Month: September 2013

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I’m sure Cory Schneider was loved by most Canucks fans out there, and we are all sad to see him go. Although Luongo is not horrible like some complain, I want to know exactly why in the world we traded Schneider to the New Jersey Devils!

Let’s look at this issue from a economics perspective. In econ, the idea of opportunity cost has been consistently drilled into our heads. Although many people would have preferred to keep their beloved Cory in a blue and green jersey, the trade that was made seems to be the financially logical one. Essentially, there were 2 alternatives to the goalie problem in Vancouver, we either trade Luongo or Schneider, because it was far too expensive to keep both high-profile netminders on our bench. Luongo signed a contract with the Canucks in 2009 that ends in 2022 (source). This contract included a no-trade clause, which makes it extremely difficult to trade him. The opportunity cost would be the lost incurred from ending Luongo’s contract as well as Schneider’s salary.

After considering this, it is much easier to understand why Schneider was let loose instead of Luongo. We may not like it, but it makes sense.

Recently, there have been incidents involving brands using disastrous events to advertise their products on social media. Is it ethical to use something that caused others so much trauma in order to make money?

On September 5th, fashion designer Kenneth Cole published the tweet: “‘Boots on the ground’ or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear”. This tweet refers to the Pentagon spokesperson saying that there will be no “boots on the ground” in Syria. Syria has been a war zone since 2011. According to the CBC, more than 100,000 people been killed during the civil war. I think that Kenneth Cole’s push to sell his shoe collection by alluding to war torn Syria is completely insensitive. It doesn’t seem like he realizes what a serious problem is going on in Syria.

However, this sort of advertising does have some value from a business standpoint. It has shock value. There is a saying: “no publicity is bad publicity.” This could be what Kenneth Cole was trying for when posting this tweet, because he posted a similar tweet during the riots in Cairo, Egypt. He must have seen some some results from this type of advertising.

Source:

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2013/09/kenneth-cole-syria-tweet-draws-fire-online.html