Listening to the radio recently one is bound to hear the ad for the new TV streaming service Shomi. What you realize is that the ad is a hilariously hypocritical critique of their own historical practices.
You see, Showmi is owned by Rogers. Back in the days of old, when people actually went to video stores to rent movies (yes, that long ago), Rogers was one of the main operators of video stores though their Rogers Video and Rogers Plus outlets. This is a fact that they oddly forget to mention in this ad.
What makes this connection so funny is that the ad spends most of its time criticizing the way video stores it used to be run. The ad brings up three points the remind you of what really made you hate video stores: the constantly empty new-release shelves, the late fees, and the overpriced licorice.All of these issues could be found at Rogers Video. For anyone who makes the Rogers connection between the two businesses can see that they are in essence admitting that they ran a business which was so bad it can be turned around and used as a relate-able marketing tactic a decade later.
Thus, it seems Rogers is quick to point out the flaws in video stores, just not that they were the people running them. They have gone to great lengths to avoid mentioning the Rogers name as well. There is almost no mention of Rogers owning Shomi in any of their ads or on their site. You would think that they would be jumping on the opportunity to build on the “amazing” relationship that they built with the Canadian public through their Rogers video stores. I was guessing they would at least want to flaunt this as “another first, only from Rogers”.
