Ahead of the opening ceremony to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, which kicks off on Friday, Molson unveiled a special campaign honouring the unsung heroes behind every Olympic Games: the athletes’ parents.

The brand’s new “Sponsor the Parents” campaign from Molson sees the brand sponsoring nine moms and dads of Team Canada athletes. A hero OLV spot shows shadowy figures warming up in Molson tracksuits, who are soon revealed to be the Olympians’ parents. The campaign is set up to honour the hard work parents put into raising elite athletes, taking them to early practices far from home, spending countless hours supporting them, and incurring high costs to travel to competitions around the world.

“Everyone understands how difficult and rewarding it is to be a parent, including the additional time, energy and costs it takes to raise an elite athlete. Molson wanted to acknowledge that unwavering commitment through a paid endorsement deal, putting a well-deserved spotlight on those who are often on the sidelines,” Molson Coors marketing director of Molson and Economy brands Kara Fitzpatrick tells strategy.

Fitzpatrick adds that the new creative continues the brand’s “Everyone In” platform and its message of inclusivity. It also continues Molson’s longstanding partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee, and puts the spotlight on different figures to set the creative apart from the many other Olympics-themed campaigns running this summer.

“Not only did we want to spotlight a group of people who don’t often receive public recognition for their efforts, we wanted to take action to benefit them directly through the paid endorsements,” Fitzpatrick says. “Additionally, we wanted to strike a cheeky, humorous tone with this campaign, something that is often very rare during the Olympics.”

Molson’s paid endorsements of Team Canada’s parents include contract signings, a starring role in their latest campaign, and documentation of their journey in Paris across the brand’s social media channels.

Fitzpatrick says that the marketing spend on the new campaign was similar to the amount invested in other partnership-based campaign that the company has ran in the past, and is on par with the total investment it made for its “See My Name” campaign, which launched in March.

Rethink partnered with Molson for the creative and PR behind the new campaign, which includes video and still assets supported by OLV, social and connected TV, as well as OOH ads localized in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, near the parents’ hometowns. Publicis was behind the campaign’s media buy.