Is there a corrollary?

Economic expert and Skate Canada CEOWilliam Thompson has said the sucky economy is why Skate Canada's title sponsors ... don't exist.

It's unclear why Skate Canada's previous sponsors waited until 3 years after the economic crisis to bolt for the exits.* The 2010 Canadian Olympics were a rousing success and Skate Canada in particular emerged with three star-quality Olympic medalists.The USFSA's sponsors have hung tough in these budget-squeezing times, and the USFSA is never short of sponsors even though the neither the public nor US television give a shit about figure skating. Not to mention, during the peak of the 2008 economic crisis, Thompson and cohorts were confident that they were assembling star-making machinery almost guaranteed to usher in a 1990's-style figure skating resurgence by the time the Vancouver Olympics were over.

Is there a non-economic reason why after the Vancouver Olympics there's more white space on Skate Canada's rink boards than before?

Sure, Thompson might pull a rabbit out of the hat and crony somebody into sponsoring Skate Canada for 2012-2013.

But it's easy to wonder if Scott and Tessa and the falsehoods they market with Skate Canada's help aren't in important part why Skate Canada has gone so long without marquee sponsors. Scott and Tessa are liars who spent an entire year plus after the Olympics using their new-minted stardom to cram a hoax down the public's throats. No matter what fans think, this is not a huge secret and perhaps there are corporations and other brands who think it's best not to be part of this scheme lest their own credibility take a hit.

Skate Canada, it is surmised, is already regarded as a dubious bet for corporate affiliations because nobody wants to deal with the obnoxious, ignorant tools at the top. That by itself could cause former sponsors to cut and run and potential new sponsors to steer clear.**

If the Scott/Tessa hoax is responsible at all for Skate Canada's status as sponsorship kryptonite, who is paying the price? Scott and Tessa have a few separate deals and wouldn't be hurting for money even if they didn't. Jessica was nicely compensated in a number of different ways. But that's not the case for other skaters, including some of Scott and Tessa's friends.

Ironic, if the star figure skaters Skate Canada believed would open the spigots are actually the figure skaters who have caused the revenue to dry up, burdening less fortunate teammates.

I think back to Own the Podium, which provided important financial support but hit a few potholes getting its message across (i.e.. - if you're not on the podium, you're a tourist). The "it's okay to win!" sort of chest-thumping reeked a little of overcompensation in its tone. I recall Bryce Davison saying that Canadian figure skaters were nicer than the figure skaters from Russia and America; that Americans and Russians took the warm-up ice like they owned it while Canadians were more "Excuse me, after you" and how Canadians needed to be more aggressive. I think of some of Debbi Wilkes' more idiotic ideas about branding (the "tough" campaign which was predicated on elementary word association. Just switch it out! Done and done! Debbi's a genius!). I wonder if the clowns at Skate Canada thought it was wimpy and old school Canadian to be matter of fact and professional, and that it might be more slick, sophisticated, "international" somehow and "big time" to manipulate the public into buying huge lies, using the wimpy old home grown Canadian persona as calculated bait.
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*If you visit BMO'S webpage and click on "donations" and also click on "sponsorships" you'll see that BMO continues to sponsor a roster of sporting events as long as your arm and its donations list is gigantic - a crowded, small-type page for each letter of the alphabet. So Thompson's excuse that all sports are struggling for sponsors doesn't hold water. BMO is still a major contributor.

**Even though it's questionable if Debbi Wilkes spends --- ANY -- time even pretending to do her supposed job, unless she's got a clone, shouldn't it have been Skate Canada's Director of Business Development yakking about light shows and revenue spin-offs to the good people of London last month?

It's going to be very cool

From the folks who brought you Scott and Tessa's public relations.

Some people look at p.r. and ask why lie? We look and ask why not

Sometimes I feel as if Scott Moir finds himself very clever, other times it seems to me this crowd basically needs a reason to tell the truth, and it better be strong. Otherwise the default is lie. 

It's not enough that he has an official girlfriend and is spamming the internet with cheesy photos of him and her. What if that doesn't stick? So much is at stake - they're getting ready to do something no young people in love have ever done before - make it legal. If people suspected, ooh boy - what would happen?

The value of telling/selling/exploiting their story on their own timeline would go down, maybe? Worth a few lies to protect pay day.

From McLeans:

Q: In your book, you say you stopped communicating for a few months after the 2008 surgery. Do you mean you literally didn’t speak?
TV: We didn’t even send text messages. Isn’t that weird?* This time, we’ve been diligently talking every single day.

Q: Scott, why didn’t you call her?
SM: I think I was scared to hear what was actually going on. A couple of times the doctors had said, “Maybe she’ll be back by this date,” and I’d get excited, then it was constant letdown. Also, I didn’t want to tell her, “I’ve been at the rink all day, training.” I was thinking that’s not what she needed to hear. But it was a mistake. Clearly. It took us a long time to figure things out, because we grew apart so much in those two months.

Tessa had had surgery in early October, 2008 and returned to training in early December, prompting this fb status update from Scott: "Scott Moir is no longer a solo ice dancer!"

Below we have Scott and Tessa on November 19, 2008, at the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada fundraiser,  John Labatt Center, London, Ontario, (Snap London, November 19, 2008) just about midway through Tessa's "recovery".

Why didn't you call her, Scott?

They totally made that shit up, packaged it, sold it and acted it out on their book promotion tour.

For me, what is most distasteful is how cynically they corrupt the genuine parts of their personalities in order to market their lies. Tessa speaks in her clear, earnest tones, Scott nods and looks serious. They are self-aware enough to use their own real earnestness as a manipulative tool.

Something I've knocked around with here is the subject of religious faith as applies to this situation. Barb MacDonald is a professional Christian. Here, I'm not projecting standards/values onto them, but rather observing what they themselves project about their values, and what those values mean, and how well their actions line up with those values.**

Scott wears a cross and Marina Zoueva has mentioned his faith, and how when visiting his folks he attends religious services with them. He's also mentioned Jesus a time or two on his ("private") facebook - he's dry, but I'm going to assume he's not being satirical when he does.

Hypocrisy and mendacity on the part of those who profess to hold Christian values is old hat. Still, Tessa and Scott maintain they want to be nice people and yet they've done a large amount of lying, recruiting their "persona" to help sell the lies.  It's easy to speculate that they've fallen into the trap that many of staunch faith find themselves in: "Jesus loves me more than you." "I'm more worthy than you." "I have a higher goal that makes me an exception."

We all have special circumstances. I don't recall footnotes in the Bible. It's those who are in 'special circumstances' whose beliefs are put to the test. Are they real beliefs, or situational beliefs? Do you turn them inside out so black is white and lies are holy when it's convenient?  It's those who have really good reason to lie whose faith and values are tested and I don't think Scott and Tessa (and Barb and SC) are passing the test.

Unless it comes down to what the blog talks about a lot. It doesn't matter because a) it's "business" and most of all, and bottom line:  b) the people who are being lied to aren't as important as the liars.

IMO, as the sham looks for reasons to justify itself and chases its own tail, it has morphed to where they don't give a flying fuck if they're believed or not believed. They simply want their reality ruled off limits until they're ready to market their spin on the truth. If they cared they wouldn't play push/pull, wouldn't make no bones about their togetherness in front of many fans, they'd care about how many fans know what's up, and they'd make what comes out of their mouth match how they behave. They don't care. This is just a lot of filler noise because they need to do pr but they don't want to talk about the reality until it's all done, and maybe they think they'll get a bigger price for the truth with what Charlie calls a "shocking revelation" than if people knew the basics and Scott and Tessa filled in what details they deemed appropriate down the line. SC is full of drama queens.

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*Isn't that weird? Isn't that terrible?

I remember a period when interviews with actresses would often include a confession of something pseudo unkind or self-serving that they'd done, followed by "Isn't that terrible?" It's supposed to make it not terrible, and beg contradiction. I always wanted the interviewer to say yeah, it sucks and your telling on yourself isn't as cutesy as you think. Thankfully that quirk has mostly disappeared from celebrity interviews.

Tessa is acknowledging it's weird, so that is supposed to make it look like she's not selling it too hard.

**William Thompson, Skate Canada, CEO's customary manner of public address - i.e. "Be grateful you're getting any of my attention whatsoever" - is perhaps illustrative of the attitude influencing VM  marketing decisions.
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P.S. - being "nice", while - nice - is not, IMO, the whole enchilada of a person's character. Integrity is.

P.P.S. - I've been re-reading some of Malcolm Gladwell's stuff, and for those who have always felt there was something "wrong" with Jessica/Scott, and with Scott/Tessa's account of themselves, it wasn't a vibe you were picking up on; it was the whole mess failing the "thin slice" test in absolutely spectacular fashion. See Gladwell's Blink for the rapid cognition process I'm talking about.

Tessa and Scott during Skate America 2008 (October 2008)

This links to a video used on a blog post last year. Tessa and Scott said she had her original surgery in early October, 2008. Skate America was October 23-26th. I believe they also filmed some Olympic promo spots shortly after her surgery. It was a very busy estrangement they had.

Scott and Tessa gave their annual "We're so special absolutely nobody can really understand" interview establishing that they're preparing to take their annual 14 day sabbatical from each other.

Photo illustrating the article.
Their holy bond

This was new:

When Scott and Tessa are walking with the reporter, they lowball the odds of being recognized. Seems like they've called it accurately, but still they attempt to walk separately. The reporter says they're not recognized save for some side-eyes, which Scott says don't count (why not - does Scott only count fans who come at him or Tessa with a blindside tackle? How many of those does he meet?). I'm curious why he and Tessa are confident they won't be recognized yet Scott keeps his hands in his pockets for fear of bumping into somebody and being recognized. Scott. You think the chances are slim or you need to jam your hands in your pockets to avoid being recognized, not both.

My first thought - he imagines that whomever he might 'bump into' will not be one of the polite side-eyes but obnoxious and needy. So? What's the worst down side of occasionally being recognized? If they're recognized on occasion while together - what damage is done?

Jessica Dube is the "girlfriend" the Moirs and Virtues paraded down Main Street in a buggy, next to Scott's mom. Jessica is always an unnamed, semi-abstract  "girlfriend" to the mainstream media, yet the fact of her being on the same team, a pairs skater and semi-famous in her own right opens up new angles on the Virtue/Moir story. Somehow though the legit media knows not to touch it by name. Not when interviewing the loquacious Jessica, not when interviewing Scott and Tessa. Why not? The Times was happy to name Tanith as Evan's ex .

As to Jessica, presumably, being demoted to former gf, what now changes? The following, IMO, are elements that are potentially part of the public takeaway on Virtue and Moir and their sham. It's not fans who "don't understand." Tessa and Scott are the ones who don't understand that:

1) It's a scam and a hoax, they've been proactive about misrepresenting the facts, and they've marketed their lying while sanctimoniously praising themselves for their genuine hometown kids personas at every turn. I believe SC thinks lying and cheese-eating bullshit is what marketing IS. It's not.

2) It's been a married man and father, someone we're told has religious faith, "making out" with another woman for a photographer and spamming social media with photos and other material conveying that he's having sex with this woman - and why? To make his lies convincing.

Both "1" and "2" might lead to unpleasant realizations about Scott and Tessa's true opinion of Canadian fans, and a concurrent realization that these self-styled humble figure skaters have an extraordinarily high opinion of themselves, in inverse proportion to their low opinion of the paying public.
"All of Canada was on the ice with us" is something they say repeatedly, failing to add it was a horrible sensation. It must have been. Look at them. To protect their special selves from the Canadian public, they made the strategic decision to systematically violate elementary standards of decency and respect.*

What they share must not be contaminated by fans. Furthermore, the public is too stupid to understand and respect their relationship. (I know - it's unprecedented!!) Ignore side-eyes and fans showing them courtesy - they don't count!

But then - how much are they really protecting for sensitivity/privacy reasons and how much is money/exploitation, control freak reasons?

ETA: Because I'm thinking - you know, the public, with their overinvestment in figure skating, their knitting, their needy, no-lives having - they might pay BIG for the now-it-can-be-told story of these fairy tale figure skaters, considering figure skating fans as a demo live dumpy love-and-sex-starved lives and live vicariously through the skaters. Right? How much do you think Scott and Tessa can make for themselves and maybe SC if they play it right?

Tessa repeatedly says they value their privacy - but here comes a documentary.Their book with "private" photos is gathering mold at clearance sales. Scott is repeatedly photographed with a digital camera but he can't share anything with fans, not from a rehearsal, a training camp, nothing. Privacy? Don't think so.

They have to earn a living.

To cover all these bases - the pious and the self-serving - what else could they have done but what they did and continue to do?

And how else would SC justify paying Barb and Debbi. Debbi isn't doing the job in her title. Barb is inept and pretty lazy as well as transparently overeager to get her face on camera, promote Barb and enjoy other perks of a relatively high-profile, low-show (when there's actual off-camera responsibilities on her plate) position.

Their opinion of "us" couldn't be more contemptuous.Their opinion of themselves couldn't be higher.

P.S. - I look forward to some of the usual suspects on fsu claiming they've "heard things" re why Scott now has a "former" girlfriend.
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*A corrollary - babies. Casen Loosley and Quinn Moir. Plunk a baby in Jessica's arms. Better yet, plunk a fresh-baked newborn Moir, still in the maternity ward, in Jessica's arms and make it her profile photo concurrent with Alma's profile pic holding the same baby. The public will never believe the Moirs could be so vulgar or so blatantly mock the public's assumptions. That's what makes it perfect! Exploit the public's homegrown, parochial, bourgeois values. Those suckers. We're so slick, and unlike us, they're such rubes. What a way to mock the public's values and manipulate them to get a lie across. Christmas is the same deal. It's Christmas for God's sake!

Toute La Famille

Oh how pro$persous Jessica becomes in expensive locations where Scott and Tesssa are competing.This is a woman who will recycle a costume (like her red strapless one) into the ground when there's no Scott connection - a woman who lodges in an economy hotel in off-season Paris when she's on a girls' trip  -  yet she can ship the whole family minus Veronique (presumably) to the ever so budget-friendly south of France for Worlds when Virtue and Moir are also present.

Jessica is not paying for this herself and neither is her family. I don't think I'm going out on a limb with this. And it ain't Scott.

I look forward to seeing la famille Dube' on film. All those Moirs - cousins included. And three auxillary Dubes! Why on film, it will look just like a gathering of skater families while to skating fans it'll be evidence of the couple, Scott and Jessica, and how their families are like family.

Ice Sweat and Tears is scheduled for broadcast on cbc-tv, which has a deal with Skate Canada. I wonder if Skate Canada commissioned and/or pitched this hard-hitting, no holds barred, warts-and-all exercise in documented truthiness and I'm also curious if the the truthiness of all relevant components was fully disclosed to the filmmakers.

I love how uncontrived this photo is. Everybody loves everybody! No matter how sleazy and sketchy and gross the Jessica/Scott spam has been, Tessa is cool with it - obviously. Come on Tessa, go all the way and throw an arm around Jessica! Give her a great big hug! Enough with the surrogates and buffers. I know the message is "no triangle", no "other woman", so get in there and give Scott's fake girlfriend a great big squeeze.

Sometimes I must say I wonder if Jessica's skating partners, all up in Tessa and Scott's grill as they necessarily become, don't feel a bit like Job in these situations. They've got Jessica. And they sit next to the overachieving, always cheery, completely reliable, supersonically competitive Tessa and think - why lord? Why Scott? Why did he get that partner? Why not me?

I know it's baby steps this year, but Tessa needs to pose one-on-one with Jessica, arms around like besties. That's what they were selling us after the Olympics - Scott's infamous any-girl-I-end-up-with-will-have-to-love-Tessa-as-much-as-I-do. Why does Tessa need a buffer?

I can sort of surmise what the reasoning might have been early on (i.e., half-baked as with everything SC) - but it unravels. In the beginning, Tessa made herself always scarce when Jessica and Scott were shamming, because... ? Other platonic partners hung out with their partner and their partner's SO at events, attended weddings, were on the same skater social circuit. It was a little weird that Tessa was never (photo-op speaking) at the weddings that Scott and Jessica attended "as a couple" (photo-op speaking) -  nor did Tessa join Scott and his posse when it was time to turn to stone watching Jessica and Bryce compete (a/k/a "watch paint dry."). Scott and Tessa never claimed to be enemies, just platonic. So why shouldn't she join Meryl, Charlie, Scott, etc. to watch a pairs comp? She watched the Shibs with Scott and D/W - why not Jessica/Bryce? Was she really trying to market the idea that as much as she cared for Scott, she was so desperate for "separate" time that Scott's presence at a given non-skating event was enough to keep her from attending herself?

Okay - so she's a high achiever and that includes a high achiever in leaving the impression of "separate lives." But what about Tessa and Jessica? Why did she avoid being photographed around Jessica or with Jessica? At banquets, galas, etc. she'd be photographed one on one with almost anyone except either Jessica or Scott. What was the deal with that? Was it fear that, just as Scott's inauthenticity reached out and choked the viewer when he posed with Jessica, Tessa would radiate "real love interest" if she stood next to the fake? It's not fair, really, for Scott's "SO" to love Tessa with the same intensity Scott loves Tessa, and Tessa not to love in return. So let's see it girls.

I hope Tessa has just not been giving herself a break that Scott never got until recently. He has had to paste on a grin, or a smarmy face, or a gross, cheesy expression. Tessa is, to say the least, all up in the drive behind the sham. A really easy way to kibosh fan confusion would have been for them to hang as a threesome or Tessa show how comfy she was with Scott's relationship by buddying up with Jessica for the camera. The fact that she always made herself scarce helped enable speculation that there were tense undercurrents and unresolved feelings in the mix, not to mention generated miles of real person fan fiction.

So now maybe they're clued in that making Tessa disappear didn't enhance the Jessica/Scott authenticity, so Tessa is now showing up, but she still sticks a body between herself and Jessica. Even in that group shot Tessa's body was in the same plane as Scott and Patrick, not with Jessica. She really needs to step it up. I know there's a division of labor, but perhaps it would be helpful if she had to pose a la I-Love-Jessica too, bff-division. See exactly how comfortable it is.

The Merry Month of May

It's almost that time again, and as a precursor to May training break here comes the first article promoting CSOI/Tessa_Scott while emphasizing that between Worlds and CSOI they went their separate ways.

Separate ways

Separate phone interviews, separate ways. This week, Tessa lives in Windsor and Scott went "home" to Ilderton where he lives in Mom and Dad's basement like most 24 year olds (made that last part up). For good measure, we're told their relationship is "sibling like".

Poor interviewer wasn't up to speed on the London promotional venture*, Scott and Tessa's interviews while driving from Canton, and Scott and Tessa going to Tokyo for WTT. Separate ways is next month when Tessa goes solo to Capri or perhaps joins a few classmates for an expedition to India, while Scott enjoys beautiful Jamaica with Jessica Dube.

Speaking of WTT:

Look who sat herself down closest to the camera lens.
It's Barb MacDonald. What's she even doing on
camera, let alone putting herself front and center?

Is it the Director of Communications' job to shove her face closest to the camera frame? Yes. Otherwise, how would the skaters know to cheer? How would we know? Barb is good for morale! They probably had to urge her over her protests to plant her ass exactly where it is.

Why don't other Directors of Communication do this? 

Well, it's the other teams' loss. Without their own Director of Communications on camera leading the cheers, they embarrass themselves, like France:

Team Stick-in-the-Mud

Wave the red, white and blue all you like, Team USA, inside we know you're green with envy.

With William Thompson, Skate Canada CEO, needing a second mouth to accommodate the feet he keeps shoving in there in his infatuation with the sound of his own voice, not to mention preoccupation with telling people how fortunate they are to receive a portion of his attention, with Barb hungrily sucking up the spotlight aimed at the figure skaters, not to mention Debbi pretending she's Oprah, and apparently thinking business development means driving business off and otherwise ignoring business, these three appear to pretty much do nothing but gorge themselves at the Skate Canada pr trough, shallow as it is. It's clear that one reason the skater pr is as strangled and stilted as it is is Barb, Debbi and Bill want to claim as much self-promotional real estate for themselves as they can, including what has traditionally been left to actual skaters. Barb's placing herself where she is is unseemly but it has the feel of an entitlement. I don't mean entitlement as in attitude, but as in job perk that's been agreed upon.

It's not a privately owned company, Skate Canada, yet these three carry on while the organization goes down the tubes in more ways than one and nobody puts them in check and very little daunts them in their self-promoting zeal. They're like tanks.

Their titles are obviously fig leaves. How come they can carry on like this without fear of a Jeff Neely-type reckoning? They feel secure. It's almost like somebody in power gave their jobs to them like in the bad political days of yore when somebody's cronies were given a department to pillage as a pay-off for services rendered.
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*Been giving more thought to that and to William Thompson's deft civic diplomacy and promotional genius. I.e., the light show will make a big difference!

So what are you saying Bill?

Nobody would want to spend a weekend in London vs. Moncton vs somewhere in Nunavit unless there was a light show incentive? You kind of implied that.

Tessa and Scott's rah rah London public appearance sort of backed it up. You mentioned how other cities made a bid, but the light show influenced your decision and without the light show visitors will be left twiddling their thumbs. Now at least there will be something t o see. "Awesome! A light show! London is finally getting with1967!"*

Goes without saying that transportation to said light show will be brilliantly organized and not interfere with normal or (it is to be hoped) enhanced traffic patterns flowing in and around London's business area.

Debbi did an awesome job showing corporate London how much bang they'd get for their buck if anyone decides to partner up with Skate Canada. Once again, she's demonstrated her superb qualifications for her position. Look how she prepped Tessa and Scott to be perfect and appealing spokespeople for London's business community. "Uh - duh, haha - uh - well."

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*Bill Thompson, SC CEO, I totally hope your bizarre light show fixation is because you're a weird, pompous dope, and not because you or anyone in your circle of friends, families and cronies have any $$ interest in light-show related services.  Some of your remarks to London had the flavor of strong-arming.

Come to London for Worlds 2013 and spend quality time with Scott and Tessa's parents!

If this doesn't drum up support for London businesses in advance of Worlds 2013, then I don't know what it's gonna take.

Lifelong Londoners Tessa and Scott were sent to London to drum up interest in Worlds 2013 and give the local business community a boost (just in case that light show doesn't trigger $38 million in spin-offs, best to have a couple of well-known, popular home grown heroes talk up the best things about their town). What London is looking for here are some good plugs for all the city has to offer - places to go, things to do, sights to see, exciting parts of town, worthwhile things to do with your weekend spending money as long as you're there to watch the competition.

This light show isn't going to pay for itself, earmarked $$ or no. The idea is that Worlds leaves London with a profit, not in the hole. Who better to tell us about the great things London has to offer than Tessa and Scott.

First thing, Tessa and Scott allow as how there is no more knowledgeable or supportive skating crowd than Londoners for figure skaters competing there.

Then they said their favorite thing about London was the chance to spend quality time with their parents. The businesses in downtown London must have been overjoyed.

Tessa did toss in that she likes to get breakfast at The Bag Lady, and Scott plugged his uncles' restaurant, Shoeless Joe's. That was generous of him as Shoeless Joe's hardly ever gets plugged on Moir facebooks.

That can't be it. What other restaurants, sights and great places to visit did they mention? Oh - they both train at Maria Mountain Revolution Fitness and spend so much time there THAT's their hang-out.

So. All you people considering visiting London for Worlds 2013 and giving local business a boost, some great suggestions from Scott and Tessa:

1) Figure skate in front of London's knowledgeable skating audience!

2) Hang out at Maria Mountain Fitness. Drop-ins welcome!

3) Spend quality time with Scott and Tessa's parents!

4) Eat at Shoeless Joe's, owned and operated by Scott's family!

5) Get some coffee at The Bag Lady! 

 Tessa and Scott, London thanks you.*

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*For future reference: London Tourism Guide