A soup company’s discovery: appealing to Canadian pride in ads is a delicate dance

As a trade war rages with this country’s closest neighbour, many Canadians are so mad they could spit. And a new ad campaign is taking that sentiment literally.

The spot, released by soup brand Aylmer last week, shows Canadians doing spit takes at the news of U.S. tariffs. The company is aiming to take a stance against the trade tensions and encourage people to buy Canadian products – especially Aylmer’s.

“It’s about marking sure, if you have a choice right now, try to encourage Canadian companies,” said Daniel Cousineau, president and chief executive officer of Aliments BCI Foods, the Quebec-based manufacturer of Aylmer and Primo soups. “And most Canadians are very receptive to that.”

But others have been somewhat less receptive. An earlier version of the ad was rejected for broadcast on Radio-Canada for failing to comply with its advertising standards, according to Guylaine O’Farrell, a spokesperson for the public broadcaster.

The problem, according to BCI’s Montreal-based marketing agency, Les Évadés, was that the earlier version of the commercial included an image of the White House and an American flag, which appeared on a news broadcast about tariffs that took characters in the spot by surprise. When the soup they were eating was expectorated, it looked a bit like they were spitting on those venerable symbols of the American nation.

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“That could be badly perceived,” said Alain Cloutier, the agency’s president. “We had to make some adjustments.”

In the new version, the target of the spit-take is a “25%” symbol, a maple leaf and a backdrop of mountains – images reflecting a Canadian point of view, Mr. Cloutier said.

“We’ve replaced those images, and the message is still doing what it tried to do,” he said. “And probably even better, because going too far into controversy would take the conversation away from the buying-Canadian intention, to being disrespectful to our neighbour.”

The new version was approved by Thinktv, a self-regulatory body that reviews ads for compliance with industry standards. The organization has noted a surge in brands updating their advertising in recent weeks to emphasize their Canadian identity, Thinktv president and chief executive officer Catherine MacLeod wrote in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail.

“While the tariff tensions represent obvious economic and political challenges, it really is quite rewarding to see the growing momentum to support Canadian brands play out in real time on television,” Ms. MacLeod wrote.

The ad ends with a man pushing away a bowl of (presumably American) product, and the message, “Some soups leave a tariff aftertaste.” There is also a slogan: “Aylmer, the Canadian soup.”

Aylmer is not the only company whose corporate leaders have shown a willingness to take a stance as Canada faces economic warfare with its largest trading partner. But its experience shows that such marketing must do a delicate dance to strike the right tone.

“Our objective was to try to have a final ad that properly conveyed the message and had a nice balance between humour and the serious aspect of these tariffs, and how it’s impacting the cost of products,” BCI’s Mr. Cousineau said.

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Aylmer is made in Canada, by a Canadian-owned company, with almost 100-per-cent domestic ingredients, he added. The soup is usually packaged in steel cans manufactured here. But there are times when the company sources U.S. supplies. Even with a facility here, it still buys some American cans. And variation in crops from year to year can affect where the company sources some vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables are products that can be particularly difficult to replace with Canadian alternatives, something grocers have highlighted recently. Last week, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. announced it would begin placing a “T” symbol on store signs to point shoppers to products whose prices are affected by Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports.

“It’s a sensitive issue. It’s a serious issue,” Mr. Cousineau said. He added that the ad is not intended as an attack on Americans, and is meant to take a stand on the tariffs. “I think that’s what we need to focus on.”

Mr. Cloutier acknowledged that it was a creative challenge to get the message across in a memorable way, while striking the right balance.

“It’s a humorous approach, but also provocative,” he said. “It’s a thin line, to be on the sweet spot.”