The Vancouver Sun is raising a few eyebrows with a tongue-in-cheek image campaign from Palmer Jarvis Advertising.
Portions of the print and transit shelter advertising use a liberal dose of irony to draw attention to the paper’s daily features.
For example, the benefit of using the Careers section is communicated through a photo of an all-too-common sight in many of Canada’s cities – a young person with a squeegee and pail.
The ‘Smart Money’ poster features a voodoo doll representation of a Revenue Canada employee. Meanwhile, a television in a trash can promotes ‘Saturday Review: Books and Ideas.’
The radio spots are also humorous, and tagged with a sell message about home delivery being 49% cheaper than the box price.
Jon Kennedy, vice-president of marketing for Vancouver-based Pacific Press, publisher of the Sun and its sister paper,The Province, says the new advertising is intended to position the personality of the Sun as both intelligent and entertaining. The campaign is also meant to draw attention to current and future changes, he says.
Changes to date include new columnists and improved sections; more visible changes will come next year with a redesign to coincide with the switch by Pacific Press from a 40-year-old letter press to an offset press.
Kennedy says the company hired Palmer Jarvis in August because it liked the agency’s creative for its other clients and thought it would be well-suited to the Sun. The business had previously been with BBDO Vancouver.
