While former U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt once said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” a new campaign from Farber Debt Solutions plays on the idea that for those in debt, fear is a part of many everyday interactions.

Grocery, housing and cost of living prices are spiking, and in 2023, almost half of Canadians experienced a rise in their debt. Responding to these difficulties facing Canadians, Farber and agency partner The Local Collective opted for an attention-grabbing image in its new campaign with images of spiked mailboxes and POS machines with thumbtacks for buttons.

The idea and associated tagline is that when you’re in debt, “everything looks different.”

“We wanted to create a way to stand out in the clutter of this category by showing we understand what it really feels like to be in debt,” says Matt Litzinger, founder and chief creative officer of The Local Collective, which won the licensed insolvency trustee’s remit last June after an RFP/pitch process.

“Every time the phone rings, every time you wait to see if your payment will be accepted at a store, when you are living on the edge financially, these mundane everyday moments feel extremely stressful and anxiety ridden,” Litzinger says. “It’s a physical terror that grips people in all aspects of their lives. The fear is very real.”

This campaign launched mid January and will run in print, OOH, radio (listen below), OLV and social media.

As Litzinger tells strategy, the brand is targeting hardworking Canadians who are struggling to get ahead.

“That mindset also influenced the buy,” he explains. With a lot of these people commuting to work, mediums like radio and OOH are important, especially as debt is something we often think about when we are alone, Litzinger adds.

According to Farber Debt Solutions’ insights informing the campaign, total consumer debt in Canada climbed to $2.32 trillion in mid-2022, an increase of 8.2% vs. 2021 and 24% vs. 2020.

South of the border, they are faring no better, reaching a dubious milestone last week. For the first time, Americans’ combined credit card balances topped USD $1 trillion last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. By comparison, that figure was $680 billion a decade ago.