Taxi Canada knows how to say goodbye in style. After 10 years as BMW Mini’s Canadian AOR, Taxi is stepping away from the car brand, which has now tapped Anomaly to take over up north. To mark the end of their relationship, Taxi is auctioning off its boardroom Mini for charity. Taxi and Mini have been together since the brand launched in Canada, and the adorable red vehicle is one of the first in the country. Bidding starts at $10,000, and all proceeds will go to Covenant House.
And Taxi isn’t the only agency trying to get rid of a Mini Cooper. After Fitzgerald+CO lost a pitch for U.S. and global AOR to incumbent BSSP, the Atlanta-based agency took out an ad to sell its “tear-stained ’72 mini,” a temporary mascot and inspiration for their big pitch. Agencies clearly love their Minis; it’s hard not to get excited about a car so cute and yet fantastically Italian-Job-cool.
“It’s one thing to lose an account, but it’s another to have one last thing to say about it, and that’s why we’re selling our car,” Taxi CCO Steve Mykolyn tells Strategy Online. “We thought our 10 years of work stood for itself. We won a lot of awards for it, sold a lot of cars, and built a fairly strong brand here in Canada.” Taxi chose not to participate in the brand’s review. “Pitching after 10 years just didn’t make sense to us,” Mykolyn adds. Selling the first—and now, final–Mini, we suppose, is an affectionate, bittersweet farewell.