Condo branding is a lot like LEGO. The pieces are mostly the same. If anything’s different, it’s the colour. It doesn’t matter if you swap the pieces around. Everything fits together.
So here we have James, an “intelligent, sophisticated, intimate” condo coming soon to False Creek. It’s built by Cressey and marketed by MAC. In the past, they copulated to bring us Donovan. Like Donovan, James is pitched as a condo that’s worth getting to know. But in lieu of Donovan’s intimate mustard coloration, James goes for plain old background brown.
Come on, guys. This is a template job. Inspiring? Thoughtful?
Oh James, you’re so full of it.
Condohype 
September 17, 2008 at 3:22 am
I’d love to know which marketing guru first came up with the idea to anthropomorphize condo projects. I always thought it kind of creepy to covet Juliet, though I could learn to be Mellow Yellow in Donovan.
September 17, 2008 at 6:27 am
James is good at drawing wire frames. I can imagine going to sleep and having the walls wishpering shweet nothingsh in my ear. Shudder…
September 17, 2008 at 10:02 am
“Oh Please…”
As in spare us this crap! What kills me is that people, more than one I am sure, looked at this ad and thought “YES! That’s the one! That’ll sell us some condos!”
Ugh.
September 17, 2008 at 10:29 am
The term “thoughtful boutique living” makes me cry on the inside
September 17, 2008 at 3:36 pm
“James” is a mirage that exists only in the minds of its developer (soon to go out of business) and on brown paper in white lines.
Any developer that thinks that THAT is going to sell condos in advance in THIS market, should just pack it in right now and put applications in at fast food restaurants within walking or biking distance of the hovel they’ll be renting after they lose their home.
September 18, 2008 at 8:19 am
I don’t get it I really don’t. Everyone that lives in condos downtown lives a thoughtful boutique, liberal, multicultural, kidless lifestyle. Downtown Vancouver is where the future of society has been born. The focus on dogs, cafes, and thoughtful boutique living is what we need to see more of.
September 18, 2008 at 8:50 am
My test on names is the pizza delivery thing.
How do you feel when you give directions to your
home / building?
Personally I would be embarrassed to say I live at
Pulse or Gruv, Allure or any of the other “fashionable”
names out there.
As for James, all you need to do is add block or building
to give it a little more credibility.
September 18, 2008 at 9:34 am
i’ve never lived in a boutique…..
anything thing to do with “booty”? James?
September 18, 2008 at 10:14 am
When I saw the James ad, I wondered if it was a diluted Vancouver-lame attempt to recreate the marketing of a condo development in LA.
I forget the name of the development, but it was named after a guy and the showhome was all about Melrose Place lifestyle…lingerie on the floor, empty glasses on the tables like you’d just missed a party.
September 18, 2008 at 10:36 am
Just what Vancouver needs………”another” False Creek condo.
Pretty bland ad. I though it was for a butler/concierge service.
“Yes James….very good Sir.”
September 18, 2008 at 11:09 am
This terrible ad will sink the developer and make him completely broke.
Like totally!
Seriously now, where’s the hype?
Let’s be careful not to believe our own hype, k?
September 19, 2008 at 3:03 pm
James certainly is a smooth talker, I went to his web-site and pickup this great line.
“Deliberately downsized, James was created to foster a closer connection between buildings and space, people and place.”
September 20, 2008 at 7:48 pm
This ad really is pathetic… And why put out the ad when you don’t even have a description of your place on the website yet? What’s the point?
I can’t understand who would buy on the basis of such an ad… even the most pretentious of people can’t believe this kind of crap.
September 26, 2008 at 5:31 pm
This is far from the first condo marketed as “intimate” (Donovan anyone?), but it’s just so gender-specific here.
“Oh James, you are sooo intelligent and sophisticated and thoughtful! Just what I always wanted in a man … um, condo!”
I wonder how overtly they are targeting the (sadly common) thirty-something successful female who can’t even get a date because all the man are shallow a-holes who just want to bang them on their way to something younger and fresher. James to the rescue! Your nesting instinct satisfied.