To mark National Hunger Awareness Day this morning, Torontonians are being invited to rob Campbell’s Canada of its tomato soup and give it to the poor.
What’s happening at the bustling corner of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue is the execution of a thought-provoking concept that made Leo Burnett’s Anthony Chelvanathan and Steve Persico last year’s winners of the National Advertising Awards’ Young Creatives Competition.
What they dreamed up back then is now coming true. It’s the literal disappearance of the word ‘hunger,’ with each letter spelled out by cans of Campbell’s tomato soup in an installation that spans about 32 feet and includes 12,000 cans. Passersby are enthusiastically plucking cans out the display and donating them to the Canadian Association of Food Banks’ national food-sharing network, while TV, print and radio reporters are capturing the action.
By MiC‘s press deadline this morning, thousands of cans had already been ‘stolen.’ And, according to Campbell marketing veep Mark Childs, who’s encourging can donations at the site along with Persico and Chelvanathan, ‘Some of the folks are taking whole trays of cans,’ chuckling, ‘and who are we to stop them?’
Childs says special credit is due to Campbell’s brand team member Aaron Nemoy and to the company’s agency partners, Accumark Communications, BOOM Marketing and High View Communications, for supporting the initiative, which also includes an on-site giant soup can for cash donations, plus Campbell’s Help Hunger Disappear store coupons. The vouchers call for the company to donate a can of soup to local food banks across Canada in return for each purchase of a Campbell’s product. As well, media agency OMD arranged for PSAs in Toronto Transit Commission stations.
