Trophy hunting

Kids today have a sick sense of humour. Which is precisely why these print ads for Montreal-based apparel firm Bula are so clever.

The first panel of each ad shows a cool skater kid (sporting a Bula hat), being poached by a menacing hunter. The second panel shows the kid’s head mounted as the hunter’s trophy catch. ‘It comes from the idea that when you go hunting, you’re looking for a trophy,’ explains Daniel Andreani, CD at Montreal-based Diesel. ‘As soon as you wear a Bula hat, you become [one.]’

Andreani wasn’t worried about being too risqué: ‘Kids can take pretty much anything now. Actually, I think we could have gone even further with it.’

The campaign, which breaks in December, will run in Canada, the States and maybe even Europe in ski and snowboard mags like Transworld and Freeskiier. There are three different ads, which target 15- to 20-year-old guys and girls – two with sk8r boys and one with a sk8r girl. P-O-P breaks in August.

Client: Phil Marcovitch, president; Juliet Korver, designer; Rob Singer, sales representative, Filmar Corporation (which owns Bula Hats)
CD: Daniel Andreani
Copywriter: Jonathan Rosman
ADs: Mitch Cayouette and Marie-Elaine Benoit
Account executive: Hugo Thibault
Photographer: Tom Feiler

X marks the spot

All letters lead to X. Well, in the latest Gatorade TV spot, anyway.

The 60-second ‘Alphabet of Sport,’ directed by the esteemed Tony Kaye (of American History X fame,) takes us through all the letters, right up to X, with vivid sports images ranging from a C stitched into an athlete’s cheek to a gymnast forming a V with his perfectly sculpted body. The hardest letter to depict? ‘The K was a difficult one,’ says Dan Pawych, CD at Toronto’s Downtown Partners. (They wound up using a shot of a runner’s block with a ‘K’ on it). ‘We knew every single letter wasn’t going to be perfect, but it almost works better that way because it encourages multiple viewing.’

Gatorade left it in the capable creative hands of Downtown Partners to develop a concept to launch its latest line, X-Factor, which includes hybrids of standard Gatorade flavours like Fruit Punch & Berry. When Pawych’s team came to him with the alphabet idea, he knew right away that it was gold. ‘It’s a really cool idea,’ he says. ‘We’re hoping it might get picked up internationally.’ The commercial, which keeps the Gatorade tagline ‘Is it in you?’ aims to depict grit, determination and the will to win.

The spot launched across Canada on network and specialty channels in early May, and it hit cinemas June 1. It’s expected to run throughout the summer and possibly longer.

Client: Richard Burjaw, VP beverages; Derek Estabrook, director of
non-carbonated beverages; Jeff Jackett, Gatorade marketing manager,
Pepsi-QTG Canada
CD: Dan Pawych
Copywriter: Mark Fitzgerald
AD: Linda Carte
Account supervisor: Leanne Elliott
Group account director: Ann Laudenbach
Agency producer: Laurie Maxwell
Prodco: Blink Pictures
Director: Tony Kaye
Editing house: Panic & Bob
Editor: Michelle Czukar
Music: Vapor

Something fishy

Fish are your friend. So stop pissing them off by rinsing dog crap, pesticides and soap down the drain and into the lake – you’re polluting their home! That’s the message behind the latest of the consistently strong City of Toronto public awareness efforts. ‘We’re a lakebound city,’ explains AMW CD Brian Howlett. ‘Yet people don’t realize that certain activities on their lawn go straight to the lake.’

The initiative, which launched June 6 and includes superboards, a murad and billboards throughout Toronto, features fish expressing human characteristics like alarm and grumpiness. Believe it or not, those fish are real. The creative team struggled to get the dead fish to ‘pose’ for the camera, but the end result is worth it. (No fish were harmed in the making of these ads.)

The goal is to deliver friendly, humorous and, most importantly, non-preachy ads to educate citizens about respecting their environment. Past efforts by AMW and the City of Toronto, who teamed up in early 2000, have focused on things like recycling and safe driving. Other cities like Hamilton and Thornhill, Ont. have taken note and picked up the creative to use for themselves. ‘That’s the ultimate compliment,’ says Howlett.

Client: Nicole Dufort, manager, communications; Cheryn Gervais, senior communications coordinator, City of Toronto Works and Emergency Services
CD: Brian Howlett
ACD/copywriter: Dale Roberts
AD: Mike Sipley
Account director: Tina Fernandez
Photographer: Philip Rostron
Media director: Ruth Smith
Media executive: Frederick Roultier

More hot spots

Headaches that drive you nuts

Sometimes it’s the little things that hurt the most.

This is certainly the case in the latest TV spot from Tylenol, in which the simple act of dropping a pistachio leads to a chain of eight headache-inducing events – from a cat ruining drapes right up to a TV launching out of a second floor window and landing squarely on a car. The spot is funny – quite the feat for the heavily regulated pharmaceutical category.

‘It’s based on the insight that it’s the small things in life that bring on headaches,’ explains associate CD Robert Kingston, of Toronto’s MacLaren McCann. The creative team swapped horror stories of around-the-home mishaps they’ve endured in the past, and wound up with the hyperbolic worst-case scenario for a woman whose quiet evening at home takes a stressful turn after she drops a pistachio.

The spot, which launched nationwide June 6, is the latest in the campaign for Tylenol Ultra with the tagline: ‘Your next headache might be a big one.’ Past executions include an upside-down billboard along Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, which garnered attention on local radio stations, and transit ads featuring a family of skunks entering a home through the dog door.

Client: Patti Lartigue, group product director; Andrea MacDougall, senior product director; Ajoy Mahtab, assistant product director; Lan Lai-Minh, director of communications, McNeil Consumer Healthcare
ECD: David Kelso
Group CDs: Andy Manson, Kerry Reynolds
Copywriter: Wade Hesson
AD: Robert Kingston
Account director: Kathleen Moss
Account supervisor: Heather Segal
Prodco: Partners’ Film Company
Director: Steve Chase
Producer: Sarah Michener
Editor: David Baxter
Post-production: Panic & Bob

You are cordially invited to submit your new, dead clever and previously unrevealed campaigns to: editorial director Mary Maddever at

sstanley@brunico.com‘>mailto:sstanley@brunico.com‘>sstanley@brunico.com, co-curators of strategy’s Creative space.