Stick up

If Sidney Crosby’s in, everybody wants in. Even the Hanson Brothers, stars of the ultimate hockey movie, Slap Shot.

The latest spot from Mississauga, Ont.-based Gatorade Canada features the hockey star throwing his stick into the pile, joining a few kids in a game of street hockey. Once Crosby announces: ‘I’m in,’ hundreds of people pop out of nowhere, including a busload of Oceanic Rimouski players (Crosby’s former Quebec Junior Hockey team), and the aforementioned Slap Shot stars.

‘All [Canadians] can relate to street hockey,’ says Dan Pawych, CD at Toronto-based Downtown Partners, adding that they wanted to avoid doing a clichéd spot with Crosby just skating around a hockey rink, and play up his approachable boy-next-door image.

‘He’s got this great story – a local kid who makes it big in the NHL…. We thought: ‘He’s this average kid, we should leverage that.”

The campaign, which aims to reinforce Gatorade’s image as a ‘big’ brand, as well as its ‘Is It In You?’ tag, also includes tie-ins like a big street hockey tournament in Toronto’s bustling Dundas Square in April, and a contest at gatorade.ca to win a hockey stick signed by Crosby. PR efforts will likely play up a lucky news angle: After the spot was shot, Crosby made a high-profile plea to Halifax mayor Peter Kelly to scrap a planned bylaw to ban street hockey.

client: Jeff Jackett, marketing manager, Gatorade, Pepsi-QTG Canada

CD: Dan Pawych

copywriter: Ian Kiar

AD: Linda Carte

agency producer: Sarah Moen

account managers: Jeff McCrory, Ann Laudenbach, Cynthia Tycholis, Jennifer Green

prodco: Imported Artists

director: Gregor Nicholas

producer: Joan Bell

editor: Mark Morton, School Editing

sound: Grayson Mathews

special effects: Crush

Tapped out

If it’s good enough to mop and water the grass with, it’s good enough to drink, right?

The new campaign for the Brita Faucet Filtration System hopes you won’t agree, with TV, print and online executions featuring images like a woman with mop hair and a man with a grass beard to emphasize the tagline: ‘You deserve better water than you mop with/use on your lawn.’

‘It was really about creating a wedge between drinking water and utilitarian water…and creating a need for the product,’ says William Hammond, co-CD at DDB Toronto. ‘You have to make it personal – you can’t just make a statement.’

The campaign, which launched last month, targets tap-water drinkers who don’t think about where their water comes from. TV and print executions direct consumers to the microsite

youdeservebetter.ca, where users can find more info to support the case for filtered water.

client: Ken Cross, senior business team leader, Clorox Company of Canada

CDs: William Hammond, Andrew Simon

copywriter: David Ross

ADs: Mark Bovey, Paul Wallace

account managers: Kathy McLay, Edith Rosa, Kelly Pinellis

agency producers: Nan Mitchell,

Marie-pierre Toure

photographer: Michael Graf

illustrator/typographer: Mark Bovey

prodco: untitled

director: Steven Diller

DOP: Tico Poulakakis

executive producer: Cindy Marshall

editor: Brian Williams, Panic & Bob

music: Thomas Neuspiel, Keen Music

On your knees, boy

Be careful, that girl might walk all over you.

This cheeky campaign for Down Boy shoes, owned by Vancouver-based apparel company Girl Two Doors Down, is hard to ignore. Three different print executions feature a male model with footprints on his face, butt and back.

‘[The concept] came from the name – we just had to do something about female empowerment in a tongue-in-cheek way,’ explains Katie Ainsworth, ACD at Vancouver-based Rethink. ‘The shoes are fun and flirty, and the client wanted that to come across.’

The shoes are very bold – some are even bejeweled – so the target is more psychographic than demographic. ‘It’s all about a fun, flirty attitude – some of that L.A. girl style,’ says Ainsworth, adding that Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives) and Britney Spears have been spotted wearing the footwear.

Down Boys are available in high-end boutiques in Vancouver, and across the U.S.. The ads are being used at trade shows, in boutiques and as washroom ads, and aim to appeal to both consumers and boutique owners.

client: Roberta Bernstein, president,

Girl Two Doors Down

CDs: Chris Staples, Ian Grais

ACD/copywriter: Katie Ainsworth

ADs: Chad Kabigting, Noreel Asuro

account supervisor: Nadine Wilson

producers: Chris Raedcher, Dale Vankoughnett

photographers: Hiep Vu, Anton Franko

studio artist/typographer: Steve Pinter

What the F***?

This is f****** brilliant. Who’d have thought that CPG ads could be so entertaining?

The campaign supporting the launch of Toronto-based Unilever product Knorr Frozen Entrées plays on the notion of ‘frozen’ being a bad word, and censors everything after ‘F’ in the 30-second TV spot, and two print ads.

‘It came out of the insight that people do have this adversity to frozen foods,’ says Andrew Simon, co-CD at DDB Toronto. ‘People just accept that frozen foods have to taste bad.’

After much research and brainstorming, the creative team realized: ‘Hey, the word frozen sounds like another word,’ Simon explains, adding that the TV spot underwent rigorous testing and tweaking to reassure it wouldn’t offend. ‘A lot of credit has to go to Unilever, who stuck by it…. They recognized right away that it was a strong idea.’

The campaign, which also includes DM and POP executions, targets people who appreciate good food and love assembly cooking, and who wouldn’t have considered consuming frozen food. Unilever thought about targeting busy moms, but ultimately decided to go after a less-tapped market to better differentiate the product.

client: Jill Denison, Knorr brand development director; Stephanie Eisen, Knorr brand development manager, Unilever Canada

CDs: Andrew Simon, William Hammond

copywriter: David Ross

AD: Paul Wallace

account supervisors: Wendy Caricari, Valerie Smith,

Kate Pitfield

agency producers: Nan Mitchell, Marie- pierre Toure

prodco: MacGuffin Film

producer: Sam Wool

director: Kevan Bean

editor: Brian Williams, Panic & Bob

Back to basics

These paint-by-numbers jobs aren’t child’s play.

Three new black-and-white print executions for Montreal-based painting company Peinture Avantage depict intricate paint jobs waiting to happen.

‘It’s a really, really simple idea,’ says Nicolas Massey, CD at Montreal-based Amen-Epoxy. ‘You quickly understand what the company is about…. They can do very complicated jobs on interiors and exteriors.’

Amen-Epoxy did the campaign au grat for Peinture Avantage owner Louis Lachappelle, who won a contest for entrepreneurs sponsored by the agency and Quebec business mag Action PME, owned by Transcontinental. Fifteen entrepreneurs entered the contest, outlining why they deserved the free creative services and media in select Transcontinental business and décor publications. The judges felt Lachappelle best embodied an entrepreneurial spirit.

Massey says the illustration-based executions are in keeping with the agency’s focus on stepping away from formulaic ‘photo-with-slogan’ ads, adding that he’s currently working on a sculptural project for a client.

client: Louis Lachappelle, president, Peinture Avantage

CD/copywriter: Nicolas Massey

AD: Carl Robichaud

account director: Marie-Pier Nicol