Virgin Mobile Canada has launched a pre-Valentine’s Day campaign that tells people they need to break up, and they’ve even hired an expert to help them do it.

The ads, which started appearing this week, will run until the end of March covering print, radio, OOH and online.

The print campaign includes dailies in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, as well as inserts in the Georgia Straight, FFWD, Now and Voir.

There will also be a Valentine’s Day wrap on Metro newspapers across the country. Online, the ads will be appearing on lifestyle websites such as Laineygossip.com and Perezhilton.com, Erica Faltous, manager, PR, Virgin Mobile, tells MiC.

‘The campaign’s really all about how we’ve found out that a lot people have lost the love for Valentine’s Day, and at the same time we’re saying, look at all the relationships you have, including your mobile relationship, and examine whether or not it’s the one you want to be in,’ she says. ‘You can get a lot of tips and ideas from Virgin Mobile on how you can get the right relationship and get rid of the deadbeat relationship at the same time.’

Juniper Park in Toronto worked on the creative for everything but the videos, which were produced by Toronto’s Taryn Leigh Films. The buy was handled by Wills and Co., also in Toronto.

The ads push to four videos on the Virgin Mobile YouTube channel that feature Rachel Petrie, the Virgin Mobile break-up expert. In the videos, Petrie interrupts break-up scenes to teach people how to do it right. She also suggests that people consider breaking up with their current phone companies to join Virgin.