Hi MLE,

I love the lengths that corporations must go to these days to sell, sell, sell.

The brief:
Sell more Air Canada flight tickets to young Londoners.

The solution: 
Go to where the young people are, Shoreditch (of course) and give them what they want: a "popup" (of course), with "craft beer" (of course) and Canadian food, “poutine” (of course).

So here I am, jammed in the corner of this tiny room full of people eating and Air Canada branding. Next to me some poor kid is answering a survey via iPad. “Would I recommend this pop up to my friends? Yeah sure. Did I know that Air Canada flew to Singapore?  Hmm, nope...” and on and on. 

No one working here had ever been to Canada, but they were all aware that they were not actually selling “poutine” - as every Canadian, including myself, had informed them. Eg: "Boston’s Loaded Crab: Chips, fresh crab, gouda cream sauce, scallions, blue cheese crumbles" What is that?

Well, my chips and sauce is all done and all that remains in the box is a little flag to remind me to hashtag all my Instagram pics to “#coolnotcold to win a free Air Canada flight. Better go, someone is asking for my seat. 

I leave, feeling a bit smug and rather happy that I do not work in advertising like this anymore!

Suzan