Fall in Love with Asbestos: Laugh at Ads but Stay Home

July 15th, 2010. By AbiK

We don’t joke about asbestos here at LawyersAndSettlements.com. Let me just put that out there to start. But, considering that Canada hasn’t banned asbestos mining yet, and that one of the towns in Canada where asbestos mining still goes on is called…drumroll please…Asbestos, well, sometimes a little humor goes a long way.

How?

Consider this. Suppose you live in Asbestos, Quebec. And suppose the name isn’t just some coincidence—yes, there’s a reason it’s called Asbestos and the reason is that there’s an asbestos mine there. WolframAlpha puts Asbestos’ population at 15,381 (personally, I’m surprised it’s that many); CBC.ca puts it at 7,000. Regardless, those 7,000-15,000 folks living there are sitting amidst an ongoing hotbed of asbestos-mining debate. Just recently, the town found itself in the middle of a conundrum—it had to make a choice: either support its local asbestos mining operations or support an anti-asbestos charity walk—the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life—that was set to walk right through their town. Well, money talks, so the walk was asked to take a hike.

So yes, you could say Asbestos, Quebec has a little image problem.

What to do? You want folks to visit, of course. But what will they think?—Visit a town that seemingly supports an industry that the majority of the world has already banned? Visit a town that has active asbestos mining going on and risk a vacation with microscopic asbestos fibers wafting through the air? True or not, this is what the average person—you, me—is thinking about the lovely hamlet of Asbestos.

Problem? Yes. Solution? Time for an ad agency. So Jane just sent me this video clip—and we had to share.

The video above takes a look at how one might create an ad to overcome such image challenges. And yes, humor is employed—but what other option is there? It’s a classic case of when things get so bad all you can do is laugh…

I’ve got a better solution: hey Canada, ban asbestos mining.

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Mesothelioma

This was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 11:56 am and is filed under Asbestos Mesothelioma . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.