Curious about what Father’s Day means, a group of Post-it notes run an internet query, finding out that a father is ‘the man who created you.’

In the Ode to a Post-it Note video, created by Vancouver-based filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns for 3M Canada, a stationery producer that owns the Post-it brand, the little, yellow Post-it turns into an origami crane and travels all the way to St. Paul, Minnesota, where it reunites with inventor Art Fry at the 3M ‘Innovation Center’ and gives him a scribbled tie as a present.

Ode to a Post-it Note, launched on Youtube with more than 30,000 views, was created as part of this year’s ongoing celebration of the 30th anniversary of the invention of the Post-it note, explains Sherry Browne, Post-it brand manager, 3M Canada. An overlay ad also prompts viewers to enter a Facebook contest, entering a 300-word essay on why they love the Post-it brand for a chance to win $3,000.

Browne first got the idea to work with Stearns, who specializes in animation, after seeing another film of his called Yellow Sticky Notes. The brand’s short film will be promoted on Facebook and with PR efforts, but the 30th anniversary campaign extends in-store and through specially marked packages that offer 30% more notes in a bunch, for example. Media was handled internally.

‘I don’t think the traditional medium suits something that’s so innovative and so cool,’ says Browne, about the decision to take a pass on traditional media for the campaign. ‘Our message wasn’t to push product – it was to keep the Post-it relevant, and I think we accomplished that,’ she tells MiC.

Browne adds that consumers have an ’emotional connection’ with the Post-it, as it helps them to keep track of what’s important in an increasingly complicated and technologically advanced world.

‘With everything that’s going on in the e-space, we still do need to write things down. It’s the way our brains are programmed. And because we came on to this remarkably simple communication tool, it has sticking power,’ she jokes.