To mark National Hunger Awareness Day last month, Campbell Company of Canada enabled Torontonians to act on their Robin Hood impulses and ‘help hunger disappear.’ Literally. The Campbell’s team spelled out the word ‘hunger’ with 12,000 cans of tomato soup at the corner of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue. Passersby were then invited to give the tins to the needy, via a nearby Canadian Association of Food Banks truck.

Which they did. With gusto. While taking a break from herding pedestrian traffic to the site, Campbell VP marketing Mark Childs observed, ‘Some folks are taking whole trays of cans, and who are we to stop them?’

The concept came from last year’s National Advertising Awards’ Young Creatives Competition winners, Leo Burnett’s Anthony Chelvanathan and Steve Persico, who were on hand to help as the project came to life.

Childs says credit for the event is due to Campbell’s Aaron Nemoy and agency partners Accumark Communications, BOOM Marketing, High View Communications and OMD, which arranged for PSAs in Toronto Transit Commission stations to drive commuters to the event. TV, print and radio media captured the action, and the team shot time-lapse ‘Appear’ and ‘Disappear’ footage to document the soup happening.

Consumers were also given vouchers which call for Campbell to donate a can of soup to food banks in return for each purchase of a Campbell’s product. www.helphungerdisappear.com