December 25, 1930 - June 1, 2021

After an extraordinary 90 years, Noel passed peacefully with his beloved wife and their children by his side. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Nancy, children Lee, Dana and Leslie as well as his brother and sister, Harland and Kathleen. Noel's career in advertising spanned three decades. His extensive experience covered integral areas of the industry. Trained initially in the creative field, he joined Baker Lovick in the '50s. He climbed the corporate ladder until he moved into account services and was eventually made Senior Vice President - think of the HBO series "Mad Men." 

Noel was an avid tennis and squash player and a member of the Badminton & Racquet Club in Toronto and Cedar Springs in Burlington. Upon his retirement, he returned to his love of painting. He spent time recreating treasured scenes from his travels around the world with Nancy, family portraits and, of course, the family dogs. Expanding on his creativity, Noel took up wood carving as well; creating each family member their own personalized paddle for the cottage. Noel loved spending time at the cottage with family and friends over the years. From cross-country skiing gatherings to birthday parties to gardening or just relaxing with a glass of red, the cottage was precious to him. It was at the cottage where Noel passed along his love of art and nature to his grandchildren. If you asked 100 people who Noel was, you would get 100 different answers. Some saw him as a model and an athlete, while others saw a guide and a friend, and many would call him a hero and a storyteller. Noel was all of these things and more. What is true in descriptions of Noel is the strength of character that he demonstrated in all aspects of his life and all the people who would agree their lives were better for knowing and loving him. When time permits, we will gather to celebrate Noel while listening to his favourite jazz musician, Duke Ellington. The care and kindness given to Noel by Simone, Kellie, his nurses, and Wemi and the other PSWs, has been truly appreciated. 

A heartfelt thank you from the family. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Canadian Cancer Society. "As long as we remember a person, they're not really gone. Their thoughts, their feelings, their memories, they become a part of us."

On 4.27.2021REUTERS News Agency reported that “Apple recently began rolling out an update of its iOS operating system with new privacy controls designed to limit digital advertisers from tracking iPhone users. For Apple’s more than 1 billion iPhone users, the change will mean a new pop-up notification in some apps seeking their permission to collect data that Apple believes could be used to track their browsing habits across third-party apps and websites.

Personally I’m delighted to hear that these new rules will bring a seismic change to the nearly $100 billion mobile advertising market if most iPhone users decline to allow data collection - although the exact impact remains unclear at this time. How Android’s OS is upgraded is another unknown – although my bet is that ABC will not follow suit as a similar privacy update would make a dent in its bottom line. Some analysts believe that fewer than one in three users are likely to say “yes” to an app’s pop-up like this: “XYZ would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies. [ Yes | No ]” 

My iPhone has a “tracking” menu in the privacy settings where I can opt-out of tracking from any or all apps on my phone. 

The relatively FREE Ride is finally over!

Both advertisers and app developers who sell ad inventory claim that the opt-out option will make advertising less effective. The ad industry has gathered data about people’s web browsing behavior in order to serve up ads since 2008.

Before that multi-media audience projections based on media surveys was the foundation on which an affective advertising campaign was built. The high cost of media research limited the number of Canadian companies that utilized media research. Smaller, insightful companies created VERY effective advertising campaigns by carefully testing the response to their creative and media options over time – effectively doing for themselves (at a price) what Google and social media claimed to do (better) for them – for free.      

The fear that “a shrinking pool of user data could lead to lower sales for brands” is unfounded and will prove to be false. While the “brand” will lose “price shoppers”, if the brand’s foundation is build on “price” – it’s not a brand anyway. So nothing’s lost. While I agree that there will be “Lower ad revenue for mobile apps and publishers.” and  that “Apple’s move has deepened a rift with Facebook Inc, which has said the change will hurt small businesses because it will impede their ability to cost-effectively find local customers to target with advertisements.”, this is bullshit and it shouldn’t worry you. This is what capitalism is all about. No one cried when online search and social advertising shut down classified advertising in millions of print publications around the world. I’ll be damned if I’m going to shed a tear for app developers or facebook. 

I’m delighted that Apple is giving customers more control over their data. I like that Apple has introduced privacy “nutrition labels” to its App Store to show users what data an app collect.

I’m fine with first party data in-app ads.

I’m delighted that apps that want to send me ads based on data from third-party websites will need to seek permission.

Here’s a great way to add stopping power to your headline copy.

Paraprosdokians turns of phrase in which the latter part of the sentence isn't what you expected based on the first part of the sentence. They encourage you to re-think the entire statement – which is exactly what you want folks to do when they read and engage with your copy. Here are some of the more famous ones.

• If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

• The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it’s still on my list.

• We never really grow up, we just learn how to act in public.

• War does not determine who is right ... only who is left.

• Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

• I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

• You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they've tried everything else.

• If I could just say a few words … I'd be a better public speaker.

• I haven’t slept for 10 days, because that would be too long.

• Behind every great man there's a woman, rolling her eyes.

• I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.

• You’re never too old to learn – something stupid.

• Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

• Actually you don’t really need a parachute to skydive. You only need one to skydive twice.

• Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut and still think they’re sexy.

• On the job application where it says, “In case of an emergency, notify . . . “ I answered “A doctor”.

• I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I’m blaming you.

• To steal from one person is plagiarism, to steal from many is research.

• Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.  

I love this C.P. D.M. promotion for a few reasons.

It reminds us that a hand-written note is still a very affordable gift to someone, and for the recipient a keep-sake that will be probably be kept a lot longer than a text message or an e-mail (along with special birthday and x-mas cards).

It reinforces the Canada Post brand’s value at a time when many boxes delivered by C.P. are branded Amazon. 

For Canada Post it’s a VERY affordable test given they own the infrastructure.

Response rates are very simple and easy to track right down to FSA.

It reminds household residents who received this piece and      are employed in an advertising or marketing capacity that Canada Post DM is a VERY smart and VERY viable alternative to unaddressed mail and online marketing.

Lets hope Canada Post remembers another core rule of DM: message frequency. Make sure this is not the 1st and last reminder. 

Colman George de Souza, of Burlington, Ontario passed away on April 13, 2021 at the age of 84. Just like he dealt with all experiences in life, Colman faced life and death with strength and grace, and wanted to spend as much time with his loved ones as possible.

He leaves behind his devoted wife and family.

Colman was born in Rangoon, Burma and emigrated from Karachi, Pakistan to Canada in 1966. He lived in Markham, Ontario for 40 years, where he was a devoted Eucharistic Minister at St. Patrick’s Parish. He directed advertising and marketing research with Grant Advertising, Foster Advertising, the Financial Post, and the National Post, from where he retired in 2000 as Vice-President of Media and Director of Research.

Colman was the life of their many parties, and made friends everywhere he went. We will never forget the anniversary dinners, the SYP, the Sarasota Six, and nights of bridge and investing advice. He was an avid photographer, stamp collector, and gardener. He loved trains, birds, music, and a good glass of scotch, most often shared with his brother Eden. 

He and his wife traveled the world.