BELL WANTS CANNECT TO DISCONNECT AD CAMPAIGN
By Adnews Staff
A recently launched national branding campaign for Vancouver-based Cannect Communications has stirred telecom competitor Bell Canada to threaten legal action. The print campaign, the first work from Cannect's new agency-of-record Wasserman & Partners Advertising of Vancouver, broke mid-May with a series of four advertisements running in national newspapers The Globe and Mail and National Post. In a letter to George Horhota, Cannect president and CEO, Bell claims that a man depicted in one of the ads resembles Bell Canada CEO Jean Monty and that the ad is disparaging toward the company. Bell continues to say that if Cannect does not pull the ads by June 6, 2000, it will pursue legal action and file a complaint with Advertising Standards Canada. Horhota's response is that Bell's claims are unfounded and that the picture of the man used in the ad came from a stock photo. "We would have found a Jean Monty lookalike if we wanted a Jean Monty lookalike," he added. Cannect has no plans to make any changes to its campaign, which is scheduled to expand into magazine publications and run until the end of the year. PR for Cannect Communications is handled by Sacke & Associates of Toronto.