Radio-Canada has announced the winners of this year’s Bye bye de la pub ad contest, with pet retailer Mondou coming out on top for the second year in a row.

Led by agency partners Lg2 and Jungle Media, the ad shows the joy and relaxation that comes to an office when a colleague brings crates full of kittens to the office…even though it is revealed they should probably be more focused on the task at hand.

Bye bye has become an annual New Year’s Eve broadcast event for Radio-Canada, with the satirical show lampooning the events of the previous year drawing some of the biggest ratings of the year in Quebec market.

According to preliminary audience data, this year’s Bye bye drew an audience of 3.22 million viewers, representing an audience share of 91%. Among viewers 25 to 54, there were 1.24 million viewers, good for a 94% audience share.

Those ratings are slightly lower than the previous two years, as the broadcast had 4.86 million in 2021 and 4.66 million in 2020, according to preliminary numbers. However, those broadcasts aired during stricter pandemic restrictions on gatherings; this year’s ratings were still higher than they were pre-pandemic.

This has also led to it becoming a draw for local advertisers on the level of events like the Super Bowl, leading many brands to create unique ads just for the broadcast. In 2018, Radio-Canada added a contest element, allowing members of the public to vote on their favourite ad. CBC says 99,014 people voted in this year’s contenst, up from 92,448 the previous year.

In second place was Le producteurs de lait du Québec, with an ad by Lg2 and Touche! The spot highlights “Operation Nez Blanc” (Operation White Nose), a team of “volunteers” who put kids to bed after they fall asleep during a Christmas party. It’s a play on “Operation Nez Rouge” (Operation Red Nose), teams of volunteers who provide designated driver services during the holidays; as part of the campaign, parents who took pictures of their own sleeping kids and shared it to social would generate a donation to Nez Rouge from Les producteurs).

Third place went to Metro, for an ad created by Cossette and Touche! It showed all the different food-related phrases and figures of speech that find their way into our conversations – though they managed to sneak a few more ridiculous ones in there as well.