Opinion: Take it from an ad man: Ford’s anti-tariff Reagan ad was too good for such bad times
The Government of Ontario released this TV ad which was broadcasted in the U.S. that uses a recording of Ronald Reagan to argue against tariffs.
Government of Ontario
Arthur Fleischmann is the co-founder of john st. advertising and principal at Sense.Maker. He is the former group chief executive of Ogilvy Canada and country lead for parent company, WPP.
The Ontario government’s $75-million ad using former U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s voice to argue against U.S. tariffs was brilliant advertising.
Built on Mr. Reagan’s 1987 radio address about “free and fair trade,” the spot hit every classic persuasive note. It borrowed the cadence and optimism of the “Morning in America” commercial, that golden haze of patriotism that makes even policy sound like poetry.
It didn’t argue politics, it hijacked nostalgia. By using Mr. Reagan’s words, it reframed free trade as the true conservative position. That’s textbook persuasion: Make people feel they’re returning to principle, not changing their mind.
What you need to know about Ontario’s anti-tariff ad
Creatively, it was a masterstroke. The message was simple: Tariffs hurt Americans. Mr. Reagan said so himself. Production was restrained, elegant and confident. For ad makers, it was the kind of work that turns heads.
“It was the most successful ad in the history of North America, not just here,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said.
But there’s a difference between a smart ad and a smart move.
The exercise here is not marketing but diplomacy. That’s where it fell apart. The American President fumed and broke off trade talks. Within days, Donald Trump imposed new tariffs on Canadian imports.
Experts have said the ad accurately reflects Mr. Reagan’s comments, and that no permission was needed to use a public domain recording. Yet all the same, it’s a bad look when the Reagan Foundation accused Ontario of misrepresentation, claiming no permission had been granted to use the late president’s voice.
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So yes, the ad could run. But no, it shouldn’t have.
Advertising, like medicine, could use a Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm. Ontario correctly diagnosed the illness – U.S. protectionism – but prescribed the wrong medicine. The campaign inflamed the patient instead of treating the trade wound.
Great advertising captures attention; great strategy anticipates consequences. This one achieved the former, not the latter. It’s a case study in imbalance: Creative brilliance built on flawed business judgment.
We’ve seen similar misfires. Jaguar’s Live Vivid campaign tried to make a cultural statement instead of selling cars. Although visually a tour de force, with models in futuristic garb but not a Jag in sight, the ad did more to distract than persuade. Jaguar later dumped the ad agency responsible.
American Eagle’s campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney courted headlines and even raised its stock price, but ultimately, it did not court customers. Two weeks after the ad, foot traffic to stores fell nearly 10 per cent. Its message, some feel echoed one of eugenics, was misaligned with Gen Z sensitivities. In each case, bold ideas outpaced strategic sense.
Ontario’s mistake was forgetting that advertising doesn’t exist in isolation. It lives inside a system of economics, politics and reputation. Mr. Ford said the Prime Minister and his chief of staff saw the ad before it aired.
Yet all the same, Mark Carney’s public distancing from the campaign was the policy equivalent of a CEO claiming to be blindsided by a CMO. Every frame carried diplomatic implications, and trade policy belongs to Ottawa, not Queen’s Park.
Ironically, the ad achieved what every marketer craves: It was unignorable. The earned-media alone was worth millions. But it shifted the trade conversation, not consumer sentiment. A campaign designed to open doors closed them instead.
A great strategy defines the problem to be solved. Great creative answers it. Ontario’s Reagan ad will endure as a lesson in creative courage and strategic blindness. It’s proof that even the best message, aimed at the wrong target, can turn brilliance into backlash.
And that’s the most expensive kind of genius.
