Oh, the silly advertising design team at Canadian Tire. What were they thinking when they used a photo of four, smiling, helmetless children on bicycles for their "For Days Like Today" photo contest?
Are they perhaps unaware that there are helmet laws for juvenile riders in six provinces? Are they encouraging helmetless riding in Ontario, B.C., Nova Scotia, Alberta, New Brunswick and P.E.I.? Perhaps Canadian Tire has secretly joined the vigorous but unofficial anti-helmet coalition.
Certainly, they could not be unaware that in the country's most populous province and the home base for Canadian Tire (Ontario), helmets are mandatory for children and are excused from the provincial sales tax as an incentive to buy.
Regular respondent Alan Medcalf spotted this ad, and has written the folks at Canadian Tire, suggesting the photo be replaced.
Although I use a helmet myself I'm not much in favour of helmet laws. That said it's hard to believe a company who can make money selling helmets would be so stupid as to advertise helmetless riding.
Perhaps they need to hire a professional marketing team.
Posted by: Bandobras | July 09, 2009 at 07:08 PM
An exec at Cdn Tire responded saying they'd replace the ad, and they have.
Posted by: AlanM | July 21, 2009 at 08:14 PM