Just do it big

It’s a bird, it’s a plane – it’s a 50-ft.-tall Jarome Iginla hanging off a crane! This is just one of several ‘statement pieces’ Toronto-based ad shop Taxi did for the new Nike 45 campaign, which aims to drive traffic to URL nikehockey.ca and features hockey superstars Iginla of the Calgary Flames, and Vancouver Canuck Markus Naslund.

Other impressive media buys include a 150-ft.-tall billboard in Calgary, one of the biggest outdoor pieces in history, and a floating billboard circling around Vancouver Harbour.

‘We wanted to have statement pieces to get kids talking,’ says ACD Lance Martin, adding that the target is boys 14-17. ‘We just wanted to make training fun and exciting, not a chore.’

All executions feature one of the hockey stars working out in unique ways – for example, you might find a giant Iginla hanging from the rafters at your local gym, in ‘chin-up’ position. The ’45’ theme is based on the typical shift length in the NHL. Also, Martin explains, many fitness pros say 45 seconds is the ideal time for intense bursts of physical activity.

Taxi worked closely with Cossette Media from the beginning to ‘marry our imaginations with reality,’ explains Martin, adding that this is typical for Nike work. ‘Nike is always striving to have new media [applications].’

The campaign also includes, naturally, two 45-second TV spots. One features Iginla racing around the city dodging pucks being shot from rooftops by Naslund. The other shows Naslund testing out some Nike sneakers by doing leg presses with the sales guy.

Other unique outdoor media applications include a large image of Naslund hanging upside down off of a Vancouver building. The campaign is national, but the stunt pieces have just hit Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.

client: Catherine Marcolin, brand
communications manager; Karen Medina, brand communications
supervisor; Caroline Whaley, director
of marketing, Nike Hockey Training
ECD: Zak Mroueh
ACD: Lance Martin
copywriter: Craig McIntosh
ADs: Lance Martin, Jaimes Zentil
agency producer: Anne Marie Martignago
account director: Russ Stedman
account managers: Josh Folliott,
Chris Andrews
account planner: Wells Davis
prodco: Imported Artists
director: Peter Darley Miller
executive producer: MaryLu Jeffery
producer: Kelly King
cinematographer: Barry Peterson
editor: David Baxter, Panic and Bob
graphics: Sean Cochrane, Crush
music: Rene Bharti, Company X
sound: Terry Tompkin, The Eggplant
agency print producer: Bruce Ellis
photographer: Steve Jackson
digital imaging/pre-press:
Prismaflex, IG3, 4L Graphics
media: Joy Sanguedolce, Cossette Media (now of Lowe Roche)

The father, the son and some great hair

Looking for a divine Mohawk or some heavenly dreads? Then Montreal’s Hed Salon is for you. Its provocative campaign, by Montreal-based shop Amen Epoxy, has sparked complaints from some Catholic groups and people who feel the use of religious imagery is opportunist. But, the target – young, hip, urban professionals – isn’t offended, they’re loving it and even requesting the ‘Jesus’ and ‘Mary’ ‘dos.

‘The younger crowd thinks it’s great,’ says CD Nicolas Massey, adding that the campaign aims to reinforce Hed’s position as an avant garde salon where you can get any haircut you want – no matter how unusual.

Massey brought in Montreal painter Philippe Nadeau to do the illustrations. Massey is currently focused on working with artists who haven’t dabbled in the ad business yet, and on getting artists to work outside of their usual genres – like having painter Nadeau do illustrations.

The campaign includes outdoor and print ads, which are running in Montreal alt-weeklies Hour and Voir.

client: Luc Gagnon, principal, Hed Salon
CD/copywriter: Nicolas Massey; AD: Carl Robichaud
illustrator: Philippe Nadeau
account service director: Marie-Claude Fortin

Attack of the diva-man

What’s a creative to do with a brief that includes instructions to use nine football players in a campaign with TV spots? If you’re at Toronto shop Bensimon*Byrne, you’ll come up with a concept that doesn’t rely on their acting skills.

Faced with just a three-week turnaround time between being briefed by client RBK (Reebok’s younger-skewing brand) and shooting, CD David Rosenberg and his team had to think fast. The objective? To get the word out that Reebok re-designed all nine of the Canadian Football League (CFL)’s team uniforms, as well as the league’s consumer apparel. The result? An eccentric diva-man designer getting in the space of squeamish football players he treats like models: the uncomfortable dynamic provides great comic effect.

There are three 30-second spots that include three players each, which are running primarily during CFL games on sports channels like TSN and Leaf TV. And, each of the nine players (one from each team) gets his own print ad.

clients: Micki Rivers, marketing director, Reebok Canada; Brent Scrimshaw, SVP, CFL; Jim Neish, senior marketing director, LPI Canada
SVP CD: David Rosenberg
AD: Drew Pautler
copywriter: Siobhan Dempsey
account director:
Stephanie Houghton
agency producer: Alina Prussky
prodco: Steam Films
director: Mark Mainguy
executive producer: Dan Ford
audio: Grayson Matthews
composers: Tom Westin,
Dave Sorbara
executive producer:
Elizabeth Taylor
editor: Greg Edgar,
Stealing Time

Wal-Mart gets trippy

Cool music. Stylized black-and-white, illustration-based animation. From – Wal-Mart? This trendy new execution for Wal-Mart Canada’s apparel brand 725 Originals, by Toronto’s Publicis office, depicts kids running about taking control of the world around them.

‘It’s an empowerment campaign for the youth,’ says CD Duncan Bruce. ‘I’m my own person, I’m my own destiny…. [In the TV spot], the world becomes what the people in the spot want it to be.’

This is the most recent execution in the continuing youth-focused campaign that began three years ago featuring ‘real’ kids in a basement talking about their own personal style. ‘Wal-Mart has always been about real people,’ explains Bruce, adding that although this execution uses illustrations, ‘it still needs to ring true, to hit the heart of the target [12-21s].’

Publicis is very in tune with what Wal-Mart consumers want: It has assigned a publicist to a full-time role of travelling across Canada and talking to Wal-Mart customers to gain insight.

This execution includes a 30-second TV spot, running across English Canada; interactive features on the 725 brand’s page at www.wal-mart.ca; and Internet ads on youth-friendly sites like www.muchmusic.com and www.fashion18.com. The interactive Web page allows kids to be in control and dress a virtual mannequin in various 725 outfits.

client: Lou Puim, director of marketing, Wal-Mart Canada
CDs: Duncan Bruce,
Pat Pirisi
ADs: Anthony Wolch, Simon Newman
writer: Steven Graham
brand director:
Gord Muirhead
account executive:
Simona Forbes
prodco:
Brown Entertainment
producer: Dale Harrison
director: Lindzi Knight
editing/animation: Red Rover
animator: Andy Knight
music: Static Sound
composer: Joey Serlin

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

sstanley@brunico.com, co-curators of strategy’s Creative space.