In 1864, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, was the site of a conference to discuss the formation of Canada. While Maritime provinces Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ended up joining with Ontario and Quebec to form the new country in 1867, PEI held out until 1873. The other province of Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland, was the last to join in 1949, until Nunavut was established in the '90s.
Atlantic Canadians were predictably outraged by the copywriting gaffe.
Although, considering that some Newfoundlanders still think they were robbed of their independence by Joey Smallwood's referendum, the ad was probably better received on George Street.
Air Canada, for its part, decided to see the silver lining:
University and college marketing are a challenge. When you approach the subject, you tend to either focus on the benefits (graduates getting jobs, making a difference) or you focus on creative a more emotively attractive brand for youth.
This recruitment ad for the French-language Université de Moncton is definitely the latter:
Simon Paulin told them, "I can understand how they are trying to bring popularity to it because young people think about it a lot. But still I don't think they should focus on that. It's not really professional, cause we're here to learn."
Another, Sebastien Mallet, said "I thought that's awesome. I really enjoyed it. I think that's what young students want to see. There is some controversy over the little kiss in the library, but its not the point of the publicity."
Oddly, the only woman interviewed was from the faculty (she hated it).
It's certainly not a particularly academic approach, but the strategy is clearly to position the university as one that belongs to francophones in the Maritimes. ("À l'Université de Moncton, notre langue c'est le français. Et nous en sommes fiers." means "At the University of Moncton, our language is French. And we're proud of [it].")
Francophone Maritimers, the Acadians, have a unique, tragic, and inspirational history in Canada. Unlike Quebec, which was incorporated into Canada (following English conquest) with its language, Civil Law and religion more-or-less intact, the Acadians were forced to either pledge loyalty to their English conquerors or flee. Many went south to Louisiana (to become Cajuns) while others resettled in the sparsely-populated edges of the eastern colony. Today, however, their communities thrive in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. New Brunswick is Canada's only officialy bilingual province.
Acadian pride makes sense as a brand foundation for U Moncton, especially since Maritimers have been moving away to make a living in Canada's western oil patch for a generation. Now that oil prices are down, young Maritimers might be more apt to pursue a life closer to home.
Yes, with all the talk about campus rape perhaps focussing on sex is questionable for university advertising. But perhaps this ad, going so far as to make a pun on the shared word for "language" and "tongue," is purposely distancing itself from the conservative, English-dominated, universities in New Brunswick and its neighbouring Atlantic provinces.
Besides, that kiss looked pretty consensual.
I'd like to hear some feedback from French-speaking readers on this. Too commercial? Too sexy? Or people taking things too seriously?
