A Very Public Disgrace


The cheerleader behind “One Million Acts of Product Placement” has been fired, canned, shown the door, terminated, given the boot.

After 2 years on the job, Dave Scapillati, General Manager of Media Sales and Marketing for the CBC, was dismissed.
For failing to meet sales targets in television advertising.
One anonymous person deemed him just plain incompetent.
Only a few months ago, David was elected to the Board of Directors for The Television Bureau of Canada.

Of course the official CBC spinmeister lets Dave down a bit more gently …

Jeff Keay, head of media relations for CBC, confirmed Scapillati’s departure today, but provided no further details. “We want to thank Dave for all his efforts, particularly in the last six months—which have been particularly difficult,” said Keay.
“We’re currently considering our options with respect to permanently filling the general manager spot. We haven’t actually started a search yet, but we’re in the process of considering our options.”

And insidecbc decides to revise its headline …

So much for such great quotes from Dave as:
“We’re talking to JOOST about streaming our content”
and the classic
“TV is not dead”, as Scapillati writes in a January 2008 article in Marketing Magazine. “It’s just having babies.”

5 Comments

  • Anonymous says:

    Incompetent. Agree
    TV is having babies?

  • Anonymous says:

    As an insider I can tell you Dave was incompetent.
    He had zero television experience at a time where the TV market was experiencing its most challenging period. Dave did not listen. He consistently over promised and under delivered and blamed everyone but himself. He hired and promoted people who he then fired 6 months later. Had not leadership skills Did not know what he was doing. One thing I will give him, CBC needs to either become sales friendly or walk away from advertising. If they choose the sales revenue option, then they need to hire someone with proven ability. The CBC is better off.

  • Allan says:

    You make a good point, in that the story seems like it’s missing a piece.
    Why hang the guy out to dry in such a brutal manner?
    Clearly no love lost between him and the CBC, but an odd thing to see happen to an “executive”. Such departures are usually whitewashed, accompanied by a recitation of major accomplishments and “leaving to take up his new post as …”.

    At a time when all television ad revenues in North America are declining, we aren’t seeing the heads of Global and CTV sales being so abruptly dismissed

  • Anonymous says:

    Maybe it’s not all the dude’s fault. What quality advertiser in its right mind and with deep pockets wouldn’t be taking a hard look at the quality of the TV programming and BBM numbers? Are they just shooting the messenger?

    Just asking – I’m not an insider.

    But, meanwhile, in a wasteful and futile effort, the Corpse is spending millions itself advertising its hopelessly horrible new Radio2. Strangely enough, all this advertising ain’t working.

  • Anonymous says:

    Photo looks like Gorbould!

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