Bell Canada's Campaign

Alright, so this post is going to be a little different as it's not on a specific ad, but rather a campaign. My friend Eric recently asked what my opinion on Bell's campaign is seeing as he's not a huge fan (particularly, I believe he said, of the little plot lines within each ad). Now I don't enjoy the plot lines either (like the couple trekking through the "forest" who suddenly realize they're going to miss Glee or something along those lines, or the guy who's so excited he brings cheerleaders to his friend's place, video below), but I do have to say I was much more than relieved when Bell axed the annoying beavers (no offense to Cossette, who I love as an agency overall).

I was interning at Cundari in the summer of 2008 when Bell surprisingly announced they were dropping Cossette's irritating yet oh so famous beavers Frank and Gordon like hot potatoes, and moving on to an idea conceived by Zulu Alpha Kilo, founded by Zak Mroueh (former Top Creative Director of Taxi Canada). Holy run on sentence eh?

Anyway, I used to take the subway to and from Cundari everyday and I remember Bell's teaser ads. Of course at the time I didn't know they were Bell - that's how good these teasers were. At first the TTC posters were simply white with a line of blue, or a corner of blue, or mostly blue - they all differed. As the days went on, they would slowly change, each day revealing a little more. I, however, couldn't wait and took part in the daily office chat of "what the hell are those weird TTC ads?" And within just a couple days of the campaign starting, we had all the research we needed to figure out what was going on. Oh well, still a really cool teaser campaign.

So how is the campaign now, a whole 2 years later? It's alright... I guess. I don't change the channels when the ads come on or anything, but like Eric said - the plots are annoying... very annoying. To counter this however, the commercials are quite visually appealing. The use of the giant blue Bell logo on a crisp white background is great for their branding. Maybe if they were to get stories that weren't quite as irksome, they could make some pretty cool ads.

Cheerleaders:


The Old Campaign - Beavers