Don Sellar
Toronto Star
March 30, 2002

The six-page electricity insert that came with the Star on March 21 was slick and cheery. Feel-good stuff that government publicity factories dream up as vehicles for one-sided messages.

Dressed up like a special news section with a pleasant mix of stories and ads, the "special supplement" promised — literally — to enlighten readers on the wonders of Ontario’s new, deregulated electricity market.

"Lighting the way to a brighter future," gushed a headline on the front page. "Now you can choose the power you use."

But the mystery insert bore no "Advertising Supplement" label. It had no bylines, no editors, no publisher. Nothing to say clearly who paid.

Curious omissions.

Yet there was room for a flattering photo of Premier Mike Harris and Energy Minister Jim Wilson below another nice headline: "Strengthening Ontario’s electricity sector."

Hmmm. Likely, Harris won’t be suing anyone for libel on this insert, even though it was cobbled together and printed at the Globe and Mail (not his favourite paper lately).

Was this useful information, propaganda, or a special editorial section telling consumers how to shop in a deregulated power environment?

Some skeptical Star readers found the insert confusing, and rightly so.

"I don’t see who produced it," said Wolfe Erlichman of Toronto, who’s in the printing business. "Is it a Toronto Star product or did someone pay for this supplement? Please, tell me."

From Newmarket, where he’s on sabbatical from Nipissing University, Dr. Michael Wodlinger, an academic (social foundations in education) called with the same question, later adding, "I really object to advertising being skewed as news or editorial."

So does Wayne Clifton, vice-president of advertising at the Star. "They slipped one past us, no question," he said ruefully. "We would not have accepted this insert in its present form. It did not meet our policy guidelines."

So what happened?

The insert was booked by Media Buying Services Ltd., a big ad agency that does work for the Ontario government. But Clifton said no one in his department at One Yonge St. saw the product until it was too late to stop it from being distributed.

"We care very much about the Star‘s brand, and when people try and utilize it in an incorrect way, this upsets us very much," he said.

Clifton found it suspicious that the insert wasn’t delivered from the printer to the Star‘s production plant at Vaughan until 24 hours before it was pre-inserted with other ad inserts for the next day’s paper.

"They delivered it to Vaughan only two days before it was to run, obviously to try and sneak it under the radar screen."

Not only was the insert badly labelled, misleading and laid out too much like editorial copy, Clifton was surprised to find it included ads from power industry, government and labour interests pushing deregulation.

The Star got no revenue from those "brokered" ads and was only paid for distributing the insert, he said.

Clifton said the Star was led to believe the insert was sponsored by the Ontario energy ministry, with which the paper had no direct contact.

As a result of the misadventure, he said, "we’re tightening things up."

Ray Hersh, group account director at Media Buying Services, wasn’t forthcoming. "We only book space, we’re not involved in creative. So we don’t usually see stuff ahead of time ourselves," he said.

Insisting his agency didn’t preview the insert, he refused to name other papers that ran it, calling all of this "a private matter" with the client.

He sent me to Shane Pospisil, information director, Ontario energy ministry, who explained the insert was devised by a 14-member committee formed to educate consumers about deregulated power.

It also ran in the Hamilton Spectator, Kingston Whig-Standard, Sudbury Northern Life and Windsor Star. The London Free Press, after seeing it, separated it from the paper, Pospisil said.

Asked why the insert wasn’t labelled as advertising, he said the Globe (which also distributed the insert, putting its name on every page) helped "with layout and the whole bit. I’m no expert on placing supplements in newspapers. We relied on the Globe and Mail to advise and guide us. I think they recognize there are some political sensitivities . . ."

Pospisil said the government is "very satisfied" it helped inform consumers on hydro choices. He denied the ad agency misled the Star, insisting the paper had time to vet it.

He insisted the Star was told well in advance that it would be "an electricity restructuring supplement. So we weren’t trying to mislead you."

Pospisil said the government spent $22,000 on the $250,000 project, with the insert advertisers and "electricity stakeholders" — from the power workers’ union to Ontario Power Generation — providing the rest.

He suggested the Star bid on another lucrative insert for a biotech trade show, Bio 2002, the government is staging later this year.

Another show, another opening. Ad department, beware.

The insert was also published in the Globe and Mail on March 11. Energy Probe’s Tom Adams wrote a letter of complaint to the editor about its publication, "Shame on the Globe and Mail, click here to read it.