks about tax increases related to the subways that he promised would NOT result in tax increases. Demand specifics, because apart from the VRT, they can't give you any.

"But the lefties are going to be worse"

 

[Bob But Not Doug]

Rob Ford, 2010

Rob Ford, today

He looks terrible. Lotsa mileage on those tires over the past 3.5 years.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

[Pedantic]There are lots of good Ford/Nero analogies, but it was Caligula who appointed his horse to the senate.[/Pedantic]

Dammit! Me and my sloppy research!

I wasn't sure which of the two it was. Perhaps relying on google autocomplete to confirm something is a bad idea

 

[requiem]

He's only 3 years older than my brother...makes him look like a teenager. I did think he was in his 50s for a while. And those teeth..ugh.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

I'm guessing your experience looked like this:
http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/pjt-15windsor-5.jpg?w=620
I've been meaning to check out the various locations one of these days. The list keeps getting longer and longer.

My second thought on seeing this image - after the inevitable shock at seeing Elena Basso in full swing - was that Keanu Reeves has really let himself go.

 

[tiffer24]

lizchurchto 12:30pm via Twitter for BlackBerry
Mayor Rob Ford on Olivia Chow: She makes David Miller look like a Conservative.".

And Rob Ford makes Marion Barry look like a Mormon...