ARTS AND CRAFT Montreal ad firm SID LEE cultivates culture – both internally and externally CITE MULTIMEDIA, MONTREAL / - With high concept rooms for brainstorming sessions and rotating visual art exhibits in its hallways, SID LEE’s Cité Multimedia headquarters at 75 Queen Street shows it to be more than an ad agency. Rather, SID LEE is a Commercial Creativity™ agency that offers a non-traditional approach for its clients by providing marketing services in the fields of branding, architectural design, advertising, and interactive and experiential marketing (last year it redesigned one of the Société des alcools du Québec stores, and it has launched an interactive retail concept for adidas). With 15 partners and 150 professionals covering a range of disciplines, and marquee clients in Toronto, Montreal, Las Vegas, New York, Boston, San Francisco, London, Herzogenaurach (Germany), Paris and Bordeaux, SID LEE is proving to be a driving force in marketing. Its main clients include, adidas, AMT, Aeroplan, Belair Direct, Birks, Bose, Cirque du Soleil, Four Seasons, Gaz Métro, LotoQuébec, MGM Mirage, Miller, Musée des beaux arts, Red Bull, SAQ, Scotia Bank, Réno-Dépôt, Tourisme Montréal, Wines from France. SID LEE also has a brainchild: SID LEE collective, a creative incubator that develops, catalyses, promotes and finances various projects that push the notion of Commercial Creativity™ to its limits or beyond, helping clients obtain their business objectives by leveraging creativity in all its commercial forms. SID LEE also offers bursaries to its artisans so that they can make their ideas happen. Text and photos Submitted by SID LEE
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH New Indigo Doc Puts Focus on School Library Funding
KING STREET WEST, TORONTO / - The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, which has donated over $4.5 million to 30 Canadian schools since it was established in 2004, recently launched a short documentary film on the Canadian literacy crisis. The film, Writing on the Wall, is designed to inspire individuals and governments to take action by ensuring schools are equipped with the resources they need to improve literacy. In the 1970s, Canadian schools budgeted to buy three books per child per year. Now, budgets only accommodate a third of a book per child. In short, kids need new books. The deteriorated state of many libraries, the film demonstrates, is turning kids off reading. What’s more, only 13 percent of Canadian schools even have full-time librarians. Writing on the Wall explores the literacy crisis unfolding in Canada’s classrooms. Complete with shocking statistics of children’s literacy skills and the impact on their future, and Canada’s, the film follows two high-needs elementary schools as they prepare their submission for an Indigo Love of Reading Foundation grant to rebuild their dying libraries. To see the documentary and learn more about what you can do to help, visit: www.loveofreading.org
13 • AUTOMNE 2007