Since spring is known as the season of new beginnings, we decided to incorporate some baby vegetables into the Calgary Farmers’ Market spring campaign. Yes, we know they’re cute, but please keep your voices down; they need their sleep.
Eating Disorders Group Goes Backwards
By NORMA RAMAGE
The Eating Disorders Education Organization has found a new way to get its message out: in reverse.
The Edmonton-based organization has released a 30-second TV spot from Calgary agency WAX that turns the normal commercial format on its head, with almost everything backwards from the model eating ice cream to the music and even the super of the organization’s name and website that runs at the start of the spot.
Peggy Szucs, executive director of EDEO, said the abnormality of the “Cream Ice” spot catches people’s attention and also emphasizes “that there’s nothing normal about an eating disorder.”
In a mind-bending twist which emphasizes the model’s strange, backwards eating, she turns the pages of the magazine she’s reading in the normal, forward direction.
Sebastien Wilcox, creative director at WAX, which created the spot pro bono, said the backwards approach was intended to grab people’s attention and “make them ask, What did I just see? That was weird. It’s a way of saying in 30 seconds that eating disorders are weird.”
The EDEO is using the spot as an introduction to America the Beautiful, a U.S. documentary about the modeling profession that is showing in small art theatres across Canada. The spot has also been released to major TV networks as a public service announcement.
The music for the spot is from Vancouver band Mass Undergoe. Lead singer Davis Isbister has himself beaten his problem with bulimia and has become a spokesman for EDEO.
SAIT Grads Keep Going and Going
By NORMA RAMAGE
Calgary’s SAIT Polytechnic is using the elderly to recruit the young in its new student recruitment campaign.The humorous “Further Your Passion” campaign features people in their 90s who have continued working into old age because they have a passion for what they do.
One print ad shows a white-haired lady working on a massive computer server, while a radio spot features two elderly sounding ladies discussing the hot new 78-year-old software developer, saying “I just love those silver-haired young ’uns.”
Print materials and radio spots include the tag line “Get a career you’ll never want to leave. Further your passion.”
Joe Hospodarec, creative director of Calgary’s Wax, which created the campaign for the post-secondary institution, said the agency chose elderly spokespersons to stand out from other colleges and universities. “Every educational institution uses smiley, happy young people interacting on campus to the point where it’s wallpaper now,” he said.
SAIT marketing director Viola Midegs said on-campus research showed that unlike university students, who often don’t have defined career goals when they enter first year, students who attend SAIT have clear career goals and a passion for their choice.
“Wax came up with a very fun and dynamic way to showcase that, and the campaign tested well on our 18 to 25 demographic focus groups, who just loved it.”
The campaign, which launched Feb. 9, includes print, outdoor, online and radio, and runs in Calgary and area until the end of March.
A few months back, our Calgary International Film Festival identity/posters were featured online on CA’s Exhibit page. We were told that this specific entry was going to be published in the March issue of CA. So, we were going to blog about it only once the March issue was launched – seeing that we’d be in the actual CA book and all. But then, along comes February and along comes another online entry for our Film Festival work – this time, a focus on our magazine ads. Hence, the part two. Hence, the confusion. Unexpect the expected, indeed.
To view recent work, including the new logo for the Calgary International Airport, visit waxpartnership.com
Calgary Farmers’ Market open for winter
By NORMA RAMAGE
How do you maintain people’s interest in a farmers’ market during the cold days of Alberta’s winter?
The Calgary Farmers’ Market is taking a humorous approach with a series of radio spots. Each of the three ads uses a word association quiz, and no matter what winter word the announcer uses, the response is always something sold at the Calgary Farmers’ Market—from blueberries to crêpes. Each ad ends with: “When you think winter, think Calgary Farmers’ Market.”
The campaign, from Calgary’s WAX, also uses billboards featuring summer creatures like a snail, a worm and a caterpillar. To emphasize the fresh offerings of the market even in winter, each creature is on a fresh piece of fruit—though it is also prepared for winter. The worm, for example, is wearing a toque and carries a ski and pole in its mouth.
The ads launched last week and continue into 2009.
