Zulu Alpha Kilo’s Emojis Want You to Get Up Off Your Lazy Ass

By Patrick Coffee 

The United States and Canada are obviously two very different countries. We North American neighbors do have something in common, though: lazy, good-for-nothing kids who would rather spend all day sexting one another than getting outside for some real exercise.

On that note, ParticipACTION is a national non-profit encouraging Canadians to get up off their asses in the interest of…lowering national health care costs, or something. It’s like Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move project but less controversial because Canadian politics aren’t quite the endless sewer of stupid that we have down here.

In a campaign that officially launches today, the org and its AOR Zulu Alpha Kilo speak to screen-addicted teens in a language they might actually understand: emojis.

We do feel a little sad as we would rather the baseballs in question have shy-hiding-monkey or starry-eyed-cat faces.

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Of course the ad told us not to visit the site, but since we’re stuck in an office we clicked to learn that Canada’s professional experts think kids should spend less than two hours a day in front of a screen (they currently spend nearly eight). The government would like to help reality align with its own recommendations, because that’s how socialism works: by inserting itself into the lives of private citizens via fun cartoon characters and then slowly stealing their individual freedoms.

Or so we hear.

It’s an extension of last year’s campaign in which a blank screen literally crowded out an innocent, fun-loving playground, because kids in the Great White North are all about the latest ad blockers.

The main question we have about this work: how and when did Zulu Alpha Kilo come to completely dominate the world of snarky Canadian PSAs?

Credits:
Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Creative Director: Zak Mroueh
Writer: George Ault, Jon Taylor
Art Director: Andrea Romanelli
Agency Producer: Tara Handley
Print Producer: Kate Spencer
Account Team: Robyn Morrissey
Strategic Planner: Emma Brooks
Client (Company): ParticipACTION
Clients: Rachel Shantz, Rebecca Jones
Production House: Circle
Director: Tom Feiler
Production House Producer: Karen Tameanko, Laurence Payne
Director of Photography: Tom Feiler
Video Post Facility / Editing Company: Zulubot
Editor: Mike Headford
Compositor / Online: James Andrews/Smith
Colourist/Transfer: Smith
Licensing Music House: Eggplant
Producer: Nicola Treadgold
Music: “Mr. Lonely” Bobby Vinton
Audio Mix: Zulubot
Engineer: Jared Kuemper
Media Agency: Cossette Media
Media Agency Planner: Jenny Martin

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