For the fourth installment of the The Message podcast, the Campaign team has released a special episode dedicated entirely to the inaugural Campaign Cup.
As readers probably know by now, the Campaign Cup is a March Madness-style tournament in which 32 ads dating back to the year 2000 have been randomly placed in 16 first round brackets that will be whittled down to a single winner.
With more than four decades of industry experience between them, editors David Brown and Chris Powell considered countless award-winning work with particular emphasis on Cannes and ADCCs, before ultimately determining which they felt represented the best Canadian ads of the 21st century.
Then they handed their selections to Campaign’s readers and reporter Emma Johnston-Wheeler, who was a child in the 2000s and not familiar with the majority of the selected ads. The question for everyone was the same: Which ad is the best?
Each member of the editorial team went in with favourites. For David it was Familiprix’s “Ah! Ha!,” for Chris it wass IKEA’s "Start the Car," and for Emma it was Skittles’ "Touch, Cat.” But when it came time to vote, there were some tough decisions to be made.
David struggled to pick 2014’s “Like a Girl” by P&G’s Always and Leo Burnett over that same year’s “We the North” by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and Sid Lee, as well as 2008’s “Diamond Shreddies” by Post Consumer Brands’ Shreddies and Ogilvy, over 2000’s “I Am Canadian” by Molson Canadian and Bensimon Byrne D’Arcy.
A difficult choice for Chris was between 2004’s “Prison Visitor” by Vim and Zig, and 2001’s “Cam’s Breast Exam,” by the Breast Cancer Society of Canada and Zig . Emma also found it difficult to choose between the two, but they ultimately went in different directions, with Emma opting for “Cam’s Breast Exam”—while expressing surprise that such an ad could exist—and Chris championing “Prison Visitor.”
The team elaborated on the merits of each ad and the deciding factor for their first round selections, but also took it a step further by making informal projections for the second round, quarter finals, semi finals, and grand finale.
In the end, our selection was unanimous, but you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out which ad won our collective hearts. The team also discusses the preliminary numbers, revealing which brackets already have clear winners and those that so are close, it will take this weekend’s final votes to determine the result.
To hear more about the behind the scenes of the Campaign Cup, and how you can weigh in on the final moments of round one, listen to "The Message" in the High-Value Content section of the site, or seek it out wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.
