Parody is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, yes it can be, but it can also be a powerful weapon that can be used to call bullshit on those who spew it all around. For a current example, one only has to look to the artists of the Save The Main Coalition.
In hopes of saving Café Cleopatre and the Lower Main from destruction in favor of an office tower, the group tried appealing to the city and failed. They appealed to the public and succeeded (at the OCPM meetings) but the city refused its own consultation process’ decision. They’ve appealed to the courts and don’t know the result yet. They even tried appealing to Prince Charles but were prevented from seeing him by riot cops.
Now, they’ve turned to infomercial parody to help spread the word about what the Angus Development Corporation wants to do to the neighbourhood: evict everyone with no good reason in an unethical manner as soon as possible. That’s essentially the plot of this new video called Demolition in a Box.
In this clip, available in both French and English, the Societe demolition Abus gives prospective developers the chance to destroy any city, landmark or section of town in one easy step. There’s even a jab at Angus head Christian Yaccarini‘s criminal past:
It premiered at the February Club Sin at Café Cleo to a very warm reception. While that may be preaching to the converted, viral videos have the potential to reach quite a few more than those in the know. Whether or not that can cause enough public pressure and potential international embarrassment to make the Tremblay administration change its tune has yet to be seen.
