This isn’t your average hold-up.

The latest TV spot for UFile, a tax preparation software from Montreal-based Dr. Tax Software, depicts a mugger stopping a man in a parking lot to give him money, to illustrate getting cash back when he least expects it. The mugger asks the man the same questions that the software does, like about his home office expenses, and gives him money back for each possible deduction.

‘We wanted to show we empathize with the poor, downtrodden taxpayer,’ says Dorothy McMillan, CD at Toronto-based shop The BrainStorm Group. ‘We thought of one-sided transactions and came up with the reverse mugging.’

The spot, which is running throughout tax season across Canada in English and French, aims to get people to pay attention to a topic they’re trying not to think about – tax preparation – and stand out in the staid tax services category.

client: Joanne Birtch, director of marketing and communications, Dr. Tax Software

CD: Dorothy McMillan

copywriter: David Savoie

AD: Vladimir Karastoyanov

account director: Emir Tahirovic

broadcast producer: Angela Carroll

prodco: Untitled

director: Curtis Wehrfritz

executive/line producer: Peter Davis

DOP: Adam Marsden

editor: Joel Schecter, 3rd Floor Editing