This Ukraine Fundraiser Asks Other Nations to Imagine War Coming to Them

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to Canada’s Parliament in March, he urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to picture his own nation facing the kind of endless bombardment that has shattered Ukraine. “Imagine that at 4 in the morning, each of you hears explosions, terrible explosions,” Zelenskyy said. “Justin, imagine that you hear it, and…

How Rethink Conquered the Canadian Ad Scene

They say you should manifest your dreams, no matter how audacious. So three years ago, Aaron Starkman put his in writing. His goal was one any Canadian could appreciate: a hat trick. Specifically, the creative chief of independent agency Rethink aimed to win gold in three categories of Canadian magazine Strategy’s Agency of the Year…

Boston Pizza Canada "BP in Bed" (2018) :40 (Canada)

Introducing the world’s first pizza box designed to eat pizza in bed.

Home Hardware wants you to remember to pack up your pets this moving day.

Every July 1st in Québec, thousands of residents pack up and move out of their apartments. It’s called “Moving Day,,” and it’s the busiest day of the year for tenants to move within the province and it can make a large city like Montreal chaotic. Even worse is the fact that every year, more than 1,600 pets are left behind by their moving owners.

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Home Hardware wants you to remember to pack up your pets this moving day.

Every July 1st in Québec, thousands of residents pack up and move out of their apartments. It’s called “Moving Day,,” and it’s the busiest day of the year for tenants to move within the province and it can make a large city like Montreal chaotic. Even worse is the fact that every year, more than 1,600 pets are left behind by their moving owners.

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OneMethod’s SweetSixteen: The Year of Evolution redesign

Toronto, June 7, 2017 – OneMethod turns sixteen this year and to celebrate sweetly, the Toronto-based digital and design agency is evolving with a new look, a new space, and a new approach to collaboration.

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At Banff Centre you'll see things you can't unthink

As Canada’s home from artistic training and creation, Banff Centre offers immersive programs that advance artistic practice, and provides artists and thinkers with the freedom to create the unforgettable. This very much feels like an ad student campaign, no? I think it’s because there’s way too much copy and its detracting from the provocative images. Also toothpaste is the only ad that works for me because there are no people in it. With the other ones, I’m drawn more to their reaction and not the art itself.

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Children of the Street Society- Uncertain Terms

Launched in time for Stop Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth Awareness Week in British Columbia, Children of the Street Society is urging kids to think about the potential “terms and conditions,” to sexting. Basically all they should know is, sending naked photos online. There’s also a 30 second tv spot/online film, too. Sadly we’ve come along ways when the only stranger danger we had to worry about was someone hanging out in the park.

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DDB Just Figured Out How to Boost Milk's Popularity: Give It a Special Glass

How do you improve a glass of milk? 

By improving the glass of milk. (Ba dum—tss!) 

With help from DDB Canada, the Dairy Farmers of Canada introduce The Milk Glass™. Because you don’t want to drink milk from just any old thing, and certainly not a clumsy mug that’s as adapted to coffee as it is to dairy. 

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Scotts Turf Builder Makes Grass So Green, This Agency Used It as a Green Screen

Here’s a little inside-baseball stunt for all your advertising production people out there. Scotts Canada is running a new commercial that shows how Scotts Turf Builder Green Max will make you grass so green, you can even use it as a green screen.

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Mill Street doesn't waste time with things like advertising

Mill Street handcrafts its beer in a very painstaking manner. The ads on the other hand, are dashed off. They were even created in Word. I kinda love it.

PSA – #SaveaLifeHack (2016) :30 (Canada)

PSA - #SaveaLifeHack (2016) :30 (Canada)
“Most people are aware that distracted driving is dangerous,” notes Angus Tucker, ECD at john st., the agency behind the campaign. “But the temptation to check our phones is so strong, especially when we hear a notification come through, it can outweigh the danger.”

A breathless voiceover excitedly explains the tech-driven solutions designed to stop distracted driving, like apps and driverless cars, but then presents a simple solution, so very very simple it’s a life hack of brilliance. “The internet is rife with hacks designed to be “lifesavers.” But few of them actually save your life.” says Tucker, “But we think this one could. I mean, who can’t flip their phone case over?”

I got a simpler one for you, just turn your phone upside down and ignore it.

OTMPC "Where am I?" (2016) 1:10 (Canada)

When research showed that locals and their French brethren to the east don’t have the province on their radar when it comes to travel because they’re already familiar with it, the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation (OTMPC) decided to present Ontario in a whole new light.

They presented the province in all its glory, but completely unbranded. The voiceover, juxtaposed over images of wide ranging terrain and diverse cultures posed the riddle: Where am I? To up the ante, the spot FCB Toronto left the spots unbranded for the first ten days, making sure not to include familiar landscapes or attractions. So CN tower or hockey arenas or Tim Hortons. What?

Anyway, this led to thousands of curious Canadians going to the website Where Am I where they were then given daily clues to help answer the riddle. Once the teaser phase ended, the reveal phase culminated with a Cineplex cinema take-over across Ontario on the Canada Day long-weekend. The ads were then tagged with ontariotravel.net or ontariotravel.net/decouvrir. If you go to Where Am I now, you’ll find it also redirects to Travel Ontario’s landing page.

The voice over in the spot is by Canadian actor Andrew Cividino, a two time Cannes nominee with music by Ontario indie band Bruce Peninsula. And if you’re curious, Where Am I? was shot at the following locations: Niagara region, Hamilton, Orangeville, Prince Edward County, Picton, Ottawa, Eganville, Muskoka, Toronto, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Huntsville, Lake Superior’s North Shore, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Dorion, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, and Northwest Ontario.

This Small Canadian Island Just Launched a Pretty Ingenious Tourism Anti-Campaign

The people of Bowen Island in British Columbia have a love-hate relationships with tourists. To emphasize that, the island has released a startling new community identity: “Tell your friends it’s awful here.” 

“We love to show off our island, but we don’t want it to be overrun with tourists,” explains Chris Staples, a Bowen resident and founder of Vancouver-based agency Rethink. “We want visitors, but only if they really ‘get’ what makes Bowen special.” 

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Explore Canada "Found In Canada" (2016) :30 (Canada)

Made up of all instagram photos shot by Canadians, this spot is

Alberta Tells Youth to Keep Their Vajayjays Yay-Yay in Slang-Filled STD Campaign

With sexual transmitted diseade rates ascendant in Alberta, Canafa, how can a provincial health department reach young people who clearly aren’t practicing safe sex? 

The answer, it turns out, is an ad campaign by the Trigger agency that combines disquieting frankness with cringe-inducing, Tom Wolfe-esque use of modern sex slang. 

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Here's a Creative Director's Worst Possible Reaction When Critiquing Your Portfolio

Here’s a fun little promo for the Miami Ad School’s Toronto location, showing a portfolio critique that seems like good news at first for our young hero being interviewed—but soon the truth becomes more painfully obvious.

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Kids Try to Solve Climate Change in PSA Campaign, Because Grownups Certainly Aren't

Climate change isn’t your problem—it’s your children’s problem. At least, it will be if the world’s current crop of adults fail to act. 

A new campaign from the government of Ontario, brought to you by Grey Canada, makes that very argument with help from pop environmentalist David Suzuki. In the first ad, Suzuki lectures an auditorium full of kids on the failure of grownups to sufficiently address global warming: 

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Miami Ad School "The interview" (2016) 1:06 (Canada)

To succeed in advertising you need to have thick skin. It’s not that people who work in advertising are assholes. They just don’t have a lot of time and are under pressure from the ridiculous deadlines imposed upon them by clients who want more, faster and at a cheaper rate. Also, some people who work in advertising are assholes. This spot pictures a scenario in which a CD coddles a junior to the point of absurdity to make the point that this will never happen and you shouldn’t expect to be coddled. The idea of course is to suggest that no one is going to baby you at Miami Ad School. I am all for this. Because it’s about time someone told the special snowflakes on campus that the real world does not come with safe spaces or candle lit tents with teddy bears when someone suggests their ads suck.

Schneider's "Fist Bump" (2016) 1:36 (Canada)

Heartwarming through-the-years spot from Schneiders featuring the relationship between dad and son, and traditions, and hot dogs and sandwiches, just in time for Father’s Day. It’s real without feeling cloying. And just enough emotional pull to give me a tiny lump in my throat. The ending is actually quite sweet. Sometimes a fist bump ain’t enough. Good casting on the son, too. He had the right amount of vulnerability and pathos.