To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Terry Fox Run, artist Mike Zavacky (who is also an Art Director at McMillan) created custom replicas of the original Marathon of Hope tee.
For those who don't know, Terry Fox was a Canadian national hero who lost a leg, as a young man, to a rare cancer. With a determination many of us can only dream about, in 1980 he attempted to run clear across Canada on his artificial leg to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. After 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, the disease struck him down again. He died in 1981.
The reason Canadians (even those born after his death) revere the memory of Terry is because his struggle represents something great about the human spirit. When he couldn't go on, he urged others to pick up the torch:
"Even if I don't finish, we need others to continue. It's got to keep going without me."
And so it has. Here is Zeke's shirt modelled by a little boy (who coincidentally looks a lot like me). He will wear it on his school's Terry Fox Run today.
Donate to the Terry Fox Run here. As the man himself said, “If you’ve given a dollar, you are part of the Marathon of Hope.”
The Ottawa Ad community is really one, big, incestuous family. Many of the people who work for the "competition" are men and women we've worked with in previous lives, and quite a few remain lifelong friends. It's in that spirit that I give you twin Art Directors Daryn Wantuck and Tim Wantuck from The Bytown Group in a living work of pop art:
(Photo by Mike Z.)
Daryn and Tim were recruited, among many other sets of identicals, to appear in the exhibit Pop Life: Living in a Material World at the National Gallery of Canada. According to the "about" page it explores the "complex relationship between contemporary art, marketing and the mass media", starting with Andy Warhol and ending with... well... these guys.
It's a recreation of the 1992 Damien Hirst exhibit at the Cologne Unfair art fair, where the British artist commissioned a set of identical twins named Ingo and Torsten to spend time sitting in front of his trademark spot paintings.
You can't invite ad creatives to be part of an exhibit like that without getting something extra. And so it happened that, after their first sitting in the installation, Daryn and Tim asked their Facebook friends if they should wear some more conceptual matching outfits for the next one. They wanted to make a statement about commercialization that was all their own.
Michael Zavacky, from McMillan, is well known for his campy illustrations and love of vintage clothing and trends. He offered to make some matching tees for the Wantuck Twins.
That's where I chimed in and suggested "Doublemint", after the famous commercials of our Gen-X childhoods:
Everyone gave it a thumbs-up, Mike designed and screened suitably retro tees, the lads wore them to the Gallery last Thursday, and it was a big hit. I love it when a plan comes together. And I love the sense of community that our agency peeps have. You guys all rock.
Daryn and Tim's next sitting at Pop Life: Living in a Material World is this Sunday (SUNDAY! SUNDAY!) from 10 am to 1:30 pm. Check it out, and ask the boys for a stick of gum!
When it comes to doing great work for an important cause, even an adman's competitive nature can get a temporary reprieve. And that's why I'm going to use today's blog to give props to a local rival, McMillan, for their absolutely hilarious Moustaches! The Men of McMillan 2010 fundraising calendar.
As a spontaneous outgrowth of their hairy efforts for prostate cancer research last Movember (regular readers may recall my caterpillar lip from the time) the lads decided to dress up as 1970s stereotypes, do a photoshoot, and publish a joyfully retro man-a-month calendar to raise even more money for the cause.
Here's an example, starring my good friend (and onetime boss) Creative Director Jake Volt:
The 'staches are outrageous, the outfits absurd, and the copywriting epically ironic.
You can buy your very own Moustaches! The Men of McMillan 2010 calendar for $10 — or just donate to the cause — at this link. I'm told that all materials and services were donated, so every cent goes to the cause.
Great work, guys! And thanks for inspiring us all to be at our best when what we're doing is something that really matters.
