BC Ferries is holding a competition to name the three new intermediate class ferries they will be adding to their fleet. These ferries are to replace some of the older ones, which no amount of welded scrap metal will hold together at this point.
They have some guidelines for the names: The first part of the name has to refer to the class of vessel, the second part has to be descriptive. Names can’t contain any of the ferry names already in use (Queen of anything is out). Names have to be gender neutral.
First of all, what? Boats of every size, classification, model, etc., are always female. But I guess we’re going to be super politically correct on this one. Whatever.
BC Ferries offered some suggestions to help people get started. Coastal Renaissance, for example. Although, that’s not exactly the direction people have taken.
S.S. ShouldveBeenABridge, Spirit of the WalletSucker and Incompetence Afloat are among the names that have been submitted to BC Ferries. One clever individual came up with coordinated names for all three: Dewey, Cheetham and Howe.
You can see more of these on Twitter with #nameaferry.
A few years ago McDonald’s had basically the same problem. They wanted people to go on Twitter and share uplifting stories about eating at their restaurants with #mcdstories. This also failed.
One woman shared about time she found a worm in her burger. And I shared the time I found a used hypodermic in an East Vancouver McDonald’s when I was five and thought it was a Happy Meal toy.
Crowd sourced advertising is a risky venture. Here’s basically how it works: a company hires about a dozen tech savvy youths to start tweeting things that are in line with the company’s intended message, and hopefully get it trending. Then they put the word out to the public, and there’s already a bunch of tweets out there for the public to take inspiration from.
Sure, it costs almost nothing compared to a TV commercial, but there is no control over what people are going to say. It is, however, very telling of how the public is reacting in real time to the company’s plans.
For McDonald’s, the reaction was, this isn’t a place where friendships and family memories are formed. This is the place where I eat alone at two in the morning.
For BC Ferries the reaction is, how much is this going to cost us? Do new ferries mean that fares are going up again? Are the new ones going to be on time?
