Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Canada Day rebranded as "Moving Day" for Best Buy in Quebec


That was the flyer those of us in the RoC ("Rest-of-Canada") got for last weekend's holiday sale. But if you live in Quebec, you got one of these:




National advertisers are often told that Canadian patriotism doesn't sell as well in Quebec, especially among those who see the province's founding European-descended population as a unique and separate nation. But the big electronics retailer may have failed to understand that this kind of anti-Canada strategy — especially on the one day when most Canadians are fiercely proud of themselves — tends to enrage federalists everywhere.

You can enjoy the PR meltdown on their Facebook page. Here are some highlights (that didn't involve anti-French trolling):






Their French web site, by the way, has this:


Danielle Jang, spokeswoman for Best Buy, gave this hilarious response to CBC News:
"Like every year, we feel it is important to recognize the Moving Day holiday in Quebec because it is a significant day in this market and it's the only place in Canada where this happens. We want to celebrate and recognize this as an important day."

Developing...



Tip via Consumerist (because I was too busy celebrating... errr... "Moving Day"... to keep up with the local news.)


3 comments:

  1. Have you ever lived in Quebec? I have... Moving Day makes much more sense.

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    Replies
    1. I haven't. But I am in Montreal regularly for work.

      The problem isn't that they "localized" the ad, necessarily. That's typical strategy. But for an American brand to do it in a medium in which it could be shared outside of a very targeted Quebec nationalist target audience was a major fail.

      Delete
  2. So have I. Why two versions of the same flyer? Quebec doesn't deserve a Canada day? Last I looked Quebec was still very much a part of Canada.

    ReplyDelete