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Thursday, August 11, 2016

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http://www.thesudburystar.com/2016/08/11/mining-firm-stands-behind-sexy-ads

Mining firm stands behind sexy ads

By Carol Mulligan, Sudbury Star

Thursday, August 11, 2016 1:46:04 EDT AM

Frank Smeenk, CEO of KWG Resources, in this file photo.

There's no such thing as bad press, says Frank Smeenk, so he won't apologize for a controversial and sexy video hyping the Ring of Fire.

Smeenk is president and chief executive officer of KWG Resources Ltd., an exploration company participating in the discovery, delineation and development of chromite deposits in the Ring of Fire.

Smeenk has come under fire since a short video produced by model-actress-entrepreneur Theresa Longo was released on YouTube. In it, Longo, 29, and friend Ashley Bonar, 32, rhyme off five facts about the Ring of Fire while dressed in bikini tops and short shorts at a cottage in Haliburton.

Smeenk said the idea for the video wasn't his, but he's glad Longo thought of it because it's garnering headlines for the junior miner in Canada and abroad. That can't be bad for a company trying to attract investors.

He admits to being surprised, though, at the reaction, saying: "I would have thought that two girls having fun at the cottage was nothing remarkable."

Smeenk met Longo at the Prospectors and Developers' Association of Canada convention a couple of years ago and last year asked her to host an event KWG was sponsoring.

It is common at PDAC conventions for attractive women to be hired as assistants to staff booths and exhibits, and Longo had acted in that capacity several times. "Not everyone does it, but there is a bit of a history of that being the case," said Smeenk.

He was impressed with how Longo handled herself. He didn't pay her for her work because his company was broke, so he gave her shares in KWG in lieu of money.

That further sparked Longo's interest in the area in the James Bay Lowlands thought to contain $60 billion worth of mineral riches and in which Smeenk's company wants to play a larger role.

Smeenk doesn't know much about promoting his company via social media so he enlisted the help of Longo, who has 70,000 followers.

He also wanted to hire an aspiring actress because he said work and decent compensation for them is difficult to come by.

"So that's where it began," said Smeenk, 69.

He pays Longo a nominal fee every month to produce Mining Minutes, short videos in which she interviews Smeenk about aspects of his company's involvement in the Ring of Fire.

Longo does her own research and asks him questions, "things she honestly wants to know," said Smeenk.

Mining Minute is meant to appeal to a younger audience. In part, Smeenk said that's because "all the old brokerages are closed, the investors are all gone, the ones that aren't dead are too old or too rich. Who do we tell this to?"

The furor over the video has generated more publicity for KWG than anything he else so far. Lengthy text on his company's website wasn't generating hits, but Mining Minutes, particularly this last one, are.

Longo said she does this type of work for several companies with her own firm, which offers a mix of public relations and communications with a roster of 10 to 20 women she calls "active ambassadoresses."

Anyone can stand there and look good, said Longo, whose image is plastered on the Internet, often in provocative poses. Her mission is to impress people on behalf of any company she is representing and educate them about it as well. Her employees are well-versed in the activities of any company they are promoting, she said.

Longo said she and Bonar were spending time at a cottage when they decided to shoot the video, without Smeenk's knowledge. In the heat of the summer, the women were wearing bikinis, but put on shorts to shoot the video.

Smeenk has suggested they release a bloopers video because the shoot was interrupted at times by Bonar's 10-month-old baby boy and a dog who jumped in the boat during the shoot.

Longo said she's surprised at some of the negative reaction to the video and to Smeenk's comment to reporters about sex selling mining or anything else.

"We thought the video was funny and a little stupid and tongue in cheek. We thought this video was cheesy, so cheesy."

She ran it by Smeenk and he didn't have any qualms about it. She also said the video passed "the mom test" because she sent it to her mother who said, "Yeah, whatever."

The women alternately tell their audience in the video that: minerals in the Ring of Fire are worth $60 million; that wealth is equivalent to that of the Alberta oil sands; the Ring will create jobs for the next 100 years; chromite is used in the manufacture of stainless steels; and first nations wants to share in the riches of the Ring.

Joan Kuyek is the former long-time national director of Miningwatch Canada. She still consults for communities dealing with mining companies and teaches part-time at university.

Kuyek called the video disgusting and archaic. It also promotes what she calls "massive exaggerations" about the wealth of minerals thought to be contained in the Ring of Fire, located 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

The estimates of the chromite, nickel and other minerals in the Ring are just that --estimates -- and have yet to be proven. Kuyek also believes taxpayers will end up subsidizing development of the Ring of Fire because it will be so costly.

Sudbury film-maker and film consultant Beth Mairs had only three words to describe the video when asked to comment on it -- "embarrassing sexual drivel."

Here is the link to the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF2bpp8S4RM.

CMulligan@postmedia.