Body Waxing Bar Takes Coupon Rip-Off Campaign to the Streets of Toronto

Fuzz Wax Bar - Street Rip-off

During the recent Pride Week festivities in Toronto, a Fuzz Wax Bar promotion proved to be real “rip-off”. Wax strips that doubled as coupons (with directions to the salon) were attached to the still-hairy (for the moment) bodies of a very brave male model. People passing by were invited to then “rip-off” one of the coupons for a 25 discount on their next waxing.

As seen in the video, the waxing strips are colour-coded based on the sensitivity of their location on the body.

Watching the clip brought back memories of watching Steve Carell’s famous chest-waxing scene in the 40-Year-Old Virgin. Unlike Carell’s movie character, the coupon-covered male model doesn’t resort to random obscenities or invoking the name of Kelly Clarkson.

The campaign was created and executed by Toronto’s Lowe Roche.

[via Media in Canada]

Canada

World Vision Canada’s Hard-Hitting Campaign Against Child Slavery

World Vision Canada - No Child for Sale

At first, I didn’t quite no what I was seeing as I looked up from what I was doing. On the TV I saw a small child being advertised for sale on what looked like a shopping channel.

By the time I had found the remote and turned on the sound, the logo for World Vision Canada appeared and what I was seeing began to make some sense. What doesn’t make sense is the daunting statistic that every year over 1.2 million children around the world are sold into slavery. Find out more about child slavery and how you can help at nochildforsale.ca.

The campaign came to life with a stunt executed at Pam Chorley’s Fashion Crimes in Toronto and at Vancouver’s Crocodile Baby. Word of a secret sale brought people and press to the sidewalk in front of both stores, where paper covering the windows was removed to reveal a shocking display of child actors portraying child labourers sewing and breaking bricks.

The media and creative come from KBS+P Canada Toronto-based Real Interactive.

No Child Should Ever Be For Sale TV Campaign

The Making of ‘No Child Should Ever Be For Sale’

[via Creative Criminals]

Canada

Workopolis Print Ad Pokes Fun at Toronto Mayor’s Extreme Close-Up

Workopolis - Painful Career Moves

For those of us living in the Toronto-area, Mayor Rob Ford is a constant source of inspiration, entertainment or horror, depending on your point of view. But thanks to the internet, folks around the world can share in his latest pratfalls.

The latest incident unfolded last Monday when Ford accidentally walked directly into a news camera. Thankfully the mayor was uninjured, but the clip of the incident quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, ending up being featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

This morning an ad for Canadian job site Workopolis featured a cartoon of that “face-meets-camera” encounter next to the headline, “Painful career moves are sometimes hard to avoid.”

Canada

Toronto Silent Film Festival Uses Instagram to Create Animated Trailer

Toronto Silent Film Festival - InstagramThe Toronto Silent Film Festival, which runs April 4 to 9 at the Phoenix Theatre in Toronto (naturally), is gaining plenty of attention for it’s imaginative use of Instagram to promote the event.

Three Instagram profiles, tsff_1, tsff_2, and tsff_3 were launched, with each consisting of a stream of 60 black and white movie stills on 30 Instagram images. When an Instagram smartphone app user quickly scrolls through the images in slideshow view, the images create a flipbook-like animated trailer.

The campaign was created by Toronto agency Cossette.

[via Ads of the World]

Canada

Designer Pays Tribute to New Bailey’s Bottle with Dress Made from Broken Glass

Bailey's Lucian Matis Broken Glass Dress

This is one dress you could accurately describe as cutting edge fashion.

Recently Bailey’s Canada recruited fashion designer Lucian Matis to create a one-of-a-kind dress inspired by the new taller and thinner bottle design. Matis decorated the gown with beads, flat glass, and shards of broken glass from the old Baileys bottles.

The dress took a team of three skilled workers 125 hours to complete, and was revealed on the runway at Toronto Fashion Week preceding the debut of Matis’ “Monochromatic Fantasy” 2013 fall/winter collection.

[via Marketing]

Canada

Photo via Bailey’s Canada Vimeo

Toronto Sandwich Shop Creates Bacon Deal for ‘Pig-Shaped’ Runs

Rashers - Sweat Like a PigBacon-lovers in Toronto will be lacing up their runners and jumping on their bikes to earn themselves a 30% discount from Rashers, a bacon-only sandwich shop.

The restaurant’s new promotion ‘Run the Pig’ is out to reach runners and cyclists when they are at their hungriest – right after exercising. To earn their bacon, people are asked to use a mobile-app (such as Nike+ Running) to track their run or ride around a pig-shaped course of their own creation, ending at Rashers restaurant at 948 Queen Street East.

The restaurant is also using their Twitter profile @rashers to tempt bacon-starved Toronto-area runners who have shared their completed Nike+ Running status.

The campaign was created by the bacon-loving folks at OgilvyOne in Toronto.

[via Newswire]

Canada

The Weather Network Teases ‘Spring Outlook’ in Toronto with Living Billboard

The Weather Network - Living Billboard Spring Update

With the wind bringing temperatures down to a biting -12 C in downtown Toronto this morning (Monday, March 4), Canada’s The Weather Network tried to provide a hint of spring with a ‘living billboard’ and giveaway of 10,000 yellow tulips to the bundled-up pedestrians.

With the ‘official’ launch of Spring still several weeks away, The Weather Network was asking people to tune-in for the broadcast of its Spring Outlook tonight at 9pm EST.

The project was coordinated by PR agency, High Road Communications.

Canada

AMC Celebrates Return of The Walking Dead with Zombie Finger Giveaway

AMC Walking Dead - Countdown

Busy commuters rushing through Toronto’s Union Station can’t be blamed for doing double-takes as they head for their trains.

A massive pair of dismembered hands have been installed as part of a campaign promoting AMC’s The Walking Dead, which returns for the remaining 8 episodes of Season 3 beginning this Sunday, February 10.

Each day one of the grizzled fingers will be severed, and go up for grabs to Walking Dead fans who tweet a picture of themselves in front of the hands using the hashtag #TWDFEB10.

The agency behind the countdown is Leo Burnett Canada.

Canada

Toronto Maple Leafs Invite Fans to “Break the Ice” for Free Signed Jerseys

Toronto Maple Leafs - Frozen Jersey

With the NHL lockout finally over after 625 lost regular-season games, the league is finally ready to get a shortened season underway this weekend. Teams around the league are eager to try to ease the bad feelings of some fans by offering everything from discounts on tickets and concessions, to free beer ‘samples’ from the Ottawa Senators. (Stop. You had me at ‘free beer’)

Here in Toronto, where there’s little doubt that fans will fill the Air Canada Centre tonight for the delayed season opener against the Montreal Canadians, the Maple Leafs organization had the city’s hockey fans abuzz with a unique promotion.

Autographed jerseys of Leafs stars were encased in blocks of ice and dropped off at 9 locations around Toronto. Fans were invited to keep the jerseys if they could get to them.

Canada

Walmart Canada and Mattel Team Up for Virtual Toy Store in Toronto Underground

Walmart Mattel Virtual Toy Store

With only 50 days left to go before Christmas Day (yes, only 50), Walmart Canada and Mattel have launched a Virtual Toy Store in a busy area of Toronto’s PATH system near Bay and Front Street.

The virtual toy store features Mattel toy products such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price and Thomas & Friends. Each of the pictured products features a unique QR code, that when scanned redirects to Walmart Canada’s mobile site, where a shopper can purchase the item and receive the special offer of free shipping.

The virtual toy store is set up at the same spot where Well.ca’s virtual pharmacy was set up last April, and is similar in execution to the Tesco and Peapod virtual grocery stores.

I’m curious whether having the Walmart and Mattel brands on-board will help make busy pedestrians stop and scan the QR codes. There seemed to be little interest in the installation.

Dozens of people passed by while I watched, but few gave the wall even a passing glance, let alone made any effort to stop and take a closer look. Are these types of virtual shopping installations a bust?

The virtual toy store was created by Brandfire Marketing Group working with IMA Outdoor Inc.

[via BrandChannel]

Canada