The Really Brief — Week of August 31

by David Brown

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and Forsman & Bodenfors have launched the fourth annual “Dear Everybody” campaign to get more brands and content creators to include more people with disabilities in their media. New signatories to the agreement this year include Rogers, Rogers Sports & Media, and Canadian filmmaker Arshile Egoyan.

A recent survey by Leger found that 75% of respondents say it is important for Canadians with disabilities to be featured in public-facing media, up from 70 % a year ago. According to Holland Bloorview, just 2.7% of characters in the 100 highest-earning movies of 2016 and 2.1% of characters on primetime TV had a disability.

‘Everybody wants a chance to be heard and everybody wants a chance to be seen. But for 6.2 million Canadians, those chances are too few and far between,” said Julia Hanigsberg, president and CEO, Holland Bloorview.

FCB just hired Mary MacLeod as junior art director and Patrick Gravel as junior copywriter. MacLeod spent the last year at Camp Jefferson, and prior to that spent time as an international intern with DDB Berlin and Ogilvy Paris.

Gravel was also at Camp Jefferson, and before that interned with agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi New York and Cossette. Both are graduates of the Miami Ad School. The hirings follow FCB picking up new business with Sobeys and McCain.

Is Canada getting its own chicken sandwich war? Last summer, Popeye’s new chicken sandwich was a popular culture phenomenon in the United States, triggering a sandwich war with rivals Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s. But Canadians were mostly on the sidelines, aside from a couple of limited trials.

Popeye’s revealed over the weekend that the sandwich is coming to Canada, but will give an early taste to those who can prove they deserve it. To get on “The List” people have to make their case on social, tag @PopeyesCA and use the hashtag: PopeyesSandwichList.

Then on Monday, KFC Canada tweeted out a pointed message about the use of the word “famous”—surely a reference to the Popeye’s hype—and teased something new coming Sept. 7.

Kraft Heinz has awarded its Canadian media planning and buying to Carat, following a global review. Publicis’s Starcom, which had the business in most markets, will retain the account in the U.S., but via a new entity called Publicis 57.

“As a company, we’re on an exciting journey of transformation. We’re thrilled to welcome Carat aboard, as the agency will bring data-driven insights and help drive growth within our diverse Canada and International Zones as we shift to an even stronger consumer-obsessed mindset and build a culture of creativity,” said Nina Barton, global chief growth officer at Kraft Heinz.

The Canadian Payroll Association and Sensei Marketing are running an influence marketing campaign leading up to National Payroll Week beginning Sept. 21. Housed on a new online hub, PoweredByPayroll.ca, the campaign invites association members to earn points by contributing to discussion forums, downloading and sharing resources and completing challenges.

“The payroll function is often misunderstood, and there is no one better than the dedicated payroll professionals across Canada to illuminate the value they provide,” said Peter Tzanetakis, president of the Canadian Payroll Association.

 

 

David Brown