It’s nearly March, and Campaign has a new bracket for you to ponder. And there’s not a Blue Devil, Tar Heel or Hoosier in sight.
In what we’re formally calling “The Campaign Cup”—and informally calling “March M(ad)ness”—we’re asking readers to determine what they think is the greatest Canadian ad of the century.
Yes, it’s another advertising competition. But without the costly entry fees or annoying case studies.
We’ve painstakingly assembled a list of what we (very subjectively) believe are the most notable Canadian-created advertising campaigns since 2000, and are pitting them against each other in a bracket that will be whittled down from 32 to an overall winner over the course of several weeks.
As with our annual Mighty List, our finalist campaigns were determined via vigorous internal debate—with Campaign’s editorial team lobbying for personal favourites or ads deemed important milestones in the past quarter-century (or so) of Canadian marketing and advertising.
The work is stylistically diverse, combining advertising staples like slapstick humour and misdirects with more earnest and heartfelt work.
We did not have rigid criteria, but we did place an emphasis on advertising-based ideas for actual commercial brands and products—in other words not so much for stunts and earned media (although some cause-based work was too good to not include).
While no list of notable Canadian creative from the past 24 years would be complete without landmark ads such as Molson Canadian’s “The Rant,” or Dove’s “Evolution,” there are also some old favourites that might not immediately spring to mind, but are no less enjoyable (that’s for the reader to decide).
And we’re determining the matchups via random draw, so it’s possible that some true heavyweights will be facing off early in the competition. Just like in March Madness, we’re anticipating some upsets along the way. All of which contributes to the fun.