I love a good organic party.

That's where you simply prepare the ground and let whatever the wind blows in take root and grow.

The parties Ronja & Joel always have are like that. The Non-Traditional Christmas Party (this year, everyone bring something...Scottish!), the Annual Summer Barbecue (we'll provide the grills! And the potatoes!) for example. People show up with their own games, drinks, concepts, culinary delights...a good time is always had.

That's the sort of party Jack FM always has in Calgary. Jack is this radio station here in town that always seems kind of 'free-form'. Last April, they announced they were going to celebrate their first year on the air with a parade. In Balzac. Balzac is five minutes from the city and according to the last current census, boasts a population of nine. That's nine voting adults. Total.

It was all supposed to be a big joke, I found out when I chatted with their promotions guys the morning of the event. It was held on, after all, April Fool's Day. They made all these jokes on air about having no floats so could everyone just sort of show up and bring a float.

There were so many people responding that they had to have an actual parade. It was so cool. Couple hundred crazy people standing in the snow drinking Tang and eating bacon (the official promotional foods) watching each other drive around in a teeny circle in their 'floats'.

Jack FM held a Listener Appreciation Party last week. I had to go - two for two. Admittedly we had fun, discovering that sukiyaki beef makes a surprisingly good breakfast dish and that being a human bowling ball absolutely ROCKS, but it wasn't the same.

This one was planned. They had a big roped off area capable of holding several thousand people, booths from volunteer groups and official sponsors, and a coffee tent (as compared to the card table with the single overworked urn they had at Balzac). They still had the Tang and bacon, but it was cooked and served by local chefs from high-end hotels in town.

And the people didn't show up. There were maybe fifty people at the place. It was so small, the Cinnzeo/Baker Boys folks were handing out entire boxes of their promotional treats instead of one per person.

See people in our neck of the woods know when things are getting to be too commercial. Up here, we aren't big on huge promotional events and corporate parties. That's why CreationCon never comes back here - because we ain't interested.

We like to make our own fun. And that's a good thing. I would trust to our imaginations far more than I would to a whole platoon of ivy-league marketing types. Things are not necessarily better when the commercial engine gets involved. Blair Witch worked. Blair Witch II didn't. The Matrix VS Matrix II OR III. Disney (Walt Disney era) VS Disney (Michael Eisner era). Garfield. Tom Cruise.

The list goes on and on.

All commercial things are not bad. I like my McDonald's/Starbucks/Walmart superstores. I like having eight hundred channels at my fingertips. I like being able to go to a food court and eat a veggie pita with a side order of spring rolls.

But when something is already good, all by itself, it doesn't need an advertising agency to make it better.

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