Becel is getting to the heart of it as the corporate sponsor of the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s educational marketing campaign, “The Heart Truth.”
The Unilever brand is supporting the national effort aimed at women with a 30-second television commercial, print ad, in-store promotions, public relations and the website loveyourheart.ca.
Heart disease and stroke kill one in three Canadian women but only one in eight know it’s their most serious health concern. Becel wants to help bridge this gap by educating Canadian women to ‘love their hearts’ said Jon Affleck, marketing director.
The website, the cornerstone of the campaign developed by Marketlink in Toronto, provides tools to help women embrace a heart-healthy lifestyle, including an activity calculator and the Heart Age tool—a quiz that measures users’ heart age relative to their actual age.
Becel is also giving away a “Heart Truth Bracelet” to promote the issue. The black beaded bracelet with a red dress charm—the campaign’s logo—is being placed inside two-pound Becel margarine packs across the country. The packaging also features heart health information.
The first wave of print ads, supporting the free bracelet, started running this month. The second run launches in March and promotes the Heart Age tool. The ads will run in Chatelaine, House and Home, Wish and their French-language counterparts.
The Becel logo will also appear on print, television, event material and thehearttruth.ca, launched by The Heart and Stroke Foundation.
The Heart Truth campaign is funded entirely by Becel, the founding sponsor, and contributing sponsors The Bay, Chatelaine, Ocean Spray, Pfizer, Shoppers Drug Mart and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
Becel is the latest Unilever product to have its brand name wrapped around a socially responsible message. Dove led the way with the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, aimed at promoting self-esteem in girls, while Sunlight’s Eco-Action Kids Awards recognized children who make a positive change in their communities for the environment.
Becel intends to do various other initiatives on The Heart Truth campaign over the next three years. Capital C created the advertising and retail promotion while PHD handled the media buy.
