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The latest ubiquitous mystery ad is "er." Though it has various configurations—billboards, (illegal) signs, and subway station placards—it always takes the same rough form: two blue letters in the same typeface, and some lone blue shape on the edge of an otherwise white canvas. It's no Obay as far as provocativeness goes, but it's nonetheless drumming up more than its fair share of interest.
So, who's behind it all? Our money's on Bell. The "er" ads were first spotted a few days ago, just as Bell took out full-page newspaper ads announcing the retirement of "spokescritters" Frank and Gordon, the anthropomorphic faces of the company's publicity campaigns since 2005. Bell is also an official sponsor of the Olympics, which begin later this week and whose well-known Anglicized motto is the heavy-on-the-ers "faster, higher, stronger." A multi-stage national ad campaign of this size also takes deep pockets, which Bell has. And besides, stunts like this are right up their alley: Bell was behind those wrapped present ads a few Christmases back, which were also in the company colours of blue and white.
We e-mailed Pierre Leclerc, Bell's Montréal-based Director of Media Relations (the French Prince of Bell Er, if you will) and asked if he could confirm or deny that his company was behind the ads. He replied: "Last week we announced that after almost three years, Frank and Gordon our popular spokesbeavers will no longer be used for our marketing campaign. On what's next I can't tell you but it will come soon." Coy! The non-denial plus tease is the same strategy that Colleges Ontario first used when we were looking into the Obay campaign, and it seems like a pretty safe bet that the next phase of the "er" ads will be rolled out, by Bell, beginning later this week. We just hope that companies considering a mystery ad campaign do a little better than a suffix next time.
Thanks to reader Jason Wager for the tip and pointing us in the right direction. Photo by asianz from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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Did Bell pay for this viral marketing/advertising or did Torontoist voluntarily drop to its knees?
Ah, thank you. I was just wondering about this.
"Did Bell pay for this viral marketing/advertising or did Torontoist voluntarily drop to its knees?"
Seeing as many people around town are wondering what the heck these mysterious billboards are about, I don't see it as unreasonable for Torontoist to report on it.
See the post right above mine.
I agree with Green Sulfer. Why are we talking about this?
I'm waiting for the Vandalist version of this post.
Some of the blue shapes seem very letter-like: a B or D, a V, and a U are suggested by some of the ads.
I don't know if the new Bell campaign I eluded to is going to be part of an Olympic tie-in or follow on its heels, but I can't imagine how this teaser might tie into what I know of it.
I'd like to buy a vowel
GABBO!
Green Sulfur said:
Oh yeah, I'm totally pissed too. I mean, because now that we've discussed this piece of [evil] "viral marketing/advertising", we're all going to rush out and purchase this advertised product/service..
...once we figure out what it is, of course.
yeah, just like with the Obey campaign - I immediately dropped out of grad school for a college... lol!
I do agree that seeing advertising out in the open is bad enough, but I do agree with the Torontoist's approach to asking the question: "Who is behind it all"? I could hardly care of the reason of why it is there, or what will it say. I do like the insight into the mind of Marketers, the unscrupulous architects of urban blight.
Oh come on! I get the most random thought in my head as I walk by an insignificant piece of something on the wall, and in a few days, my cursiousity has been appeased thanks to Torontoists' own random thoughts!
Now that's media coverage...
that may have come off sarcastic...it wasn't meant to be
Can I have a P O R & T - was my immediate thought though now I'm really curious...
I'm just glad those fucking stupid beavers are gone...
I thought it was porter too but it isn't the right typeface.
...and Porter sports a different blue.
"the French Prince of Bell Er"
LOVES IT!
i hated their fucking beavers so much. thank god they have been replaced by white space.
Speaking of Bell, they're busy replacing the old telephone booths on Bloor in the Annex, with new standalone telephones.
Well, I work for Bell and the style of the advertisement doesn't really look like a Bell Ad. The blue of the advertisement would be much lighter in shade and generally words or headings would be in a curved/feathered yellow border. Also, the font seems a little off. Just in general it does not look like a Bell ad... That's my tidbit from working 20 hours/week in a store surrounded by ads lol
Now that the beavers are gone, I would surmise that Norm Macdonalds career is officially over.
Too bad he can't make real money playing Celebrity Poker Showdown.
@deadrobot: The immature person in me keeps waiting for someone to scribble 'BON' in front of the er.
These ads are for Bell. For the last few days on the GO trains, they've been running the "final" versions of these ads. The ones that I've seen have all been for their HD PVRs. I have to say, if they hadn't done the "er" thing for the last couple of weeks, I wouldn't have looked at the ad at all. So I guess it worked.
If it really is just Bell ads for HD PVR crap, then that's extremely disappointing.
Yesiree, Bell's behind it. Prepare to be disappointed.
I think these kinds of ads are worth talking about, just not in the capacity we have been talking about them.
How many hundreds or thousands of billboards, subways ads and vinyl banners have been printed, transported and mounted just to be torn out and thrown away after a week? And why? To create "buzz".
I don't care how dull the ads turn out to be, these are really just custom made garbage.