B.C. company apologizes for '51st state' reference in ad following online outrage
CBC
A Richmond, B.C., company has apologized after an advertisement in a transit station drew online flak for its reference to the "51st state" amid public annexation threats by the U.S. president.
Vitamin company Herbaland's ad was featured at the Vancouver City Centre SkyTrain station. The mural displayed a selection of the company's products set against a maple leaf and large text that read, "Herbaland proudly made in (the 51st state) Canada." In it, "(the 51st state)" is crossed out in white.
Herbaland's vitamin gummies are made in Richmond, a Metro Vancouver suburb, and its website bills itself as Canada's largest nutritional gummy producer.
The ad was taken down Wednesday after online commenters called it "completely unacceptable, even as a joke", and a marketing professor described the furor as a lesson in timing and tone for companies.
The ad comes at a time when Canadian businesses are asserting their identity amid U.S. President Donald Trump's public threats to annex Canada and make it the 51st state.
However, online commenters said Herbaland's ad was not "reading the room," prompting the company to apologize. In a statement, it said it does not support the idea of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state.
"Our goal with this mural was to take a stand against the idea of being the 51st state, which is why we crossed it out, but we can see that even mentioning this notion, even to disagree with it, is in poor taste," the apology read.
"We fully believe in Canada's independence and unique identity."
Some passersby at Vancouver City Centre station on Tuesday morning were less critical of the advertisement than the online commenters.
"I think it looks bold, but it also is a little bit cheeky with the cross out," said Roxanne Tayler. "Like, it's addressing it without being in a negative kind of way."
However, Joanne McNeish, an associate professor of marketing at Toronto Metropolitan University, said the online outrage showed the tone of the ad was off.
The professor said the advertisement comes at a time when Trump's tariffs are making life more tangibly difficult for people, and that his erratic behaviour is being taken very seriously, not as joke material.
"[There's] nothing wrong with saying we're a great Canadian company," she told CBC News. "The companies that have done this successfully have talked about their Canadianness, the length of their Canadianness, or what they're trying to do to be genuinely Canadian."
But in the case of Herbaland's wording, McNeish said it was, "Wrong time, wrong joke."
Prime Minister Mark Carney has suggested he may be willing to move away from emissions caps for the oil and gas industry in a shift from his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, whose government had begun the process to regulate greenhouse gas.
Hundreds of nurses rallied outside several Ontario hospitals on Thursday to demand that CEOs improve staffing levels across the province.
A former teacher in Coral Harbour, Nunavut, who was on trial for allegedly assaulting a student has been acquitted.
The once-flailing federal Liberals can now boast about attracting both donors and high-profile candidates — signs the upcoming election has been turned upside down since Prime Minister Mark Carney entered the scene.
Residents of Aklavik, N.W.T., were able to learn how to make traditional medicine this week during a two-day workshop sponsored by the Aklavik Indian Band and the Ehditaat Gwich'in Council.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says that in her first meeting with the new prime minister she gave him an earful on everything from wildfires to oil sales.
The John Howard Society on P.E.I. says the number of homeless people on the Island appears to have grown significantly.
The health unit for Oxford County, Elgin County and the City of St. Thomas is dealing with almost half of the measles cases in Ontario with 228 people infected, predominantly in unvaccinated kids.
There's been another sharp increase in Ontario measles cases, as the province begins to release weekly reports on the infectious disease.
The Radisson Hotel in Greater Sudbury was packed on Wednesday night for a "Canada First" rally organized by federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
A woman who spent 16 days in an extreme form of solitary confinement in a Nova Scotia prison is now suing the federal government for damages.
The proximity warning system aboard the Delta Air Lines flight that crashed at Pearson airport last month sent an alert indicating a high rate of descent less than three seconds before the plane touched down, according to a preliminary report.
CBC News is investigating grandparent scams and their link to Montreal. This story is part two of a three-part series. Read part one here.