In a June 23 story about Whitby town council selling naming rights for sports facilities, the Toronto Star talked to Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business. He said there has been a noticeable shift away from relying solely on traditional advertising strategies to market brands, in part because consumers are now subjected to a cacophony of television, radio and print advertisements everywhere they go. There is a need to break away from the clutter, he said, particularly for companies that don’t have a strong “street presence,” as fast-food outlets and big-name retailers do. “I expect to see the insurance companies start doing this in a big way because it really helps their agents.” Another bonus is the positive message that’s sent to potential customers about a corporation’s willingness to “invest” in the community.
Labour fund study paints only partial picture
In the Toronto Star June 21, Rudy Luukko, of FundMasters, a Toronto-based news, information and research firm specializing in investment funds, took issue with the findings of a study by York University’s Yisong Tian and Ryerson University’s Scott Anderson. The study, to be published by Canadian Investment Review and winner of a $10,000 award from Barclays Global Investors Canada Ltd., finds that labour-sponsored venture capital funds are a ripoff. What troubled Luuko about the study was that “there was no attempt to differentiate between labour funds that served investors well and those that didn’t.”
Therapist designed treatment with York psychologist
Susan Johnson mapped out the process for rekindling love between couples through emotionally focused therapy (EFT) in the March/April 2003 issue of Psychology Today. While a doctoral student, Johnson said she worked with psychologist Les Greenberg, a professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, in designing EFT based on attachment theory. Attachment theory suggests that when people we’re attached to can’t respond to our needs, we become anxious and fearful or numb and distant.
Praise for helping child victims
An editorial June 22 in The North York Mirror following York University’s announcement of recipients of the Randal Dooley Memorial Bursary lauded efforts to help child victims like him. “Memorials in Randal’s name serve to remind us, in stark terms, of the horror of child abuse,” the paper said. “Government funding to confront the issue is money well spent.”