A contest promising Vancouverites a chance to meet with the Trump family at the grand opening of the hotel sharing their name hasn't gone as well as planned.
It could possibly have something to do with U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump.
A man wearing an oversized Donald Trump head protests outside the still-under construction Trump International Hotel and Tower during a demonstration to encourage U.S. expats across Canada to register and vote in Vancouver. (Photo: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
Holborn Group, the developer of the Trump Tower, has been promoting a photo contest on its social media channels for some time now. The winner of the contest would receive a "Trump VIP Pass," which includes a complimentary stay at the hotel, a free ride in an expensive vehicle and a meet and greet with the Trump family.
However, the contest doesn't specify which members of the Trump squad will be at the grand opening.
The contest was promoted by both Holborn and through a sponsored post on The Daily Hive, according to Metro Vancouver. Responses to a Daily Hive tweet promoting the contest on Saturday give a sample of the reaction it's received so far:
If you've been blessed by space and time and somehow managed to miss any news about Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee's controversies reached new lows last week.
Trump's already-insane campaign went into overdrive after the Washington Post revealed a tape from 2005 of the candidate bragging about how — because of his fame — he could and was allowed to kiss and grope women without any consent.
Trump's comments managed to invoke a level of outrage in Republican party's ranks never seen before — this, even after he offended Muslims, African-Americans, Mexicans, Asians, and the disabled.
After the Post story, some users on Twitter called on Holborn to drop the Trump name from the Vancouver development:
But calls like this have been around for a while. Even the city's mayor, Gregor Robertson, wrote to Holborn late last year urging the company to drop the Trump name.
Last week, more than a dozen people gathered in front of the luxury hotel waving anti-Trump placards in effort to persuade American expatriates to register to vote and defeat Trump.
'Let the dust settle'
Trump Tower was originally set to open this fall, according to Global News, but it will now open in January 2017. That delay is very likely connected to Trump's candidacy, one expert told the network.
“You try not to go to market at the same time your candidate is blowing the roof off things with his comments. Wait for the election to be over, let the dust settle a little bit, then go to market," said Lindsay Meredith, professor of marketing at Simon Fraser University.
“From a marketing standpoint, poor old Holborn is between a rock and a hard spot.”
With files from The Canadian Press
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