photo by Kennymatic
There were a lot of things to complain about for the Olympics but also a lot of great moments. No matter how you feel about the companies who sponsor the Olympics and their day-jobs, their sponsorship also allowed for dozens of young Canadian athletes compete on the world stage doing what they love to do best and we can all be very proud of their achievements as Canadians.
But this isn’t a post about the value or ethics of the Olympics. Rather, this is a post about that Tim Horton’s commercial that has been making the rounds. It features a young black father who is clearly IMMIGRANT (as in, that is how he is identified), whose family is finally coming to join him in Canada. It was a beautifully done commercial, full of good hope and joy. (If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it on youtube here)Oh and there’s Timmies in the picture too but as Paula Simons articulates here so well:
What we’re being sold, of course, isn’t just coffee. We’re being sold a vision of Canada as a multicultural country that welcomes hardy refugees and immigrants from around the world, and absorbs them into its national fabric — one Timbit and double-double at a time.
Now, Tim Hortons has the commercial branded as “based as a true story” but as it turns out, it’s not really. They sort of smashed together a bunch of stories and made an ad out of it. All stories, to some extent, are based on true stories and no doubt there are several stories similar to this one.
Paula’s article does a fantastic job of articulating my thoughts on the commercial as well but in addition, I don’t find this ad to be offensive or even terrible. I actually found it to be rather…nice. Tim Hortons could have easily chosen to do the ad in a thousand different ways (remember the angry Chinese hockey dad? ) or worse, make it an ad about the coffee itself but they didn’t. They told an immigrant story instead (even if it isn’t wholly true), a gentle, touching story that makes you hope and wish that this really was the Canada we lived in.
Oh and it’s a brilliant ad, marketing-wise. Evocative, touching and emotional–hits all the right notes.
The Government of Alberta can learn something about advertising from this ad alone. Case in point: there is an ad floating around out there called “Climate Change Central” featuring the Government of Alberta logo. I thought it was a Government of Alberta initiative. The website tells me it’s an NGO that empowers Albertans to take action on climate change but honestly, my first impression of the Climate Change Central ad was an incredibly ironic double entendre!
What do you think of the Tim Horton ad? Did you like it? Why did you hate it? Leave a comment!
