Not How We Roll

Tim Horton's has been upsetting me now for years. Not just for its inferior coffee or the fact that it regularly employs blank eyed 16 year olds who always get your order wrong, no matter how simple it may be. But also because of its ridiculous advertising campaigns which try to debunk Canadian stereotypes by playing them up. This tactic has stopped being amusing and its new claim that Canadians truly love the Roll Up the Rim to Win contest is just maddening.

Tim Horton's claims to be the most Canadian of institutions, as Canadian as snowshoes or whatever. But the fact of the matter is that it'a an American-owned company and it ceased to be a Canadian company many years ago. There's also the fact that it's named after a Canadian born hockey player. A hockey player who suffered a tragic fate that didn't allow him to ever benefit from his name being associated with the company and who has yet to even be commemorated in a plaque in his hometown. So not exactly a proud tradition.

Then factor in the offensive ad campaigns that regularly make Canadians look like country hicks and bumbleheads. This is supposed to be tongue in cheek, but the problem is, only Canadians get it. To the rest of the world, we must look like simple headed morons. This is a joke that's long run its course. It's high time for Tim Horton's to come up with something better than this, or at the very least, upgrade the quality of its coffee and service.

Then there's this Roll up the Rim to Win Contest, which has been shown to be incredibly unfair as far as demographics are concerned. The 1 in 6 chances of winning? It depends on the province that you live in. Quebec- definitely. The chances are better, as a matter of fact. Ontario, on the other hand, tough luck. BC has also been shown to be at a disadvantage as well.

So if you follow the storyline of Tim Horton's ad campaigns, Canadians love buying inferior coffee where the roll is incredibly difficult to roll up, to see whether or not they've won a donut or a muffin, because the chances of nabbing a big prize all depend on the region that you live in and even then, the chances are not always good. I know quite a few Tim's regulars who have never so much as won a biscuit in this contest and some of them go twice a day. Yeah, that's a lot to cheer about.

Roll up the Rim to win may be an exciting Canadian contest, but I really wish that Tim Horton's would stop claiming it as a national pastime and loved institution. And come up with a better advertising campaign that isn't rife with stereotype.