A series of six TV spots set to run for one year for Mississauga, Ont.-HQ’d Wal-Mart Canada features real-life scenarios, actual customers and dialogue in Mandarin, Cantonese, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish, as well as English spoken by a South Asian family.

Created by the retailer’s English Canada agency, Toronto-based Publicis Canada, the commercials each showcase a different store department, and are airing on multicultural stations including Omni 1 and 2, Fairchild Television, Talentvision, Telelatino and Channel M. The media buy was handled by ZenithOptimedia.

The concept for the ads, says Wal-Mart Canada director of advertising Toni Fanson, is ‘to speak to our customers with words and cultural references that are personally relevant (and) to demonstrate respect for our customers at the same time as we communicate our business message of low prices on quality items.’