Conspiracy theories and spoofs on modern concerns about hoaxes mark a new campaign launched by McCann Toronto for the Santa Claus Parade.

The 119th Original Santa Claus Parade is scheduled for Sunday (November 26), and this year’s campaign was created to spoof popular myths via a series of digital shorts called “The Xmas Files.” The campaign is highlighted by the central theme “Being There is Believing,” and invites attendees out to the parade to see how real Santa Claus is in person.

The goal was to spoof fake news, deep fake videos, generative AI and other examples of modern concerns around online content that isn’t real, McCann’s creative director Bill Schaefer said in a news release.

“The campaign messaging is really designed to get people more interested in seeing Santa and therefore attend the parade in person,” Schaefer tells strategy. “Santa is the star of the show so focusing on him and having some fun with the topic of whether he’s real or not by referencing other things that people question the realness of, helps us garner more interest in the parade.”

The campaign began in out-of-home, print and across social and digital media channels earlier this month, and will run past this weekend’s parade until the CTV broadcast event on December 9.

This is the second year where McCann has worked on a “more creatively interesting” campaign to support the parade, says Schaefer. Last year, the campaign was centered around the parade being back on the streets, emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus around Santa Claus getting back to work. Schaefer says he considers this as “year one” for the “Being There is Believing” positioning.

“We introduced a more comedic style last year and we wanted to stick with it this year,” he says. “The parade is fun! So taking a fun and comedic approach helps to exemplify that.”