You’re not crazy – that billboard for a law firm is covered with butter. Toronto-based agency john st. created a unique media campaign for butter brand Gay Lea touting the product’s spreadability.

The tagline ‘You’ll want to spread it on everything’ is illustrated in TV and outdoor executions; the latter features faux billboards – hawking sleazy lawyers and plastic surgeons – covered in butter, running over from adjacent Gay Lea billboards.

‘The creative team was working with the media team right from the get-go,’ explains CD Stephen Jurisic, describing how his crew came up with the faux billboard spread concept. ‘It comes from the idea that you can spread it on anything.’ Jurisic says it’s become standard for the creative and media teams to work closely on all john st. campaigns.

The campaign’s primary target is moms, and aims to reinforce the brand’s unique position as a spreadable butter product. ‘People think of margarine as the thing you can spread – historically, butter has been harder,’ says Jurisic. ‘It’s really a functional insight.’

The campaign has been so well received john st. is looking into other potential applications like spreading butter over faux editorial copy in newspapers.

Currently, there are two outdoor executions up at 60 locations throughout the GTA, including spots along the Gardiner Expressway and at Yonge and Gerrard. ‘Our media people here cherry picked all the locations,’ Jurisic says, adding that all are en route to major grocery stores. Two 15-second TV spots, which feature kids slipping on floors and banisters greased up with Gay Lea, are running on major networks in Ontario.

John st. media director Craig Dawson and media manager Jackie Levecque oversaw the campaign’s media buys.