Ever been to the big house? It can come back to haunt you, not to mention prevent you from vacationing in sunny Cancun if you don’t have that criminal record removed.
That’s the message of a new TV and out-of-home campaign by Vancouver shop Hot Tomali for national legal services company Pardon Services Canada, which grants pardons and waivers to clients with past criminal records.
The fact that a record puts a crimp on travel plans is the focus of the campaign, according to Hot Tomali president and CD Thomas Stringham. Since many people with criminal records – and there are three million of them in Canada – don’t know that they aren’t legally allowed to leave the country, the spots and outdoor ads serve as a reminder, with the tagline, ‘A criminal record limits your ability to travel, but it doesn’t have to.’
One spot portrays a man, apparently confined to his urban hometown, scuba diving in a public fountain, while another shows a man who tees up a golf ball on a grass median in the middle of the road, while traffic passes by. (See the spots at: www.strategymag.com/screeningroom/).
The Zoom ads, which are posted in pubs and strip bar washrooms, are mirrored so that when someone goes to the bathroom, they see themselves behind bars or inside a Western-style ‘wanted’ poster. Says Stringham, ‘For somebody that doesn’t have a criminal record, they’ll think it’s funny, but if you did have a criminal record and you saw that, it would really motivate you to want to do something about it.’
Stringham says the client previously produced advertising in-house which has run in national newspapers, but that the company sought out an agency for the first time to avoid an overly ‘corporate’ feel, given the target market of 25- to 40-year-old males.
The campaign launched at the end of September. The TV portion is airing in Vancouver and Calgary, while the Zoom media ads are running in the above cities, as well as in Edmonton.
Client: Pardon Services Canada
Agency: Hot Tomali Communications
Creative Director/Art Director: Thomas Stringham
Copywriter: Sebastien Wilcox
Production: Anthony Baker
Account Director: Alison Stringham
