Molson Coors Canada decided to pull a B.C. billboard saying Coors Light is “colder than most people from Toronto,” after public complaints.Ferg Devins, the brewer’s chief public affairs officer, said the company will pull about 30 billboards throughout B.C.
“We basically realize we’ve had a misfire here,” Mr. Devins said. “It was a local insight. The intention was kind of playing off an east-west rivalry, but we’re sorry because obviously we’ve offended some people.”
The ad was designed by the Toronto firm DraftFCB, which refused comment on Tuesday. The controversy erupted after Kathryn Gallagher Morton, a Newmarket woman who was upset after she and her son spotted the ad while on a camping trip in B.C., complained to a Toronto newspaper.
‘‘We actually saw the humour in it all,’’ Ms. Gallagher Morton said on Tuesday. “We just couldn’t believe that Coors thought they could acquire customers by insulting them!’’
On Tuesday, Twitter was flooded with hundreds of tweets from upset Torontonians, as well as hundreds more telling Torontonians to lighten up and not to take themselves so seriously.
Soon enough, Molson Coors Canada announced, via Twitter, that it decided to pull the ads, which are part of a Coors Light campaign that encourages people to complete the phrase “colder than...”
Adam Moffat, spokesman for Coors Light, said the campaign, in its 12th week, was scheduled to end in early September, so the beer company decided that they “just ought to pull it down now.”
VIA: National Post By Emily Senger
As a Torontonian the Coors Light cold Toronto people billboard did not offend me, where has every ones sense of humor gone.