Employment Minister Jason Kenney speaks about the federal government’s job strategy at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Oct. 8, 2013.DEBORAH BAIC/The Globe and Mail
An ad campaign for a program that did not yet exist contributed to a major spike in federal government advertising during the NHL playoffs last year.
New information tabled in Parliament this week shows the placement of taxpayer-funded ads on television during the 2013 playoffs was up significantly, with 226 spots running at some point during the playoffs. Of those, 125 ads were part of a controversial ad campaign for the Canada Job Grant, a policy that had been announced in the budget earlier that year.
The Job Grant program was contingent on money and support from the provinces, which had not yet been secured. The government ultimately pulled the ads after several consumer complaints were filed with Advertising Standards Canada, a non-profit industry body that oversees advertising.
Four Canadian teams made the playoffs in 2013: the Montreal Canadians, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks. Game seven of the Leafs' round one series against the Boston Bruins set an audience record for the CBC, with 5.1 million viewers.
Only one Canadian team – the Montreal Canadiens – made the playoffs in 2014.
The newly-released data shows ad spending during the 2014 playoffs dropped sharply, to just 33 spots.
The Advertising Standards Council took issue with the Job Grant campaign and the government ultimately pulled the campaign. It would take Ottawa another year before securing final agreements with the provinces to deliver the job grant, which is a subsidy aimed at training workers for specific available jobs identified by the private sector.
A government official confirmed the 125 ads during the 2013 playoffs were for the Job Grant. The department had an ad budget of $11-million that year, of which $2.5-million was spent on the Job Grant campaign.
Few TV programs capture the attention of millions of Canadians quite like the NHL playoffs and the federal government is clearly eager to reach those eyeballs. The Canadian Press obtained an internal report showing the Job Grant ad campaign had a particular target audience that meshed well with hockey.
"The campaign's primary audience was adults (ages) 18-30, secondary audience was adults 30-45, both skewed to males," stated one summary of the campaign that ran during the playoffs.
Public Works Minister Diane Finley tabled the new information in the House of Commons this week in response to a written question from Liberal MP Emmanuel Dubourg.
The data shows the level of federal government advertising during the NHL playoffs has fluctuated significantly over the past few years. The 226 ads in the 2013-14 fiscal year was far more than the second-highest year of 2008-09, when 84 ads were purchased.
No government ads were placed during the 2011 NHL playoffs as it overlapped with the federal election of that year. Government advertising is suspended during election campaigns.
The government does not disclose how much it pays for each ad.
Federal TV ads during NHL playoff games
Measured in terms of number of ads (mostly 30 second spots, with a few at 15 seconds or 60 seconds)
SOURCE: Public Works and Government Services
Bill Curry