Rants in your pants

TransLink’s advertising campaign with Seth Rogen is a failure
By Janis McMath, Senior Columnist

Seth Rogen is the voice of several announcements on TransLink SkyTrains and buses—and goddammit am I irritated.

I’m not interested in Seth Rogen being the voice of TransLink’s constant passive aggressive suggestions to “move my bags” or “get out of the doorway.” At least their first candidate for the announcements, Morgan Freeman, had a recognizable celebrity voice. Rogen as a second choice sort of feels like, “Hey, what local Canadian celebrity do you think would be available for this B-list gig and also probably do it for free?” While I can acknowledge that Seth Rogen was a cool guy for being willing to do it for free… he was also a big schmuck for doing so.

TransLink has got coin that they love to toss in the trash: In 2015, Global News reported that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation gave them the “lifetime achievement award for waste.” The Canadian Taxpayers Federation considered them worthy of this award because TransLink was paying two CEOs at the same time—and was paying them both some of the highest salaries for a leader of a North American local transit system.

Even though I can barely hear Rogen’s announcements due to the SkyTrain’s infamous garbled speakers, I’m still irritated that he was the choice for the voice on a transit system I use everyday. TransLink, if you’re going to do an advertising campaign and expect it to get any traction or respect, at least loosen those purse strings and get a Canadian celebrity of the highest standard—Colin Mochrie.