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2010 Hero: The “We Want It!” Guys
Illustration by Brian McLachlan/Torontoist.
Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—Toronto’s very best and very worst people, places, and things over the past twelve months. From December 13–17: the Villains! From December 20–24, the Heroes! And, from December 27–30, you can vote for Toronto’s Superhero and Supervillain of the year.
After the protracted strike last year, garbage workers were held in low esteem by a lot of people in Toronto. This wasn’t surprising, since for most people the most important regular interaction they have with municipal service is garbage collection. (Well, actually, the most important service city dwellers get is probably water, since without water we would die. However, there is no municipal water boy who comes around each morning with a pail of water for us, so garbage workers are more visible and therefore they’re more important to us.)
The bad feeling towards garbage workers was understandable, but in the end not entirely fair. Garbage workers get paid relatively generously to be sure, but ultimately this is because they deal with garbage every day. Nobody actually wants to work with garbage; nobody goes to their high school guidance counsellor and says “when I grow up, I want to work in the sanitation service industry.”
It’s a crappy job. And Torontonians, like citizens of every city ever, undervalue their garbage service whenever it isn’t being withheld from them. That’s why the We Want It! campaign was such a brilliant bit of work. From the very first ad, the campaign served two purposes: firstly, to educate and explain to citizens as to how to dispose of waste as efficiently as possible, and secondly to remind people that Toronto’s garbage service, all in all, is really a good deal even with the salaries that get paid out.
Of course, any public service campaign wants to do that, but the We Want It! campaign excelled because it was funny and clever. Mike Nahrgang and Marty Adams as Chuck and Vince performed their semi-scripted, semi-improvised bits brilliantly. That led to the ads becoming internet sensations and finally being reported on by CNN. In short, instead of simply being another boring public service ad, the We Want It! campaign became an advertisement for the city itself: Toronto as the land of quirky, whimsical and efficient garbage men.
Finally, it reminded us all of the danger posed by the deadly carihurricanebou, for which we must all be grateful.