BCBusiness

62 BCBusiness dECEMBER/JAnuARy 2018 "What I want to see out of Canada is less of the virtue signalling type of approach..." (Erin O'Toole, Conservative Party of Canada MP, September 3, 2017 The Oxford Dictionary says virtue signalling is "the action or practice of publicly expressing opinion or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position." The phrase virtue signalling gained steam with a 2015 Spectator article that observed: "One of the crucial aspects of virtue signalling is that it does not require actually doing anything virtuous." Erin O'Toole characterized the liberal government's plan to include gender, indigenous and environmental issues in the north American Free Trade Agreement negotiations as virtue signalling and "the centrepieces of Justin Trudeau's image building." virtue signalling JARgoN WATCH [from Latin virtus + signum: virtue + sign] sort of dental issue. Grumpy's gloomy puss is partly the result of an underbite; an overbite gives Tuna her funky smile; and a complete lack of teeth allows Toast's tongue to range freely outside her cute little snout. Then there's Lil Bub, a tabby cat that combines a lack of teeth with a short lower jaw and a protruding tongue—the whole package. No wonder Lil Bub has a singing career, her own web series and co-starred with Grumpy Cat and others in the ‚lm Lil Bub & Friendz, a movie that has been called the Citizen Kane of orally irregular feline documentaries. If this trend spreads to the world of bipeds, the practice of dentistry could be transformed. The most sought-after dentists will be those who can give you the kind of odd chompers that will transform you into an Instagram sensation. (There's also a popular raccoon named Pumpkin that thinks it's a dog. The marketing principle seems to be that raccoons who think they are dogs can ‚nd success even with normal teeth.) As the cigarette peddlers used to say, we've come a long way, baby. Pitching products is not what it was. Fifties-era Mad Men would be perplexed by the idea of selling Fords with balloon-headed passengers blowing chewing gum bubbles (as in a recent Argentine TV ad), or advertising jeans by showing an accident victim and a surgical team breaking into a chorus of "Tainted Love" in the operating room (in a Spike Jonze– directed spot during which Levi's are never clearly shown). But that's how it goes—the relentless pursuit of novelty leads advertisers to some very strange places. Now it's diverting them away from straight advertising altogether. It's not just cross-eyed pets with wonky chompers; there are plenty of human in•uencers around, too. They're just regular folks on YouTube, slipping you the inside dope on what makes them so personally fabulous, because they care. And because of, you know, some other stu—. Forbes magazine recently compiled a list of top in•uencers, including Zoe Sugg and Michelle Phan, who can reportedly earn about US$150,000 for a single Instagram post and even more for a Facebook comment plugging a particular product. And that doesn't even include the free mascara. Reports of this brave new marketing world are a bit deceptive, in the sense that the increase in in•uencers hasn't really diminished the supply of more tradi- tional celebrity endorsements. It's the media that have changed, as much as the messengers. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and so on have just expanded the playing ‚eld for product pluggers. What will be the next evolution of in•uence? We have already seen a reality TV star become the 45th president of the United States. Will 2020 see the election of President Adorable Kitten Stu¦ng Itself Into a Tiny Box? At this point, some would say bring it on.

• Cover