August 2
In the past few years, Toronto vs. Everybody T-shirts have become common around the city. However, the popular shirts left the team behind The Livelihood Project feeling uncomfortable—so they have produced a new shirt to deliver a different message: Toronto is for Everybody.
Based out of the Livelihood Café in Toronto’s Kensington Market, the Livelihood Project is dedicated to helping refugees and newcomers settle in the city. Most of its staff are from the refugee community, and are provided with training for careers beyond the café. The shirts are meant to deliver a more inclusive message than “Toronto vs. Everybody.” The new agency Zerotrillion created and executed the campaign for the Toronto is for Everybody shirts (below) with PR handled by Hype PR.
Of course, Peace Collective, the company behind vs. Everybody shirts, also has social purpose at its core—feeding hungry children with each item sold. It also created its own campaign for inclusivity earlier this year, turning MAGA hats into “Welcome To Canada” toques.
Andrea Anders is joining Pomp & Circumstance as senior vice-president. She was most recently with Faulhaber Communications, and before that worked with Citizen Relations.
“Andrea brings incredible experience and expertise after working at an impressive roster of some of the country’s best agencies. The addition of her on our team signals our commitment to culture, innovation and the continued pursuit of all that is grand,” said co-founder Lindsay Mattick. Pomp & Circumstance has added six accounts since spring: Mercedes Benz, Luminato, Earls, Toronto Public Library Foundation, Dresden, and MindFull Inc.
While the Ontario government is going with humour to deliver its latest don’t drive high message (below), Quebec’s SAAQ has taken a more serious tone with an unnerving depiction of how cannabis can affect your driving. The ad is by the Quebec office of lg2.
August 1
One of the concerns about subscription services—especially food services—is the excessive packaging. To address that problem and enhance its own commitment to sustainable practices, Ontario meat-delivery business NIKU Farms will start using Green Cell Foam for its deliveries. The primary raw material of Green Cell Foam is non-GMO cornstarch, a renewable resource. Its products are compostable, biodegradable and water soluble.
The Ontario Government recently launched a new awareness campaign about cannabis impaired driving. Ads from McCann use gentle humour about the differences between getting really high and barely high to deliver the message that “Barely high is still too high to drive.” The creative drives to the site Ontario.ca/TooHighToDrive which contains information about laws, penalties and how cannabis affects driving.
July 31
It’s a prize that might not be fun for the whole family. Quebec grocery chain Super C is promoting the freshness of its seasonal produce with a new contest offering the winner free broccoli every week for life (a $3,000 value).
Developed by Super C’s agency of record, Cossette in association with Touché media, Septième (production) and Apollo Studios (sound), the “Broccoli for Life” contest is being supported by a social video showing angry children who are upset that broccoli is going to be on the dinner menu at their house for a looooong time.
Sobeys will remove all plastic grocery bags from its store by next January, with plans to reduce other plastics also in the works. Sobeys estimates the change will eliminate 225 million bags from its stores.
“This is a first step, and we plan to make meaningful progress every year to take plastic out of our stores and our products,” said Michael Medline, president and CEO of Sobeys’ parent company Empire. In addition to eliminating plastic shopping bags (paper bags will be provided for those without reusable bags), Sobeys will also introduce mesh produce bags made from recycled water bottles.
UFC star Connor McGregor has launched his Proper No. Twelve Whiskey in Canada, available in Ontario, B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Yukon. The name is an homage to the Dublin suburb where McGregor was born, Crumlin, Dublin 12. “My success can be traced from the lessons I learned growing up in D12, the values of loyalty and hard work, the ‘One For All’ mentality. It is a brand made for all, not the select few,” said McGregor in a release.
July 30
Jameson Irish Whiskey is giving away tattoos as part of a launch promotion for its new Jameson Caskmates IPA Edition (a whiskey finished in IPA beer barrels) at Toronto’s Stackt Market.
Running from Aug. 1-4 and Aug. 8-11, the Jameson Caskmates Hopped Garden includes partnerships with tattoo artists to do at a so-called “hop up tattoo shop,” offering free one-of-a-kind temporary and permanent tattoos. The activation will also feature an assortment of Jameson Caskmates IPA cocktails.
“They say the best conversations happen at the bar over a drink with good friends. That’s definitely true for this project,” said Jameson brand manager Alice Carroll in a release.
McDonald’s Canada will feature the Egg Farmers of Canada‘s “Egg Quality Assurance (EQA)” certification mark on ads promoting its limited-time sandwich the Egg BLT McMuffin.
The EQA certification mark will appear on all TV, print and digital ads promoting the product until the beginning of September.
It will be the first time most Canadians see the mark, which certifies that products meet the criteria established by Egg Farmers of Canada’s national “Start Clean-Stay Clean” and animal care programs.
Sports streaming service DAZN is running an integrated campaign promoting itself as “The New Home of Football.” The title isn’t entirely without merit, since in addition to every NFL game, DAZN subscribers also have access to NFL RedZone, as well as most European soccer broadcast in Canada.
DAZN says the campaign includes the “largest ever takeover” of Toronto’s Union Station, with more than 300 pieces of static and digital creative. “With our recent rights acquisitions, we’re now the only destination where Canadians can catch every game and every match across the most prestigious leagues in the world, no matter which football they favour most,” said Joseph Markowski, DAZN’s executive vice-president for North America.
Zulu Alpha Kilo’s writers Jonah Flynn and Vinay Parmar, and art director Kevin Sato have all been promoted to associate creative director. The changes follow the recent promotions of Catherine Allen, Ian Simpson, Gerald Kugler and Rodger Eyre to group creative director.
Flynn’s recent achievements include The Away Game for Tim Hortons. Parmar and Sato joined the agency from DentsuBos last year, and have worked on Consonant, Betadine and New York craft brewer SingleCut.
DreamWorks is developing a new animated series for pre-schoolers called Gabby’s Dollhouse, and Canadian toy powerhouse Spin Master will produce an accompanying line of toys. The series will debut on Netflix in 2020, with the toys hitting the market in 2021. Two of the show’s producers are also responsible for Blue’s Clues, while Spin Master is behind the massively popular Paw Patrol.
