Dear Phil Hartling (at Rogers Cable Inc.):

September 16, 2009 - Faith - Tagged: Eid Mubarak, end of Ramadan, Islam, Muslim, Muslims -- they're just like us!, Phil Hartling, religion, respecting all faith traditions, Rogers Cable Inc., smart advertising - 4 comments

Hi!

How are you?

My father and uncle received the letter (photographed here) from Rogers Cable Inc., detailing your special offers specific to the Muslim celebration of Eid.

I don’t have cable and I currently use Bell for both my mobile as well as internet services. But guess what, Phil? Because your company is amongst the first to respectfully acknowledge that there is a demographic of creatures called Muslims – who celebrate rather than explode – you have just gained a new customer (that’s me, Phil).

Also, it is exceptionally cool of your communications team for having properly included both “Eid Mubarak” as well as the crescent moon (which is – to those who do not know – the symbol of Islam).

With thanks, and looking forward to eventually buying a rogers product,
Maha
P.S. To those of you interested, please find Rogers’ official press release here.
P.S. to the P.S. Here is the Rogers site.

4 thoughts on “Dear Phil Hartling (at Rogers Cable Inc.):”

one female canuck October 17, 2009 at 9:18 pm

6 Comments:

Blogger yasmine said…

i really like that bit about how ‘Rogers brings a happy glow to Eid celebrations.’

and i really love the bit about Muslims who ‘celebrate rather than explode.’ ha!

thanks for letting us know about this, Maha! of course it’s all marketing, but it’s about TIME Muslims got marketed to. i LOVE seeing advertising that acknowledges me — in ways other than references about my potential to ‘explode’ or be repressed — so this brings me warm, fuzzy feelings.
Wed Sep 16, 02:35:00 PM
**********

Anonymous lily said…

Holy shit this is awesome! I’m telling everyone about this. -lily
Wed Sep 16, 11:36:00 PM
**********

Anonymous Anonymous said…

Hi, I am Fiona from New Mexico. I found you by googling Tell me about ramadan. You were the third hit you must be pretty popular! I read other explanations but your is the clearest and kind of fun to read so I am sending it to friends.

I was surprised to read about your faith. It is a lot more open than I used to believe. You don’t look like a Muslim person! I don’t mean that in a bad way I just mean I have an image and it is nice that my image is wrong because it wasn’t such a nice image to begin with I guess.

I will read your faith category and learn more. Thank you for your help. You are easy to read and fun to read also.

Goodbye,
Fiona
Thu Sep 17, 03:16:00 PM
**********

Anonymous A, yo! said…

I am happy to finally see this demographic paid attention to.

Rogers has also gained another customer in me and everyone in my family because of this initiative. I pretty much spam-emailed your link to every Muslim and non-Muslim I know, asking them to share the info!

Thanks, Maha.

W’asalaam,
Ahmed
Thu Sep 17, 03:20:00 PM
**********

Anonymous Anonymous said…

Fiona.. Welcome to this special place!

Muslims, like Americans, come in all shapes and sizes.

Like Americans, some are white others are black, chinese or any combination.

Like Americans, some are blondes with blue eyes, others are brunettes with brown eyes.

Like Americans, some are extremely highly educated, others are totally undeducated.

Like Americans, some are filty rich and others are dirt poor.

Like Americans, some are deeply religious, others do not not practice.

Like Americans, some defend human rights, others abuse them.

Like Americans, some advocate vehemently for peace and dialogue, others kill ruthlessly.

Like Americans, some are good, others are evil.

Like Americans, Muslims are human beings.

Thank you for acknowledging that the stereotype you had was, after all, a stereotype.

BB
Thu Sep 17, 03:33:00 PM
**********

Blogger one female canuck said…

Yasmine – That’s it – it’s about finally being recognised as a demographic worthy of attention. Finally – like, fk, we’ve been here long enough and it’s so annoying when the only faith matters are either Jewish or Christian or Buddhist (all of which we love and respect) but COME ON.

Anyway. Hurrah for Phil Hartling and Rogers. Double Hurrah.

Fiona – Thanks for your comment and of course, you are always welcome to poke around, read and email and ask Qs or comment.

BB!! HIIIII!
Thanks for your awesome response. Beautiful.

YO, Ahmed – Good to know and I hope you did share 🙂

xox
Sat Oct 17, 05:18:00 PM

Reply
paul liberatore March 16, 2010 at 8:29 pm

Approximately 2 weeks ago I contacted Rogers regarding cable services and finding out about internet services,I was told after 1 hr & 10 min.that they could not connect me to either one due to their being a red flag on my rating placed there by myself due to fraudulent usage and was told that a supervisor would contact me.( no one did ) After calling a second time,I was told that it was not necessary to go through all the hassle from first call if I was purchasing all items out right,again over 1 hr.on cell phone all prices were different then previous discussion,next day I went out and purchased new HD receiver and digital receiver. We were to contact Rogers when tech came to install units so we could be placed on VIP Plan ( didn’t happen )had to call back Monday morning another 1 hr. and 15 min. again on cell phone frustration starting to mount after spending approximately 3 1/2 hrs. on cell phone. I received a card indicating that if you signed up for Rogers digital service and wireless internet that you could get a free Compaq mini CQ10 notebook When I called about promo I had to speak to 5 different reps of which none of the above knew of promo or understood how it worked.We were told that rocket hub doesn’t constitute it being internet item ( but that is what it is sold as) nowhere does it say anything about being excluded as part of the promo. Needless to say that not only am I totally frustrated with Rogers,But totally dissatisfied with my dealings with Rogers.

Reply
Jonathan July 26, 2010 at 11:40 am

“Phil? Because your company is amongst the first to respectfully acknowledge that there is a demographic of creatures called Muslims – who celebrate rather than explode – you have just gained a new customer (that’s me, Phil).”

They’re only acknowledging this because it might make them money. If they could get you any other way that was cheaper than doing lots of expensive data mining and merging/purging external data, they would. If they knew my cat was a brown female American Shorthair and could use them to make them money, they’d send my cat targeted mail. 🙂

Reply
Player Profiles October 29, 2010 at 9:38 pm

Maybe you could change the page subject Dear Phil Hartling (at Rogers Cable Inc.): | One Female Canuck to more better for your blog post you write. I loved the blog post still.

Reply