Back in January, the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB) and ad agency john st., Toronto broadcast advertisements touting the miraculous nutrition of broccoli for five weeks. However, TVB is now revealing that the ads weren’t for broccoli at all. Instead, they were used to prove that television advertising works and call sell something even as truly wretched as broccoli.
The results from the experiment are quite startling, aside from the fact that Canada doesn’t really need to worry about health in comparison to their neighbors to the south (hey-o). Over the five weeks the “Miracle Food” campaign ran, fan-produced Facebook pages supporting broccoli gained as many as 20,000 members, broccoli sales went up at staggering 8% and Canadians added a total of 188,574 pounds of the vegetable to their shopping carts.
Three different ads were televised including the one above and this one a viewer could see as a light jab at the whole John and Kate Plus Eight terribleness that has plagued us this past year. The spots were directed by OPC’s Brian Lee Hughes and pointed to TheMiracleFood.ca. TVB and st. john are now following the television spots with a print ad revealing the experimental and inauthentic nature of the campaign.
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