Your humble correspondent dances disco-style at the beginning of the Love Mob (photo from the Facebook group)

I do like fun. And as long as an event has that as its primary goal, I'm all for it. Even if it's a tired formula like a choreographed dance or a lip dub.

On Sunday, I played hookey from PodCamp to participate in an event called "Love Mob Montreal". Not crazy about the name, but maybe that's just because I'm not in touch with my emotional side. As I mentioned in the previous post, it was an MP3 experiment that made sense to everyone with headphones but no sense to all the bystanders without.

An anthropology student interviews Laurent Maisonnave, one of the organizers

The organization was relatively low-key (about as low-key as one can get while still getting more than 100 people to show up), and attracted fairly little mainstream media attention (are they finally getting tired of the flash mob scene?). An article in Le Devoir and a writeup at Midnight Poutine were all I found.

Of course, there was also a bit of an ulterior motive here. The event was organized with Tourism Montreal, who are using it to promote the city and its new Quartier des Spectacles (pictures of the event have been uploaded to the QdS's Flickr account).

But they didn't interfere with the spirit of the event by asking us to scream "I love Montreal" or anything silly like that. They simply offered the organizers a studio to record the two MP3s (one English, one French).

Follow the balloons

The MP3 files were of very good quality, and the crowd was fairly evenly divided between red and white shirts. The live organization wasn't perfect, though. The crowd was asked to point to "John and Yoko" on the Hyatt Hotel terrace, but the doppelgangers didn't show up until a few minutes later.

But for its faults, the event was original, and it was fun. I got pushed into dancing disco-style to "Staying Alive", danced a waltz with a complete stranger, participated in a giant circle of hand-holding (I hope I don't get swine flu from all that holding hands with strangers), and did other things that would have been embarrassing had everyone else not been doing them as well.

Red and white shirts mingle after the event

An experiment worth repeating next year. Though perhaps with some music from this millennium.

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Police officers monitor a "flash mob" protest on St. Jacques St.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know my opinion on so-called "flash mobs". The term is poorly defined (mostly because the groups most associated with the term find it demeaning and refuse to describe themselves that way), but most people seem to have settled on the definition of a bunch of strangers meeting in a public place, doing something strange and then leaving.

That "something strange" is open to debate. In some cases, it's harmless fun for fun's sake. In others, it's a highly-choreographed stunt. I wouldn't really describe every seemingly spontaneous public performance as a flash mob, but as long as people are having fun I'm not going to complain.

My issue is that, because "flash mob" is popular among youth, various groups with agendas are trying to use it to their advantage. In some cases, the intentions are honorable, like fighting cancer. But it's also been used to promote beer, or create "viral videos" to drum up interest in some convoluted advertising campaign.

Now, it seems, it's also being abused for political activism.

Protest on St. Jacques St., above the Decarie Expressway

I really shouldn't have expected anything different from this "flash mob" protest organized by the anti-Turcot-project protesters. But heading down there with my camera, I saw plenty of mob and very little flash. In fact, no flash. They were just kind of standing around there. Did I miss the flash part?

Peter McQueen holds up a sign for passing motorists

I'm on the fence about the Turcot Interchange project as proposed by the Ministère de transport. I agree with a greater need for public consultation, and that we should prioritize public transit, and that forcing people to move should be avoided whenever possible, but I'm not sure with some environmentalists' conclusion that we should keep the concrete spaghetti mess in the sky.

Does this count as advertising?

Still, it's a free country. Let people protest. It's better that people express their opinion on these kinds of projects than have nobody question them before they turn into giant sinkholes of taxpayer money.

A green square pinned to chests signifies ... greenness?

Taking a page from the red squares used during student protests against Jean Charest's Liberal government (which had mixed results - a plan to convert bursaries into loans was reversed, but tuition increases went ahead), the protesters wore green felt squares. This particular square is on the shirt of Jacob Larsen, who wrote a post announcing the event on Spacing Montreal.

Perhaps green squares were appropriate because a bunch of faces were recognizable names from the Green Party, NDP and Projet Montréal:

Peter McQueen

There was Peter McQueen, a perennial Green Party candidate who's running for Projet Montréal in the coming municipal election.

Anne Lagacé-Dowson

And Anne Lagacé-Dowson, who left CBC Radio to run in a federal by-election for the NDP. She would eventually lose a general election to Liberal Marc Garneau. Since then she's been heard on weekends on CJAD.

Police cars ready to move in a block away

Despite these being fairly low-risk candidates for violence, police were there in force. Two cars around the corner, another four vans a block away. There were about as many police officers as protesters.

More coverage at Neath's Turcot blog and the Facebook group.

Three in a day

All this I would have dismissed if it were a unique case. But it was actually the third of three different protest-flash-mobs in a single day for three different causes.

At about the same time at Place des Arts, there was a flash mob for climate change. The "flash" part was apparently just making a lot of noise and standing behind a banner, which doesn't sound that different from every other protest that has ever occurred. Oh, there's something about freezing in place too, you know, to make it cool. And holding cellphones in the air (you see, because it's a "wakeup call", get it?)

And then earlier in the day, a flash mob for peace. This one even got the mayor to take part (he apparently wasn't too busy preparing to have his re-election hopes flushed down the toilet).

I used to like going to "flash mobs" because they were fun. I like organized fun, even with strangers (I even have an entire category for it on my blog). And even if the term "flash mob" had no real meaning, at least it had fun.

But now they've taken the fun out of it.

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Look, I don't want to make it seem like I'm anti-fun or something, because I really do enjoy it when people just go out and do something silly, if only for a few minutes.

But when you have an event involving a professional dance troupe that you've publicized to the media, when you have dozens of journalists present, when police and a government minister are taking part, can you really call that a "flash mob"? If so, the term has lost all meaning and should cease to be used.

No wonder groups so associated with the term, like Improv Everywhere and Newmindspace, have rejected it. I think it's time we all follow their lead if it's going to be commercialized like this.

Call it a publicity stunt, call it a public performance, call it street art, but don't call it a flash mob.

UPDATE (July 30): Similar thoughts from Patrick Dion, Jean-Philippe Rousseau and Le Détesteur, plus a defence from a participant.

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After following various events that have been referred to as flash mobs in the media, it's hard not to concur, if only because the term has been used to define almost any public gathering of strangers organized online.

Most events of this nature can be split into one of two groups:

1. the Improv Everywhere-style stunts in which people who may or may not know each other get together and pull a prank on unsuspecting bystanders in a public place
2. public fun activities like metro parties or silent discos or snowball fights (such as the events Newmindspace organizes on a regular basis)
   

The latter more accurately fits the description, but is hardly worthy of the rather negative term "mob".

I bring this up because of an event that happened yesterday: a public spectacle at the Berri-UQAM metro station that the public was invited to participate in. It was described as a "flash mob" by its creator, but it was really just a PR stunt.

A PR stunt for cancer prevention, which I'm all for and everything, but a PR stunt nonetheless.

What bugs me most is that this was organized through a "flash mob" Facebook group which was taken over by a marketing company without its members' permission. I suppose it's not the end of the world. People can just remove themselves from the group if they don't like it. And who's going to oppose a public event for cancer awareness?

But it's an example of grassroots fun being usurped by corporate interests. Instead of "flash mobs", they're now "street marketing" events. Yesterday, it was a yellow-scarfed song for cancer research. Will the next one be shilling for Doritos? Will commuters have to live in fear every day they go to work because they might be forced into some ill-conceived marketing stunt in which they've been made the sucker?

We'll see.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for non-corporate fun, Montreal's pillow fight is Saturday at 3pm at Phillips Square.

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Corporatization of fun: Friendly game of tag, or an ad for Orange Crush?

As an observer of society, I belong to some Facebook groups that may or may not turn into things. One of them was a generic flashmob group, which had hopes of organizing something fun at some point, but never actually did so.

Today I get an email from the group, which has been taken over by a "street marketing company" with big ambitions:

Objet : Hi flashmobers !

I am taking in charge your group.
My name is Ludovic and I am working in Trako Media, a street marketing company. We want to create an EVENT. A giant EVENT with thousands of flashmobers. We are already planning some future events where we would like everybody to activly participate. We gonna work full days and weeks to make it better than any other one in any other town.
Montreal is full of enthousiastic people who love having FUN.
We are already 46 members. Can you send invitation to your friends ? Talk to others ? Print and pomote the group on school or university walls ?

We need 1000 flashmobers for the first offical Flash Mob. Don't worry, I'm sure you 'll like our ideas :D

So let's start and feel free to message me !

Sorry for my english :P Je parle un peu mieux français...

Maybe I'm just picky, but nothing kills the spirit of a flashmob than having it be organized by a marketing company, which will no doubt have some commercial motivation behind such events.

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The first video from Saturday's gun battle flash mob is up (from Sylvain Racicot). The whole thing lasts about five seconds. Insert obvious comparison to disappointing sex here.

UPDATE: Midnight Poutine has a report from the event, with still photos.

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The event is purposefully taking place in the middle of the Main Madness street sale. I'm sure no problems will arise from people yelling "bang" and randomly falling down in the middle of a crowded street.

Either way, hopefully it'll last longer than five seconds.

UPDATE: If you want to make a day of these activities, you can also go to a Capture the Flag game at 2pm at the statue in Mount Royal Park on Park Ave., as well as a Manhunt game at 5pm in Carré Saint-Louis.

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When one person does that, it's annoying and/or funny. When dozens do it, it's a scene and/or pathetic.

Like the freeze in February, this one will take place around the big puck at the mezzanine level of Berri-UQAM metro.

Sadly I won't be there because I'm working.

Event details on Facebook Event details here

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