The first round of the Campaign Cup closes on Monday (there’s still time to vote here), but before we whittle the original group of 32 ads down to 16—and no doubt say farewell to a few favourites—we’ve got some new commentary and perspectives from OstrichCo founder and CEO Patrick Scissons, and Ray Agency creative director Terri Roberts.
For Roberts, viewing all of the finalists in a concentrated burst evoked a sense of nostalgia for a time when advertising tended to be less serious. “I miss when advertising just entertained me,” she said. “I don’t need a cereal to save the world. If it makes sense that’s great, but sometimes it feels a bit forced.”
That was reflected in her bracket, which favoured comedic ads all the way through to her final selection. “Humour is just our style,” she said of the Ray team. “Even in the absolute worst of times [Newfoundlanders] have to find the funny.”
She described the competition between two comedic heavyweights, “Prison Visitor” and “Cam’s Breast Exam,” as her “personal hell” of a first-round matchup. “I have deep, enduring love for both,” she explained.
“Prison Visitor” ultimately won out, and was in fact Roberts’ pick for the Greatest Canadian ad of the 21st Century, beating out another funny entry in the “Bud Light Institute” work from Downtown Partners.
“It’s super-brave for the category and the idea stands up as well today as it did then,” she said of the work for cleaning brand Vim. “It’s a perfect piece of advertising that’s funny, based on a real human insight, and doesn’t try to do anything but tell me what this product can prevent—which is me feeling like a prisoner cleaning my own house.”
She described it as an “old-school” ad that is notable for its simple execution of a clever idea. “It’s a complete story and it’s super-clever,” she said. “The production value is lovely, but I don’t think they broke the bank on it. It didn’t require anything special, because the idea was so good.”
Scissons also had “Prison Visitor” winning in the first round, before losing to Viagra’s “Golf, Office, Coach” in the “Sweet Sixteen.” He chose the latter, he said, because of its ability to adroitly navigate around Canada’s tight restrictions around pharma advertising.
In his bracket, the Viagra work advanced to the final against “Like a Girl” for P&G’s Always, which he had beating out Dove’s “Evolution” in a semi-final showdown between two heavyweights. “I chose ‘Like a Girl’ over ‘Evolution’ because I felt the insight was stronger and the execution fresher,” he said.
He ultimately selected “Like a Girl” as the overall winner, calling it a landmark ad for Canadian advertising. “It asserted Canada on the global stage, [showing] that we could play with all the heavyweights,” he said.
Scissons said it was difficult to choose in matchups pitting commercial brands against social causes. “They’re different beasts with different degrees of difficulty,” he said.
His choices were made based on campaigns and projects that pushed category conventions and were often the first-of-their kind, rather than campaigns that were strong and did well in the major awards shows.
“Accolades and impact beyond the ad circles and award shows matters most to me,” he said. “If one ad had won a slew of Gold Lions, but the other was something my grandmother was talking about unprompted, then victory goes to gramma cred.”
